spierk@turing.cs.rpi.edu (Kevin Spier) (12/10/89)
How does one tell if his battery pack is low in a 286 based system (specifically I have an Epson Equity III+)? I have a feeling my battery is getting low because I got a "Time not set" error message when the machine booted this morning. When I ran SETUP, the time was something like 45:17:00 but the date was ok. Could this be symptom of some other problem? The machine is 2 years old (at least that when I purchased it new, no telling how old the batteries are). Are there other symptoms concerning low batteries??? If I need to replace them I'd like to know as soon as possible to avoid an real problems. Thanks, Kevin L. Spier spierk@turing.cs.rpi.edu Kevin L. Spier spierk@turing.cs.rpi.edu
ear@wpi.wpi.edu (Eric A Rasmussen) (12/12/89)
>How does one tell if his battery pack is low in a 286 based system >(specifically I have an Epson Equity III+)? I have a feeling my >battery is getting low because I got a "Time not set" error message >when the machine booted this morning. When I ran SETUP, the time was >something like 45:17:00 but the date was ok. Could this be symptom of >some other problem? The machine is 2 years old (at least that when I >purchased it new, no telling how old the batteries are). Are there >other symptoms concerning low batteries??? If I need to replace them >I'd like to know as soon as possible to avoid an real problems. What you are experiencing sounds exactly like your battery or batteries, as the case may be, is/are getting low. The first symptoms are that your time and date come up wrong. The first thing to do at this point is to go into your setup program and write down on a piece of paper what type (a number generally between 1 and 40) your hard drive is. This is very important because once your battery voltage gets too low, the cmos WILL forget what type of hard drive you have, and when this happens, you won't be able to boot off your hard drive or even access it at all. In general, batteries are supposed to last 5 years, but I don't think I've ever seen them last that long (and I work in a copmputer store). The fun part is finding a replacement battery. There are many, many different kinds that are used for cmos backup. I'm not familiar with the Epson Equity III, but if you are lucky, it uses either a watch style pancake battery or AA cells. If you have the soldered in mutant type, you can generally clip it out and add an adapter which holds 4 AA cells which you can stick inside your case somewhere. This works because, fortunatly, most motherboards with the mutant batteries have two jumper leads which you can attach this type of adapter to. Hope this helps. _ _ +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+ |_ ,_ . _ |_} _ _ ,_ _ _ _ _ ,_ | ear@wpi.wpi.edu | |_ | | |_ | \ |_\ _> | | | |_| _> _> |_' | | | ear%wpi@wpi.edu | --< A real engineer never reads the instructions first! >-- +-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-+
dchun@aludra.usc.edu (Dale Chun) (12/14/89)
Does anyone out there in netland know what type and where to replace the battery in a Leading Edge D2?
tim@fortytwo.UUCP (Tim Baker) (12/15/89)
In article <7026@chaph.usc.edu> dchun@aludra.usc.edu (Dale Chun) writes: >Does anyone out there in netland know what type and where to replace the >battery in a Leading Edge D2? I have a LE Model D and I can't find the clock battery either. I get the feeling that it charges from the AC but I cannot be sure. I would invite anyone with intimate knowledge of this to post a statement about LE batteries. -- = Tim Baker | think!fortytwo!tim or | The trick of the dreamer is keeping = = | uunet!hbiso!fortytwo!tim | yourself from the blues. Steve Perry =
kraus@cell.mot.COM (David Kraus) (12/16/89)
In article <270@fortytwo.UUCP> tim@fortytwo.UUCP (Tim Baker) writes: >In article <7026@chaph.usc.edu> dchun@aludra.usc.edu (Dale Chun) writes: >>Does anyone out there in netland know what type and where to replace the >>battery in a Leading Edge D2? > >I have a LE Model D and I can't find the clock battery either. >I get the feeling that it charges from the AC but I cannot be sure. >I would invite anyone with intimate knowledge of this to post a >statement about LE batteries. (It's been a while since I worked on these, and since I'm at work I don't have access to my PC at present, so this is from memory. With that disclaimer in mind - ) The clock battery on an LE D is located at the far back edge of the motherboard, pretty much centered between the left and right sides. It looks like a little can placed on its side, and covered with a blue plastic. It's soldered between two flat leads coming out of the motherboard. Yes, it's charged from the motherboard, but only when the machine is running. I.e. I believe it charges off of either the 12V or 5V (5V most likely) lines. So, if your machine is brand-spanking new and hasn't been burnt in yet, or it's been off for a few months, your clock can lose time or go away completely. Just leave the machine running for a day, and the battery will get recharged. If you're absolutely sure it's shot, you'll have to desolder it from the motherboard leads, find another battery like it, and resolder or otherwise connect it. Completely dead batteries on a D were rare as of about a year ago (when I was playing technician on them). My machine is about 4 years old (first revision D motherboard) and has had no problems with the battery or anything else. As far as the D2, I _think_ it has a 'button' lithium battery on the motherboard about the size of a quarter. I didn't rip those apart as much as the Ds (nor do I own a D2) and I was also working on several types of AT-clone at the time, so I can't be sure about any D2 or D3 information..... -- =============================================================================== Dave Kraus UUCP: ...!uunet!motcid!kraus Motorola Cellular Infrastructure Division FidoNet: 115/444.11 ===============================================================================