I have a big problem with TI-83 Plus. Suddenly it got black screen without any special reason. I thought the low-contrast screen blinking was due to low batteries but I changed to new ones and it still displays black screen.
I tried everything, holding DEL, CLEAR, removing batteries, backup battery, setting contrast, flashing OS - it didn't work and TILP reports:
"Error writing to the device" and in console: "A device connected is not functioning"
I use Silver Link with properly installed drivers.

Then suddenly, it displayed some garbage for a second, then normal "Ram cleared" message, returned me to normal blinking cursor screen, but it quickly turned back to black screen.

I was googling a lot but I didn't find any solutions. All tips that worked for others don't work for me.
Also, unlike others, I'm not able to turn off my calc. It does react to DEL and ON button, also contrast gets lower when pressing 2nd key, but I can't turn it off.
What should I do?

One of my friend had this problem too with his black 83+. So if your 83+ is black, maybe it is a hardware problem.
Now the stupid question I'll ask seems less stupid: What color is your 83+ ?

One of my friend had this problem too with his black 83+. So if your 83+ is black, maybe it is a hardware problem.
Now the stupid question I'll ask seems less stupid: What color is your 83+ ?

yes it happen to one of my friend.

once he crash is calc with an asm prog, and after he turn on, teh screen alternate black and white

it's was a black ti 83+

edit : maybe mem clear

Before we start making up new key combinations, I'll refer you here.


My suggestion:
1. Hold DEL while inserting the 4th battery, the boot screen will appear, if this doesn't black out, then you have an OS/Archive related issue.
2. Hold CLEAR while pressing ON, this will boot the calculator without looking in the archive, see if this still blacks out

@thepenguin:
1) Still leaves me with black screen.
2) Doesn't work. Actually I can't test it properly since I can't turn off calc to turn it on by CLEAR+ON, only when inserting battery, but it doesn't change anything. MODE+battery also leaves me with black screen.

@aeTIos:
So what's the solution?

As I said, once, while testing all random combinations, it actually displayed "RAM cleared" but it quickly returned to black screen.

So blagus, when you did the battery + DEL, did you see the boot code "Waiting..." message? Because if you did, then you clearly have a hardware issue. The only thing you could do in this situation is what was suggested above which is to leave all 5 batteries out for a while.

So blagus, when you did the battery + DEL, did you see the boot code "Waiting..." message? Because if you did, then you clearly have a hardware issue. The only thing you could do in this situation is what was suggested above which is to leave all 5 batteries out for a while.

As I said, that combination still gives me black screen. None of combinations give me anything but full black screen, or slowly contrast-increasing black screen.

It was only one random occurrence when I got normal display, and I can't get to it anymore.

I guess it's a hardware issue, but which one?

Ok, so an easy way to determine what the calculator is doing when the screen is off is to press some buttons.

Boot into the calculator with battery+DEL and then:
1. Press any button besides ON - if the screen turns off, then the boot code is immediately throwing a link error
2. Press ON, then press any button besides ON - if the screen turns off, then the boot code is indeed waiting to receive an OS
3. If no amount of button mashing can get the screen to turn off, then you've got some serious problems (or you incorrectly entered battery+DEL)