Nice to have a spare meter

[Protimenow]

I told one of the people here (I didn't forget you) that I would send the meter I got from my doctor's office.
I will.
The last two times I tried to test, my current meter gave me an error message as soon as I inserted a strip. I suspect that this has something to do with the strip guide, or something directly inside where the strip inserts. I'll look for cleaning instructions.

My XS Pro ran the test with no issues. I'm still not without a meter.

My 'spare' meters are in a box labeled INR - somewhere. Everything was packed and stored after there was a flood at my house.

At first, I thought I had a battery issue, but seeing the error message as soon as I try to insert a strip suggests otherwise.

Postal rates go up on July 1 - I'll probably have to pay a few cents extra to ship the meter out - but, again, you (and you know who you are) haven't been forgotten.

Maybe Roche will send me a new InRange (yeah, right - I'll tell them that my birthday is in less than two weeks) or they'll tell me that they already wrote this one off their books and I'm out of luck. In any case, my talk about the XS always working; about it being made for clinics that run thousands of tests (and home testers who may run, perhaps, 1000 over the meter's lifetime), always working will have to be re-evaluated.

I'll see if I can clean it. I'll see what Roche says.

I'll probably report back.

 

[Protimenow]

I read the manual for the XS. It said that if I insert a strip before starting the meter, I might get an error message and the strip may be unusable.

I don't entirely buy that. I've been starting the meter by inserting a strip. This wakes it up and forces it to run through the startup steps.

I can also start my XS Pro the same way.

I don't think that Roche's manual is right but I might sacrifice a strip (maybe I'll wait until my next weekly test is due) before checking this out.

Maybe I'll just give Roche a call.

I hate wasting strips.

 

[Protimenow]

Years ago when I was learning more about networking, one of my instructors used an interesting (to me) acronym -- DTF. This meant dumb things first.

For electronics that aren't working, do things like checking if they're plugged in. Check to see if all connectors are actually connected. Etc.

In the case of my meter, there's one step that I forgot to check.

My XS Pro can remember the settings of the last code chip that's been inserted. When I use both meters to test, I insert the chip into the Pro, then move it back to the XS. Simple.

In diagnosing my meter's rejection of any strip once it got fully inserted (generating an error), I looked at the spot where the chip goes. I didn't move the chip back.

Once the chip was back where it belonged, the meter accepted the strips and all was well.

If I wasn't using the Pro, I wouldn't have forgotten about the chip in the XS and wouldn't have had this issue.

Sorry, Roche, for thinking something was wrong with my meter -- except for user error.

 

[Eva]

I read the manual for the XS. It said that if I insert a strip before starting the meter, I might get an error message and the strip may be unusable.

I don't entirely buy that. I've been starting the meter by inserting a strip. This wakes it up and forces it to run through the startup steps.

I do that too! I insert the strip without starting the machine sometimes. My machine accepts the strip and wakes up!

 

[Protimenow]

I've had no trouble with the machine waking up when a strip is inserted - on either the XS or the Pro. Their advice may be badly dated -- or they changed the way the meter works because many people were inserting the strips before powering the meter on.

 

[slipkid]

I do that too! I insert the strip without starting the machine sometimes. My machine accepts the strip and wakes up!

I've been doing it that way for like 10 years now; using 3 or 4 different meters over that time (as I've had to bounce from one "service" to another and return the meter for a new one each time, including my current one that I bought myself). I was taught to do it that way and don't recall the manual saying not to do that. Never had an issue because of that (that I know of)..