My once very beloved HP41CV, which gave me years of long battery life and problem free use, was set aside for awhile in favour of an HP48G (which I also love). A casual eBay search has informed me that these lovely machines are collectors' items of a sort, so I am keen to revamp mine.
My unit has suffered many of the problems discussed in this forum over the years. The display is wonky, some of the keys don't work so reliably (esp ALPHA and PRGM), and the battery life is awful, whereas in the first 10 years of use I changed the batteries at most 5 times, if that.
I have opened the unit up, and have seen that the upper screw bosses are broken off (I found the pieces in the calculator), as are a couple of the flat rectangular plastic bits that help hold the piece that conducts the battery current to the mainboard in place (found those pieces too). That said, the much-discussed screw posts are intact.
I have read enough of the archive to guess that my observed display problems are due in part to these structural difficulties interfering with the reliability of the pressure only contacts. The power issue is possible due to a leaky capacitor, or maybe just all the the turning off and on I do to get the display back.
The bottom line is this--I want to get it fixed and am willing to pay accordingly for it. I don't want to get into messing with solvents to weld the plastic or a microsoldering iron to fix circuitry. This group has given me hope that the calculator can be restored to almost like-new functionality since all of the problems seem related to the integrity of the pressure only contacts, but I am convinced that someone who knows what to do should do it.
Any ideas out there? I have heard mention of someone in Australia who does this work, but I was hoping to find someone on the North American continent, preferably Canada (I am in Toronto). The sentimental and collector's value of the unit is great, so I am willing to part with a few hundred dollars to restore it rather than just get another one.
Thanks so much in advance for advice.
Les Wright