HP48G assistance request

[unixronin]

I have a HP48G graphing calculator on which the on/off/cancel button has gone very flaky.  It will no longer power on just by pressing on -- at minimum, a warm-start (on-c) is required; I can't power it off -- I have to wait for it to shut itself off; and I can't cancel operations or clear error messages.

HP no longer offers service on the HP48G, and it's pretty tough right now to justify the cost of replacing it with a HP48GII (around $110) or HP49G+ (around $150).  Does anyone know of a repair procedure for a flaky HP48G key (above and beyond the non-trivial problem of getting the never-intended-to-be-opened-after-manufacture case open)?

Comments

Re: this may be too much info, if so just ignore me

[koyote.livejournal.com]

hrm,

I don't think it is so much a matter of removing the metal plate. IIRC (and I haven't taken apart a 48 series machine in a little while) the basic fix is from the back. it is even possible that a really really tiny amount of aerobic epoxy (superglue is anearobic and doesn't really work well for this, aside from discoloring plastics) syringed into the lower edge where the two halves meet and then clamped down overnight might do it.

Parsing that sentence should be fun :)

you obviously don't want to get anything into the electronics, but there is a lip where the two halves meet - you should have photos of what the casing looks like. If it's not clear, then don't do it, of course.

if you do go through the long and slow process of carefully taking the whole case apart, you might want to look at putting in one of the internal RAM upgrades. 512K internal will fit a LOT of data, including the *nix like OS (shellOS) and metakernel.

more is always available at www.hpcalc.org



www.hp48.org