[comp.sys.hp] Warning to HP-28S Owners

yap@mill.me.toronto.edu () (06/07/88)

After four months of waiting, I finally got my 28S.  One of the first things
I did was to try to change the batteries in under one minute; the time
allotted for this maneuver in the owners guide.  I couldn't do it!  With
32Kb of memory and no external storage, this could have been disastrous.

One of the undocumented differences between the 28C and the 28S is that the
latter has little pieces of foam in the battery compartment - to keep the
batteries from moving around, one supposes.  Anyways, tilting the calculator
sideways (as the manual instructs) does not result in the batteries sliding
out of the compartment (as the manual suggests); just a feeling of anguish
and shock, soon to be accompanied by panic.

Hopefully, someone at HP will read this and come up with some suggestions.
A pair of tweezers might help with the outermost two batteries, but what about
the one stuck way inside.  I've STILL not managed to get the darn things out,
though I haven't tried too vigorously (I just got it for pete's sake).

On another note, I recently read a posting listing two books on the hp28 that
could be obtained through the mail.  Could someone out there who has these
two books post some sort of review on them.  Personal opinions would be
welcomed before I lay out the fifty bucks ($62+ Canadian) to get them.

Thanks, Davin.
-- 
Davin Yap,                     | yap@me.toronto.edu (for smart mailers)
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering| uunet!me.toronto.edu!yap (uucp)
University of Toronto,         | yap@me.toronto.cdn (ean x.400)
Toronto, Canada  M5S 1A4       | yap%me.toronto.edu@relay.cs.net (arpa)
(416) 978-6443                 | yap@me.utoronto (bitnet)

billw@hpcvra.HP.COM (Bill Wickes) (06/11/88)

Davin, it sounds to me like the foam strips in the battery compartment
of your 28S were installed incorrectly.  If the batteries don't come out
with maybe a little tapping on your hand (don't worry, the calculator can
take it), then I recommend that you send the calc back to HP and
make them do it right.  I know that is painful, but their turnaround
is very fast.

The foam is in there to keep the batteries from jiggling around, which
seems to be the cause of the memory loss problem that occasionally
affected HP-28C's.

Regarding the 28 books--"HP-28 Insights" is fantastic (well, yes, I
wrote it).  See the response I posted to the note "HP 28 books not
available...".