TI-85 Interesting Information

All items with no name were created by me.

The catalog does not list the unit conversion functions. It would be too crowded! This also means that you cannot add them to the Custom menu.
In the unit conversions functions, when a slash or a ^2 is used, it is a different character than the character normally used in the calc. Notice that the slashes in the unit conversion functions look different than the division slash.
Ever notice that when the memory is cleared, the last entry is blank, and pressing Enter displays "Done"? Ever wonder how to clear the last entry (instead of just typing a zero and pressing Enter)? Type a single space and press Enter. The calc strips the extra spaces, leaving a blank last entry!
The more variables there are on the calculator, the slower everything runs, especially programs. Try deleting all the excess real and temporary variables that many programs you've long ago deleted have generated. Even if they are small, you'll be amazed at how much faster the calc runs. Too bad the TI-85 doesn't have a DelVar instruction so programs can clean up after themselves.
In the TI-85 program editor, the menus are different. Press GRAPH on the Home Screen. It looks like Y=, RANGE, ZOOM, TRACE, GRAPH, but in a program, it says VARS, RANGE, ZOOM, TRACE, GRAPH. Every single menu and application button is a bit different in the program editor than the Home Screen. For a neat trick, enter the program editor, and press MODE. The program editor-style MODE screen appears. Now, press GRAPH, or any other menu key. You will be returned to the Home Screen, with the program editor-style menu displayed!
An even weirder thing you can do in the same manner as the last item, is type Input A at the home screen and press ENTER. When the question mark appears, press MODE, and then press GRAPH or another menu key. The program will quit, the program editor-style menu will appear at the Home Screen, and the MODE screen text will be superimposed over the Home Screen, and you can type over it!
When using the technique documented in TI-85 and TI-92 Tips, Tricks, Bugs, and Undocumented Features to create a string that appears to be 51979 bytes long, the variable allocation table in memory is corrupted, and strange things can occur. When the string is deleted, either the calc crashes, or only 14.5K memory is left on the calculator, the screen is filled with garbage, and the MEM menu cannot be accessed, so the batteries must be removed to reset the calculator. Submitted by Ryan Freedman
The item listed above, for superimposing the MODE screen text over the Home Screen, apparently screws some stuff up on the calc. With the following process, you can edit text in memory exactly as it is stored. Be sure to back up your memory first. On the Home Screen, type:
ClLCD:Input x [ENTER]
Then press the following keys:
[2ND] [MODE] [GRAPH] [F1]
In the y1 function, type:
Z dot PtOn
Don't press ENTER, put press:
[2ND] [MODE] [GRAPH]
Then hold the left or right arrow keys, and you can see how the y1 contents are stored in RAM. You can even change the text. Then press:
[GRAPH] [F1]
You can now see the changes you've made to the function.
Discovered by Mislav Bilobrk

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