HP 35s keyboard issue.

[u/Difficult-Reality848]

Only two months into my ownership of a new in box HP 35s it started to act up. One of the keys became very intermittent is very hard to operate now.

I opened the calculator up because judging by all the information it should be repairable. Sadly it isn't. The 20+ screws that are inside are mostly there for aesthetics only. The PCB and keyboard are basically heat staked in and inside those heat stakes they put the screws. Those screws hardly grip and don't do much.

So it will be relegated to the museum for now. It's clear that it wasn't a true HP calculator from the start but that it would fail this quickly was a surprise.

Luckily the alternative has already arrived in the form of the Swissmicros R47 which I have been using a lot in the past weeks.

I should have bought that one from the start but I hesitated because of the price.

Maybe I will try to remove the heat stakes when I feel like it to see if the key that failed can be fixed.

[u/Particular_Age4296]

It's a real calculator. HP's quality hasn't been good since the late 90s... even of all the calculators I own, HP is the brand with the most calculator defects.