freezing!

[acucci]

Does anyone have any idea why my students calculators have been
freezing while working through pre-made documents? Also, is anyone
having a problem with the clr button getting stuck under the face
plate?

[Joe]

Freezing(crashing?) sure sounds like a software problem and obviously
buttons should not get stuck under the face plate so that would be a
quality or design problem. Have you brought these problems to TI's
attention? If so, what response have you recieved? Have they offered
to replace the handheld units that have button problems? And have
they indicated that they will investigate and attempt to fix the
freezing problem in a timely manner? Since the npsire series of
products is rather new in terms of volume production and debugging, I
would expect TI to jump on this situation and give you some immediate
relief with replacement units for the sticking button problem and
commit to a date when they would get back to you with the results of
an investigation into the freezing problem. Don't give up on these
issues. Your school has spent a significant amount of money on TI
products and deserves products that work properly and I am sure that
other teachers will want to know what sort of support and resolution
you recieve on these issues. Please keep us informed.

[acucci]

My netbook seems slow with everything... booting up, shutting down,
opening ANY application. I wonder if it has anything to do with my
anti-virus. They are a good idea for students, however NYS does not
allow qwerty keyboards on regents exams, so as long as that is in
place it is not an option for me. I am going to let them know about
the issues I am having with the program shutting down and will let my
rep know about the clr key. I am sure they will work it all out. I
am very happy with the technology and look forward to see how it grows
over the next few years. Thank you for all of your advice, it is
greatly appreciated!

[Andy Kemp]

The QWERTY rulling is a very common one (if slightly pointless!), it applies to all examination in the UK. 
Which likewise is why the handhelds will have a signifcant place here for the forseeable future...

[Joe]

Would I be right in assuming that cas calculators are also not
allowed? If so, wouldn't some cheap arithmetic calculators suffice?
And if a twenty dollar calculator will do, what is the point of
spending a lot of money on expensive calculators that can't even
factor x^2-4? Maybe the people who make such rules need to ban
calculators all together from the tests or perhaps they should get out
into the real world more, and recognize that time has passed them by
and they need to modernize their thinking or be replaced?

> > > > plate?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Eric Findlay]

It may be due to the "size" (not necessarily kb) of the document. There
have been discussions previously about the max number of
variables/problem or pages/document. TJ and I have also experienced
crashes with documents containing notes pages with >100 (or so) lines of
text. Check those things in your documents, especially if you make the
documents on your computer - the software doesn't have these limitations.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor
demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)
--
Eric Findlay
AKA Eagle-Man

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[acucci]

Joe,
The CAS is allowed on all AP exams, but not regents exams (nothing
with variable manipulation). The reason I prefer the Nspire to the 83
84 series is obvious. However I completely understand your point. I
believe the state is just trying to make everyone happy and in turn
making no one happy.
Eric,
My documents range anywhere from 5 -25 pages. So probably >100 lines
of text. Any way to fix the freezing that you know of? My student do
not have the software option, they only have their handhelds.

[Eric Findlay]

The 100 lines of text only really matters (in my experience) if it's all
on one page. It might be that there are too many pages. You may want
to try moving some to a different problem or another document and see if
that helps. I can't remember who it was, but I think someone here had
some experience with the upper limit of pages per document.

And there is no fix. It's a memory allocation/usage thing. I don't
know (and I don't think anyone here knows yet) how the Nspire uses its
memory in relation to documents and pages, etc, so I don't think there's
a way around that besides making smaller documents.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor
demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to
separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)
--
Eric Findlay
AKA Eagle-Man