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  • HP 200LX does not work after changing batteries

    From Richard Pennenga@21:1/5 to HANK KESSLER on Fri Aug 13 09:24:08 2021
    On Wednesday, April 9, 1997 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, HANK KESSLER wrote:
    I remove the batteries regularly from the HP and don't have reset or powerloss problems.
    Something else must be wrong with that unit. I have used alkaline,
    litiums and nickel metal hydrides. I run the unit till I get a low
    battery warning. I turn off the HP, remove the old batteries and
    replace with new ones. No loss of data. Maybe the coin cell was not
    good or not in contact.
    In addition, one should never pull all the batteries. A hard reset is
    the method to restore the HP - press all at once - Ctrl-left shift-ON
    and answer NO to the question on initialization.

    I grant that this is a really-old post, but I feel sad. I found my HP200LX after having lost it for quite a few years. It seemed to be lifeless. Yesterday I was following some instructions - I had pulled out the button cell (left it out), pulled out
    the two alkaline batteries, and then inserted brand-new alkaline batteries. I saw the initial prompt flash onto the screen, stopping with the "initialization" prompt - and then in a moment, a fraction of a second, the screen went blank.

    I tried removing and re-inserting the alkaline batteries with the button cell out - no action. I tried WITH the button cell in place - no action. I tried the Ctrl-left shift-ON combination - no action.

    Is my device dead?

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  • From Ted Heise@21:1/5 to Richard Pennenga on Fri Aug 13 18:52:05 2021
    On Fri, 13 Aug 2021 09:24:08 -0700 (PDT),
    Richard Pennenga <dweenpennenga@gmail.com> wrote:
    On Wednesday, April 9, 1997 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, HANK KESSLER wrote:
    I remove the batteries regularly from the HP and don't have
    reset or powerloss problems. Something else must be wrong with
    that unit. I have used alkaline, litiums and nickel metal
    hydrides. I run the unit till I get a low battery warning. I
    turn off the HP, remove the old batteries and replace with new
    ones. No loss of data. Maybe the coin cell was not good or not
    in contact. In addition, one should never pull all the
    batteries. A hard reset is the method to restore the HP -
    press all at once - Ctrl-left shift-ON and answer NO to the
    question on initialization.

    I grant that this is a really-old post, but I feel sad. I
    found my HP200LX after having lost it for quite a few years.
    It seemed to be lifeless. Yesterday I was following some
    instructions - I had pulled out the button cell (left it out),
    pulled out the two alkaline batteries, and then inserted
    brand-new alkaline batteries. I saw the initial prompt flash
    onto the screen, stopping with the "initialization" prompt -
    and then in a moment, a fraction of a second, the screen went
    blank.

    I tried removing and re-inserting the alkaline batteries with
    the button cell out - no action. I tried WITH the button cell
    in place - no action. I tried the Ctrl-left shift-ON
    combination - no action.

    Is my device dead?

    Hmmm, not sure. I think the procedure might be to hold down a
    key (like the power key) for a period of some seconds while
    all batteries are out to discharge any capacitors before putting
    batteries back in, but could be wrong.

    Believe it or not, there are still HP 200LX users on a list, you
    could try here:

    http://lists.hp200lx.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hplx

    --
    Ted Heise <theise@panix.com> West Lafayette, IN, USA

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