riddle@woton.UUCP (06/19/87)
Does anyone out there know anything about clock batteries on the UNIX PC,
specifically (1) how to replace them and (2) the consequences of not
replacing a dead battery?
Some of our PCs have sat unplugged for long periods of time and appear to
have dead batteries. This not only results in the time going awry after each
shutdown, but we also have been seeing what looks like interaction between
the battery and some other strange problems (namely that UUCP activity
sometimes appears to cause a crash on machines which have a memory expansion
board later than revision K -- a topic for a separate posting).
I have heard rumors that AT&T doesn't want to mess with the job of replacing
batteries and will in fact swap whole boards (!) to avoid doing so. I heard
this from the rep of another company which sells battery replacement kits.
Does this make any sense?
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Shriners Burns Institute.
--- riddle@woton.UUCP {ihnp4,harvard,seismo}!ut-sally!im4u!woton!riddlechute@chutepc.UUCP (Chris Chute MD) (06/21/87)
In article <902@woton.UUCP>, riddle@woton.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle ) writes: > Does anyone out there know anything about clock batteries on the UNIX PC, > specifically (1) how to replace them and ... > I have heard rumors that AT&T doesn't want to mess with the job of replacing > batteries and will in fact swap whole boards (!) to avoid doing so. Whilst under service contract I had my motherboard replaced by AT&T simply because the battery was dead. It is soldered in and can not be easily replaced. Several companies will modify the motherboard to replace the battery with a battery clip; I believe Amperfax is one of these. The consequences of having a dead battery were minimal in my six months experience (or was it three?). They were completely obviated by leaving the machine on all the time, which I do know anyhow. Setting a new time under the 2.0 version operating system did extremely weird things, including starting up a new copy of cron, which might confuse uucp among others. Version 3.0 did away with cron completely, replacing it with smgr. Dead battery induced time and date resets were (are) well tolorated under 3.0. Version 3.5 is the current system for those interested. Cheers, Chris Chute M.D. UUCP: ...!harvard!hscfvax!chute OR Harvard School of Public Health UUCP: ...!ethos!chutepc!chute Department of Epidemiology Voice: (617)732-1480 677 Huntington Ave Data: (617)732-1843 Boston, MA 02115
krohn@u1100a.UUCP (Eric Krohn) (06/23/87)
In article <902@woton.UUCP> riddle@woton.UUCP writes:
] Does anyone out there know anything about clock batteries on the UNIX PC,
] specifically (1) how to replace them and (2) the consequences of not
] replacing a dead battery?
Mine came with a dead battery. Since I do not leave my machine running
continually, one of my first orders of business was to replace the battery.
After reading about a battery upgrade by Amperfax:
I purchased a battery holder and lithium battery;
disassembled the machine;
cut out the old battery (it was quite firmly attached to the metal contacts);
soldered wires to the remaining portions of the contacts;
soldered the wires to the battery holder (being careful to get the polarity
right!);
ran the battery holder up into a (hopefully) safe location in the floppy
drive housing.
The clock works fine now (so does the floppy :-).
] I have heard rumors that AT&T doesn't want to mess with the job of replacing
] batteries and will in fact swap whole boards (!) to avoid doing so. I heard
] this from the rep of another company which sells battery replacement kits.
] Does this make any sense?
I think it was a poor idea to solder the battery in place.
--
--
Eric J. Krohn
krohn@ctt.ctt.bellcore.com or {allegra,bellcore,ihnp4,seismo}!u1100a!krohn
Bell Communications Research, 444 Hoes Ln, Piscataway, NJ 08854