Just today, I discovered that my calculator (my 83+; I also have a Titanium) can't link to my computer anymore.
I had cleared my calculator of most programs on it, save for a Basic program (hooked to Startup, to print my name and contact info to the screen), a BBC Basic program (didn't do much, I just wrote it to experiment with BBC Basic) and an Assembly game (Pong Z80, which was the last program I sent to my calculator).
Then, when I went to load some more games, I found that TI Connect couldn't pick up my calculator anymore, when I went to send additional games to my calculator. I assumed that the error was TI Connect's, and so I uninstalled and reinstalled it. That didn't fix the problem, so I then went to my Windows XP laptop- my desktop has Windows 7 64-bit- and tried the installation of TI Connect there. That didn't work, so I uninstalled TI Connect from my laptop and installed TiLP. But TiLP also didn't pick up my calculator. (It did pick up my Titanium, though, so I know I'm using it correctly).
At this point, I had the problen narrowed down to two things- my cable (a SilverLink) or my calculator itself. I can't test the calculator-to-calculator link, because I've lost my 83+ cable and in any event, I don't have X-Link installed (to communicate with my Titanium, but I could test the cable) by plugging it into my Titanium's serial port. TI Connect was able to pick up my Titanium using the SilverLink.
A search of the UTI, Cemetech, and Omnimaga tech support forums brought up
this on Cemetech. Someone had a similar problem, and it turned out to be a hardware problem- the soldering on the link port failed. That could very well be possible, as my calculator is pretty old (hardware revision A, if I'm reading the serial number correctly). However, I'd like to be sure before I take my calculator apart and solder my link port: is it possible there's some software corruption instead? Could it be some part of the OS, or possibly even the certificate, is messed up? I've done RAM clears- both from the Memory menu on the calculator and by pulling out a battery- so I don't think it could be some part of RAM that's been corrupted.
I do have CalcSys installed if there's some test I can do using it. I also can run any assembly program by loading it into WabbitEmu, unprotecting it, and copying the program token by token into my 83+... not that I want to do that, but if there's some assembly program I could use to test, or fix things, I
could run it.
Oh, and apart from the link port, the calculator is fine. I haven't noticed any other errors, which is why I think it might only be a hardware problem... I just want to be sure.