Invalid Card Data

[Scott Chapin]

I think my 50g is toast. I tried to recover a home backup and it went into Recover Memory. Either way yes or no, it says invalid card data and flashes pixelated screens. It won’t reset and it cannot be turned off. The SD card appears to be good. Is the calculator toast?

Thanks,

Scott

[Irl]

It sounds like you have tried the reset button. Other things to try are from the User Manual, page G-3, extracted and displayed here (sorry about the somewhat odd formatting):
List copied out of user manual; here "$" means the ON key.􏰅
System-level operation (Hold $, release it after entering second or third key):
• $ (hold) AF: “Cold” restart - all memory erased o $ (hold) B: Cancels keystroke
• $ (hold) C: “Warm” restart - memory preserved
• $ (hold) D: Starts interactive self-test
• $ (hold) E: Starts continuous self-test
• $ (hold) <SPC>: Deep-sleep shutdown - timer off
• $ (hold) A: Performs display screen dump
• $ (hold) D: Cancels next repeating alarm

[Scott Chapin]

Thank you!

I tried most of the ON(hold) F button combinations. It wigged out and would not shut down until removing the batteries. Upon replacing the batteries the Recover Memory option was booted to and both yes and no options caused it to wig out.

Scott Chapin

[Irl]

You presumably did try the reset button, located on the back? There is a procedure for reloading the ROM (as I recall) which involves using that button and maybe also the + or - button.

[Irl]

There's also the separate memory-keepalive battery; did you remove that one, too? This is pretty desperate, but if you want to just get the calc back to life then it's worth a try.

[Scott Chapin]

Yes, I tried everything including the reset button. Holding "+" and "-" keys while reseting brought me to a screen for loading the ROM. Fortunately I had a FAT16 64MB card with the last ROM loaded on it. It worked a treat. Phew.

Thank you,

Scott