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Need ideas: after battery (main and backup) change, HP 95lx doesn't power on

modelTsAndHandhelds

modelTsAndHandhelds

Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2021
Messages
12
Location
Portland, Oregon United States
The title pretty much says it all. My recently adopted 95lx was working fine but gave me the replace-the-backup-battery message. I was obedient and also changed out the AAs (main batteries), as well. Now, when I turn it on...it doesn't turn on: it does nothing.

The reset and hard reset procedures in the user manual only work if the system is alive, so they've been unhelpful.

Does anyone have insights on this so I can head in a useful direction and get my 95lx back and running?

Thanks,

george g.
 
I am unaware of this computer, apart from just having a look now at photos online.

Have you measured the voltage on the new AA batteries (i.e. verified good batteries)?
AA's fitted in the correct orientation?

Any change if you leave the CR2032 out ?
 
The AAs are fresh and full and leaving out the 2032 makes for no change.

However (and this is embarrassing), I DID manage to get the batteries in the wrong orientation. In my defense, the system very oddly has the springs at the positive end of the batteries.

Thank you very much for making me go back and assume nothing!

george g.
 
I'm also unaware of machine specifics on this, but usually there is some sort of master reset button that could be pressed if main and backup batteries are replaced.
 
alank2 said:
I'm also unaware of machine specifics on this, but usually there is some sort of master reset button that could be pressed if main and backup batteries are replaced.
Click to expand...
You'd think that (a hardware reset button) but I can't find one and there's nothing like it mentioned in any of the user or technical documentation for the 95LX.

On the other hand, as I noted in my previous message (which you couldn't have seen as it still awaits moderation) I got the battery orientations straightened out and the little darling is working. It's a handheld, "palmtop" form factor (screen and keyboard) running MS-DOS and with Lotus 1-2-3 (a precursor to Microsoft's Excel) in ROM. I really like it and am glad to add it to my collection. I'm even more glad that I can demonstrate it, not just show it. :)

george g.
 
I'm glad you sorted out the battery orientation, that's something I've done more than once myself! There's no hardware reset button -- with everything in ram and rom, pulling the power is as hard a reset as you can force on it. The battery compartment is not what you'd expect for AAs, but it's designed to take a lot of different battery types including flat-top ni-cad rechargeables.

If you like the 95lx, the followups (100lx, 1000cx, 200lx, 700lx) have CGA compatble video which makes them very robust litle pocket computers. There's still an active community and mailing list for the HPLX series http://lists.hp200lx.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hplx
 
I hope this isn't regarded as a "necro bump".

However, about that wrong battery orientation: some internet sources say that that might break the 95LX. Luckily, it didn't in your case. A tip for the next battery replacement (I use chargeables). You can connect a 9V battery to the AC (yep: that's not DC!) adapter port. The 95LX appears to have circuitry that'll convert AC to DC. But you can also connect DC in any way (center positive or negative): it'll power this thing too. Use a cheap adapter to a (reachable) 9 V battery like this one (link Aliexpress):

HTB1jglwXJzvK1RkSnfoq6zMwVXam.jpg

You can also snip off a certain capacitor to get rid of the "Battery low" warnings when the battery is actually fresh: link. But taking any electronic device apart that has ribbon cables is not for the faint of heart: it might break the device.

I'm planning on creating a separate topic about my experiences with this wonderful little MS-DOS device when my posts aren't subject to "wait-for-moderation" anymore. Especially serial filetransfer is hell if you don't know what the difference is between UART TTL voltage levels and classic RS232 serial voltage levels.
 
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