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So I got a TI-84 calculator a few months ago. As of this morning, I had 30 programs that I wrote myself stored on it. The largest size program was slightly over 200, with the vast majority being under 100. The RAM Free was about 14900, and the ARC Free has always been 1919K.

This evening, when I went to check the Memory on it, I noticed that one of my programs (for the surface area of a rectangular pyramid) showed that it had a size of 200+. I took a look at the program, and its commands were scrambled, and had commands from other programs in it. I went back to the Memory management section and deleted the program, thinking that if it was corrupted, then deleting it would be the wisest choice.

I looked through the rest of my programs, and, to my horror, I saw that my program for the volume of a cylinder (the first program I ever wrote) had a size of 17000+. I decided to delete it too, but when I pushed the ENTER button to select the program, the TI-84 froze and the contents on the screen slowly faded into an all white screen. The calculator was completely unresponsive at this point. So, after some research, I pushed the reset button on the back of the TI-84, and that seemed to solve the problem, despite erasing all of my programs, except for the one that was at 17000+ (which I immediately deleted).

I have no idea why this occurred, as my research did not find any similar instances. I know my programs became corrupted, but I want to know what happened and why so I can prevent this from happening again. I already plan on backing up any future programs I write.

Timtech
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Myles_Zadok
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    You might have better luck with this question over at the [Retrocomputing SE](http://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/). – Cactus Oct 31 '16 at 02:59
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    I'd back everything up and get a new calculator. My friend dropped mine and that was enough to clear the RAM, deleting everything I wrote. You probably did something to the hardware, not the software, and that's probably why you have a unique scenario untouched online. I'm no expert, but by experience, don't blame the program. – bearacuda13 Nov 15 '16 at 20:01
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    Any jolts or jostles can mess with the hardware (especially anything related to batteries and power) which will reset your RAM if in the middle of an operation or without a backup battery. – Timtech Nov 25 '16 at 20:24

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Sometimes programs can be corrupted by faulty assembly code in assembly programs and in apps. However, if you have only been using TI-Basic, it it unlikely to be code. Also, the hardware can sometimes get messed up by dropping or hitting the calculator. My calculator has also behaved very strangely while operating with low batteries and batteries of different ages (some more charged than others). Also, it is good to have plenty of extra RAM and Archive memory (although that doesn't seem to be your problem).

As far as solutions/preventative measures go, back your programs up, make sure you only download/use correct assembly (or none at all), and take good care of the calculator (batteries, jolts, etc.).

Johnny Dollard
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    I have used the same calculator for a few months now, and it hasn't acted up. Something I learned recently that may have caused my problem is that you have to clear out your entries, as the calculator won't automatically delete them, and I use the home screen a lot... three months worth of entries probably overloaded it. I now clear out my entries every day. I also take better care of my calculator. I don't have a lot of easily accessible computer storage space, so I will just write down my programs for now. Thanks for your help! – Myles_Zadok Dec 29 '16 at 20:31