Pro 96 problem

My B-i-L gave me his pro-96 to fix for him. When I first put batteries in it, it came on the local weather broadcast but would not respond to any keystrokes. I reset the radio and it came back on stuck onto bank 0with the memory empty and again not responding to any key stokes. I then disassembled the unit and checked for anything broken , not find anything I reassembled the radio and then reprogramed it with Win96. It would scan the banks but again not respond to the keys. I pulled the batteries for a couple of hours and it went back to the weather. Redid the batteries again and everything worked for a little while and then quit responding to the keys again. Turning it on and off over the last couple days it would work sometimes and not others. For the last day it seems to be okay but before I give it back I would like to know if there is anything specific I should due to keep it working.

Is it stuck on the NOAA WX channels only? to get out of that you press "function" then the "WX" button to turn off Weather Monitoring mode. Then normal scanning can happen. WX mode is the only time the Pro96 doesn't respond to keystrokes. If it's fine now and then not? sounds like an internal problem needing repairs.

When it was stuck on the weather,even function - wx wouldn't work. Right now everything is working so I'll run it the this set of rechargeables and then try it with alkalines (like he always use) and make sure it doesn't go funky with low batteries.

Ran all day today at work with the rechargeables with no problems. Got home and put in a set of alkalines and it was running fine for about 4hrs and then started doing this!

Restarting the scanner and removing and reinstalling the batteries did not correct it. Will have to wait till I get home to try different batteries

Don't take this as me being a smart *ss , but are you sure its not just the batteries going dead . When my 96 goes dead it shows a similar message and flashes the backlight trying to power up and shutting down until I replace the batteries or plug in the wall wart. Just trying to help.

Pro96 problem

I agree with markandjere. My Pro96 makes that EXACT noise when trying to start when battery power is NOT sufficient. Does it do this with the 9volt wall wart? too or only with the batteries? And at this point if it were mine? after taking it apart and going to all that trouble, I'd push that little reinitialize button with a paper clip or pin AND then re-flash it with the latest firmware which was 1.4 where they left off* *if you can find the 1.4 firmware as Radio Shack re-did their website and all our links to those old firmware downloads disappeared. I know there was one RRef PRO2096/96 owner who had that in a zip file and provided it to someone recently on here. Maybe he'll see this? You never mentioned what firmware was on it. Push 3 when the welcome screen comes on to see that. If it's only the batteries, maybe the metal clips inside the compartment have a problem. The Pro96 is a great scanner. The Sound/volume especially. Hope you can get this thing settled.

Pro-96 issue

Hello from Florida,

Here are a couple things you can try:

1. CAREFULLY disconnect and reconnect the connectors inside the radio. This includes ribbon cables, which require gentle handling. My Pro-96 had intermittent display because of faulty ribbon cable connection. After encountering this problem several times, I finally cured it by CAREFULLY rubbing the ribbon cable ends with clean white copy paper and by inserting the paper into the ribbon cable socket and removing it a few times. This action cleaned the contacts so that the problem did not return.

2. Run the scanner with power supply instead of batteries, make sure you get correct voltage & current capacity, and correct polarity for the coaxial power plug.

Hope this helps you or another scannerist.

It would appear that it was caused by low batteries. Tried it after I had the scanner off for an hour or so and it came back up fine but with a low battery warning and ran for a short while before it started the pulsing again. Got home and put a fresh set of rechargeables in it and it is running fine.
As a side note , they were not alkalines, they were cheap (free) Harbor Freight Zinc Chlorides,

Pro-96 not responding

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Hope that is all it was and it gives you many years of service. That would be an easy /cheap fix. Keep us posted.