Having finally built a TICI hub and got it to work properly, I tried to type in every ascii character represented on a standard keyboard...and i stored it to a string variable (str1 if it matters)...after i then tried to put this string into a program to display it, by using Rcl to paste it into the program editing screen. After trying to run this program, which looked something like this:

pause"abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890-=[];',./\`~!@#$%^&*()_+{}:"<>?|"

after running it, not only did it not display the string the way i wanted it to, but it also "destroyed" the calculator...i am assuming/hoping that this is not permanent, but the calculator is currently unusable as any math equation longer than like 1+3 causes the calc to go to a blank screen, which is restored to the blinking cursor by pressing clear. It also has problems with the applications and memory menus, which appear as random pixels...I already tried loading the most current OS on the calc, but that did not fix it Has anyone else had this problem and know how to correct it (hopefully)?

Just do a full RAM clear by pulling all the batteries (including the backup battery) and leave it for a dozen hours.

What causes this problem? is it parts of the operating system becoming corrupted due to characters that arent supposed to be used?

Exactly, it's a shortcoming of the OS not expecting all the characters you can get.

Is there any way to successfully use these characters in programs? it had no problems storing them to string variables and displaying them that way, it just didnt like putting them directly into the basic program code.

Yes, because the BASIC interpreter does fun things with the character codes outside the values its expecting. I don't know of a way around that yet.

Unfortunately, removing both batteries from the calculator did not fix the problem... i had them out for 15 hours, and it still has the same problems...

Did you ever get this problem resolved?

nope...that calc now sits as a glorified paperweight on my desk...i got another ti83+ calculator from a friend who got a 84...so now i use that. However, help would (obviously) be appreciated in fixing the broken one.

Have you had the batteries out since then, or at least for any appreciable length of time?

Well, i just tried it now, having let it sit since March 2 without batteries. And it still has this same problem.

Meh, that's annoying. Did you try the DEL-ON trick already?

no, but I tried it now, still no different...

Even the backup (small circular silver oxide) battery? Wow.

Which way did you do it? Remove all five batteries, wait ten minutes, put 3 AAAs in, hold DEL, put in the last AAA with DEL held down, then tap ON?

I had tried it with all 4 triple A batteries out, then holding down del, tapped on. (after i had put the batteries back in). This did not work...I will try it with the exact procedure you specified though, tomorrow, as i am waiting for a new set of NiMh AAAs to charge...

1.) heh wait, you cleared your ram, nothing happened, removed the backup battery, and nothing happened, and then you resent the OS, and nothing changed????!!!!!

2.) I'm fairly confident that leaving a calculator alone won't help anything (its not like it can fix itself but resting for a day)....

3.) and for the Del-On trick all you have to do is :
a.) take out a single battery (AAA)
b.) Hold Del+On
c.) but the battery back in. ta-da!
Taking out four dosent make any difference....


Anyways I'm wildly confused about why/what you cant do... how would hidden characters prevent you from making long mathematical operations? It sounds more like a Ram issue to me but admittedly Im a total n00b....

Well, the characters, as mentioned in an earlier reply, "confuse" the basic interpreter. I am not quite sure what prevents me from entering long expressions, or ones (possibly since they take more cpu cycles?) like sin() or exponents or squareroots, but it does not seem to be repairable (at least by any methods tried so far...)