I am having a problem with my 83 +. When I turn it on I have lines and dots on the screen. The issue gets worse when I try to use it. The images is fine when I hold down the DEL button and put the last battery in. I did a firmware update and it did not fix the problem. Does anyone have any idea on how to fix this?


This is the image I get when I try to use the it.
http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9171/imag0157ud.jpg

This is the image I get when I hold the DEL button and put the battery in.
http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/2069/imag0158g.jpg

Well... do what it told you to do: Re-install the OS

KermMartian and BrandonW knows a lot about the hardware of the calculator, once one of them can get on, I'm sure they'll have some suggestions for you to try.

Indeed; from what KermM and Brandon have talked about before (a lot) in the channel that I picked up, most of these occurences are caused by bad connections in the LCD Ribbon's wires.

I did reinstall the OS, it did not fix it. I tried to resolder the ribbon cable & that didn't help. I will wait to see what the other people say.

thanks

This is classic LCD ribbon failure, unfortunately. I have a news article describing the process of repairing this here: http://www.cemetech.net/news.php?id=418 . Luckily, you have a TI-83+ rather than a TI-84+/SE, so the problem is actually repairable if you (or someone you know) has a very steady hand with soldering. Also, welcome to Cemetech! Please Introduce Yourself, and also feel free to chat with us in the SAX sidebar.

thanks for the help. I replaced that ribbon cable & it works fine now. thanks again.

Glad you were able to find the help you needed. I hope you'll stick around if you have any programming questions.

Hmm... funny, never heard of this happening to a casio calc. (I am not being funny, I really have not heard of hardware problems on casio calcs. Besides my prizm problem, of course. But on the 9860... never. )

I will stick around. Everyone has been so helpful, and this seems to be the best site for calculators.

Thanks

Would you mind posting photos of your fix? I'm not used to seeing how this fix looks when someone other than me does it.

JK Cemetech is totally awesome

Edited your post to remove the link. Advertising is considered shockingly poor etiquette on most sites.

It's not my best work. When you have a 5 year old and 15 minutes, you make it happen.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/580/imag0177d.jpg/

Looks pretty clean to me! What year and model of TI-83+ is that? That's a much different LCD PCB than I'm used to seeing.

I don't know how to tell the year. At the end of the serial number it says s-1204e.
Do I need to get info off the PCB?

It might say on the PCB, but the fact that it's a revision E also helps. Thanks for that.