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Help with Error Messages

Yikes!

So you keep getting an error message! What to do?

If the calculator asks you to 1. QUIT or 2. GoTO, one of the best things you can do is to press the second option, because that will help you to go to the error message -- your cursor will land right on top of it! Many times, you have simply used a negative sign (-) when you should have used a minus sign. The negative sign is below the 3, while the minus sign is above the + sign.

A great website on another common error message is: http://oakroadsystems.com/math/ti83oops.htm.

Scroll down to where they talk about Invalid DIMS: "This message has several possible causes. First, if you get this when making some kind of plot, you probably forgot that you have one of Plot1 Plot2 Plot3 turned on, and it refers to two lists that don't have the same length. The cure is to press [Y=] and turn off the unwanted plot.

 

Another possibility is that you're actually doing something that needs lists, such as a regression, but your lists don't have the same length. Press [STAT] [1] and check your lists.

 

You also get this message when you give the TI-83 a list or matrix where it expected a variable or number, or vice versa.

 

For instance, on the STAT PLOT screen, you may mean to press [2nd] [L1] but if you miss the [2nd] you actually type a Y. In the same way you might type a Z where you intend to type L2. 

In general, when you see this message you need to check carefully through what you've done to make sure that you used lists where you were supposed to, and nowhere else."