I recently aquired a TI-83+ Silver edition, and I can't seem to get the screen to work normally, it shows bright blue when turning on. I've checked out the ribbon cable appears to be fine. Ironically when I remove batteries and power it up holding del, it will display the message. Install Operating system now, with a perfect looking screen no issues at all.

I have blindly updated it, as I cannot connect to the calc when it's asking for an update only when its on the bright blue screen of death...lol

Please let me know if this is fixable or if you need pictures.

Have you actually tested the ribbon cable with a multimeter?

I haven't as it displays the "Please install operating system now" message flawlessly? Could there still be an issue with cable?

It just booted up and looks like something weird is going on, its doing the self test now flawlessly...but everything else gets messed up on screen.

Sorry to update again, but now it appears the ribbon cable is the only issue. It somehow started to boot up, it's like the screen is flickering like an old TV. But it's accepting the OS update right now. It doesn't make sense how some portions will display perfect (like the please install update message), and now everything is messed up.

Ok, the screen is now back to solid blue...the OS seems to be corrupting itself, I had turned the calculator off and was going to attempt to replace the ribbon cable tomorrow, and it's back to no good.

The screen appears to "bleed" out the edges and then the bleed lines disappear when off.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b4ddbcaj5w2io80/2016-06-23%2021.33.38.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jtm5etn3shs55ff/2016-06-23%2021.33.57.jpg?dl=0

Are all these symptoms of a bad ribbon cable? It seems like something else is going on.

The blue screen is a very very bad thing. The LCD is somehow receiving an instruction to enter test mode, which pretty much overloads the LCD. Aside from the fact that the datasheet for the LCD says right on it (and probably in bold text) to NOT do that, this can permanently damage the screen. I highly suggest leaving the screen in that state for as little time as possible if it isn't possible to completely avoid this.

EDIT: This is how I killed my TI-83 Plus SE. It was a sad day. Thought I should share that.

Since then, I've gotten it to do a few things. But as Iambian said above, it seems to be putting itself into test mode.

These don't make any sense how it's going from bad to good to bad..

DEL+ON
https://www.dropbox.com/s/to1s47aogcs3udk/2016-06-23%2021.45.49.jpg?dl=0
Mem Menu
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0jue64037mpp388/2016-06-23%2021.47.05.jpg?dl=0
About Menu
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9632rbcephs9c3h/2016-06-23%2021.47.15.jpg?dl=0

Do you mean a single blue line or the whole LCD blue?

EDIT: nevermind, didn't reload the page after Iambian posted and didn't see your reply with pics

The whole thing went blue as in photos.

As of now it seems to be functioning fine besides garbled text, and it hasn't gone back into a blue screen...YET...it did all by itself last time when I turned it off and back on.

At this point hopefully it's just the ribbon cable? or is there a deeper corrupted issue here? Sometimes it displays perfectly fine, as you can see in photos, other times not even close.

Just completed a Self Diagnostic Test with flying colors until it got to the ram cleared screen and it was all garbled up again. Everything through the test functioned beautifully though.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/09ewkll58lgs2t0/2016-06-23%2022.11.21.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gc095wh3waignwy/2016-06-23%2022.11.29.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvel19vt99zl40d/2016-06-23%2022.11.42.jpg?dl=0

May I recommend this thread for your education
https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5161

Sadly you need to replace the cable. Its a pain but it is not to bad. Just take your time!

Ok cool, I totally just realized I did some more hidden damage...when I was trying to pry it apart with my flat head, it slipped inside the case and almost knocked loose some electronics off the board...

Still works as you see in pictures..just maybe I need to reattach something else now, or is something completely gone now?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7l2r1wcxb82id3k/2016-06-23%2022.27.10.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7cd0r27fl2cr0gr/2016-06-23%2022.28.33.jpg?dl=0

It appears I knocked off something labeled R7 as seen in this photo. Next to R80. (Bottom Right)

http://datamath.org/Graphing/Images/TI-83PLUS_SE_Memory.jpg

I sadly can't help you, but the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition is notorious for having a much higher failure rate compared to other models (although nowhere as bad as the TI-80), especially the screen. Back when the calculator was still popular, it was not uncommon for people to report that their calculator had a garbled screen that can't be fixed only after 2-3 years.

I think it might have something to do with rumors that the TI-83 Plus Silver Edition was a beta version of the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition and that the assembling quality was not as great as the TI-83 Plus, TI-84 Plus, etc (for example, all TI-83+SE I handled in the past had the back cover not screwed at 100%.

I appreciate the info. At this moment, honestly I would pay someone if I could mail it to them and have them do the soldering and go through and fix it...I don't want to turn it into a brick.