cs421s05@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Cs421s05) (05/31/90)
Aloha,
Hi. Presently I own a Model 30 PS/2. The old one with 2 720 drives and
running on the 8086. I am getting an error everytime I boot my
computer up that I have to set the time.. and to press F1 to continue.
Can anyone tell me what this means. I suspect that the internal clock
battery is dead and that I have to replace it., I opened my case and
could not find the battery.. can anybody tell me where it is.
Another thing, my PS/2 has the MCGA graphics capability. Can anybody
tell me what this is? How many colors can it show? Is it better than
EGA.. close to VGA? I have an IBM monochrome monitor that came with it.
Is this an VGA monochrome? And is it possible to somehow hook up the
PCjr monitor to my PS/2 so that I can have some color?
I know these are alot of questions.. and I thank you for your time.
Any help is appreciated. I have alot of articles to read on this
newsgroup (over 1300!) so.. can you reply directly to me? Thank you.
Mahalo from sunny Hawaii!
Edward Yagi
PS. I KNOW its an obsolete computer.. but hey..its all I have! :)
like they always say.. make do with what you have. *sigh* :(
Email me!
cs421s05@uhccux.bitnet
cs421s05@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu <-INTERNET TOMIII@MTUS5.BITNET (Thomas Dwyer III) (06/01/90)
Hi there. I have tried many times to e-mail a response for this, but
keep getting my mail returned due to some error. The following is the
returned mail:
From: MAILER-DAEMON@uhccux.BITNET
Date: Thu, 31 May 90 21:13:22 -1000
Subject: Returned mail: User unknown
Message-Id: <9006010713.AA02464@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>
To: TOMIII@MTUS5.BITNET
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550 cs421s05... User unknown
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Date: Fri, 01 Jun 90 03:00:43 EST
From: Thomas Dwyer III <TOMIII@MTUS5.BITNET>
Subject: Re: battery and MCGA.
To: cs421s05@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu
Hi there. The IBM monitor you have (if it's the standard model that
comes with the PS/2) is a VGA monitor. The MCGA, however, is a slight
upgrade from CGA. It has all the features of CGA, with an added hi-res
screen (480 x 200, I think). The hi-res screen is black and white only.
Now, about the battery clock - does a little box picture of a clock
show up on your screen with a "161" (or "162") error? If so, this may
not be the fault of the battery. We have several PS/2 model 30's here
(about 100+) and they have this problem once in a while. It is caused
by programs going crazy and stomping over the date & time in the clock.
The error is not because the time is wrong, but rather because there is
an invalid date or time stored there (such as 05/42/90, etc). The fix
is simple - use the SET REAL TIME CLOCK (or whatever it's called) from
the setup disk that you got with the computer. The problem should then
go away. Only if the problem persists after several tries with the
setup disk can you blame the problem on the battery. Hope this helps.
By the way, if you can't find your system disk (we lost most of ours)
let me know - I wrote a C program that does the same thing, but easier.
My program just takes the date and time from DOS (which you must enter
after you press F1 and boot) and sticks it in the battery clock.
One more interesting point I should mention is that the DOS DATE and
TIME commands normally do set the date and time in the battery clocks
on the PS/2 machines, however when you get the clock error on powerup,
DOS thinks there is no clock, and does not attempt to correct the
problem - you must do it with a program.
Thomas Dwyer III TOMIII @ MTUS5.BITNET
Computing Technology Services DWYERIII @ MTUS5.BITNET
Michigan Technological University
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Dear Aunty Emme,
Hate Kansas, hate you. Taking the dog.
Signed, Dorothy.
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