Education Technology

Solution 34841: Troubleshooting the TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus Family of Graphing Calculators Requesting a Password.

How do I use the TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus family of graphing calculators when it is requesting a password?

The presence of certain assembly shell programs developed outside of Texas Instruments are known to cause the TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus family of graphing calculators to request a password to use the calculator. The password will have to be entered correctly or the assembly shell program will need to be removed in order to bypass the password and use the calculator.

The following procedure will delete all the items that are in the RAM of the graphing calculator. This includes all programs, games, pictures, functions, lists, etc. This procedure may also delete all items stored in the FLASH ROM of the graphing calculator. This includes all FLASH apps (pre-loaded or otherwise) as well as appvars.

For the TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus: 

• Remove 1 AAA battery.
• Press and hold down the [DEL] key for 5 seconds.
• Replace the AAA battery.
• While still holding down the [DEL] key, Press and hold down the ON Key.
• If the calculator turns off during this process, press the ON key.
• Once the calculator is turned on, the message RAM Cleared, will be displayed.

For the TI-84 Plus CE and TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition:

• Press the reset button on the back to clear RAM.


Please see the TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus Family guidebooks for additional information.