[comp.sys.att] PC6300 battery

jzavgren@bbn.com (John Zavgren) (06/02/88)

I have an ATT 6300 PC. I have trouble keeping the clock set. It
gradually looses time, a few minutes every day with occasional
jumps. I beleive the battery is getting weak.

Can anyone tell me where the battery is installed, what it looks like,
how I replace it, and where I can get a replacement battery for a
reasonable price?

Thanks
John Zavgren 

rdj@ttrdf.UUCP (Robert D. Jackson) (06/02/88)

In article <25253@bbn.COM> jzavgren@bbn.com (John Zavgren) writes:
>I have an ATT 6300 PC. I have trouble keeping the clock set. It
>gradually looses time, a few minutes every day with occasional
>jumps. I beleive the battery is getting weak.
>
>Can anyone tell me where the battery is installed, what it looks like,
>how I replace it, and where I can get a replacement battery for a
>reasonable price?

Before you replace the battery, check to see if you are running AT&T DOS 3.2.
There is a bug in the system that resets the seconds to zero everytime you
re-boot the machine.  This causes the clock to gradually lose time.  There
is a patch to AT&T DOS 3.2 to fix the clock problem.  If you need it drop
me a line.


-- 
Bob Jackson  (rdj@ttrdf)  312-982-3578
AT&T Data Systems Group
5555 Touhy Ave., Room 178-6, Skokie, IL  60077
PATH:  ...!ihnp4!ttrdf!rdj

pechter@dasys1.UUCP (Bill Pechter) (06/04/88)

In article <10107@mcdchg.UUCP> heiby@mcdchg.UUCP (Ron Heiby) writes:
>I have been having trouble with my PC 6300 losing time, but have
>discounted the battery, as I leave my system on 24 hr/day.  Are there
>any other possibilities for rectifying a slow clock?
>-- 
>Ron Heiby, heiby@mcdchg.UUCP	Moderator: comp.newprod & comp.unix
>"Failure is one of the basic Freedoms!" The Doctor (in Robots of Death)

If you're running AT&T's MS-DOS version 3.2 it's possibly a software bug!
They read the clock on boot and write back to it -- often losing as much as 59
seconds per boot.  I was losing a few minutes per week because of reboting 
during software development.  I recommend a file called biopatch16.arc 
available from the Right Choice BBS in NJ (201) 974-8317 and possibly from
AT&T's support bbs (201)769-5616.  The program patches the boot code in the bios
to eliminate this bug -- which HAS BEEN reported to AT&T (and they are doing 
NOTHING about it.  (Their hardware techs didn't know and were going to swap my
motherboard to fix the problem -- they were getting deluged with motherboard 
swaps after v3.2 hit the 6300's (and 6300+'s).


-- 
Bill Pechter          {sun!hoptoad,cmcl2!phri}!dasys1!pechter
 USnail 103 Governors Road, Lakewood, NJ 08701
 AT&T 201-370-0709 Evenings