Sharp PC-1403H

[cosam]

I picked up a Sharp PC-1403H recently and just got around to replacing the exceedingly dead batteries. It doesn't however seem to do much. All I get is the "BUSY" indicator and a "*" in the right-most column of the display. Tried the reset button on the bottom and, apart from the display going blank, it made no difference. I opened the thing up and it's just five SMD chips and a few discrete components, so even though I can have a poke around, there's little chance of me fixing it myself. Any pearls of wisdom before I break out the testing gear?

On a more positive note, I got an Atari Portfolio at the same time which appears to work great. Now I just need to get hold of that ATM PIN-cracking program the kid used in Terminator 2 and I'll be all set!

 

[GIGObug]

Better nate than lever

Better nate than lever

First off, I'm probably too late....
I have two of these, and recently resurrected one from near death. On the one I fixed I found about ten traces on the circuit board that were broken. The traces on the circuit boards are very small and fragile. If you haven't already, open it and look for obvious stuff like, water damage, broken, burnt or missing components, any discoloration on the board. After that, you'll need the aid of a good microscope. I would recommend about X20 to X50 magnification. Look at the traces around holes where the tabs for the LCD go through the PC board. It took me a while to find them, then I used micro wires that are lacquer coated to restore the circuit paths. I also used a small dab of super glue to try to reinforce the board. It works great again. If you get this, let me know what happened, or maybe you'd be interested in selling yours?

I picked up a Sharp PC-1403H recently and just got around to replacing the exceedingly dead batteries. It doesn't however seem to do much. All I get is the "BUSY" indicator and a "*" in the right-most column of the display. Tried the reset button on the bottom and, apart from the display going blank, it made no difference. I opened the thing up and it's just five SMD chips and a few discrete components, so even though I can have a poke around, there's little chance of me fixing it myself. Any pearls of wisdom before I break out the testing gear?

On a more positive note, I got an Atari Portfolio at the same time which appears to work great. Now I just need to get hold of that ATM PIN-cracking program the kid used in Terminator 2 and I'll be all set!