I have recently recieved a TI 83 +SE that was assumed to be broken. After changing the batteries it worked though. Then yesterday when i was messing around with my 84 +SE,I turned on my 83 +SE and went to programs, and was noticed my title for programs was unreadible and scrambled along with my first three programs. The bottom four programs were untouched by this error until i scrolled down. As soon as I scrolled down all of the names the cursor touched would become unreadible.

After this I reset my ram, turned my calc back on and I was greated with an unreadable ram cleared screen. I tried going to programs and the problem was still there. So I checked all of the menus on my calc and they all had this problem.

I even noticed that when i type in anything on the homescreen it is messed up, but if you type in a problem and press enter, the answer come out perfect.

I hope that from this some one might know whats wrong, if not ill try to get some pictures up to explain the problem more.
Hopefully my calc's not dead..

Try installing the newest os, and tell us what happens. Also try a complete Reset.

srry forgot to mention that.

I've already tried a ram reset (in many different ways) a complete reset, and a OS upgrade and nothing worked...

Ugh... >.<

You might try getting in touch with TI then, I don't know of anything else...

great...

Thanks for the help though. At least for now I have my 84 +SE

I would tell them that it just started happening, I wouldn't say you just got it from someone else that thought it was broke... They might send you a new one...

ROM corruption. Call 1-800-TI-CARES and hopefully they'll replace it under warranty.

If its not under warranty and I call them would they still do something or would I just have to buy a new calc?

Call them and find out, we can't really say... They might replace it, they might tell you to get a new one.

true, it sound like either ROM corruption to me also, unless the unreadability is always in the same spot on the screen.

He said that the "RAM Cleared" message is garbled, so it's the entire text subsystem. I've run across this several times in the past, and it's generally unfixable.

Good news!! It works now! I just cleared the ram a couple times and left it alone for an hour, and when I came back it was perfect.

Maybe it still has problems but now that it works again I can put the EL panel I bought in it.

I think I have this too. It happened after I attempted to backlight it. But I HAVE NO CALC TO FALL BACK ON!!! I am devastated. I promise never to mod anything again. I guess I am no longer a DCS7 user...

It turns out this is fixable, if you look for Kerm's threads about fixing 83+'s you should find some more detailed info. I'm just heading to be myself or I would link you to it.

If you attempted to backlight it, I think the ROM should be okay. The most likely problem would be probably a loose ribbon cable, which is fixable.

If you were trying to backlight it, you most likely did hose the ribbon cable. Luckily, as mentioned, I have a whole thread about fixing that.