jdalin@devildog.att.com (Jimmy Dalin) (01/25/91)
I'm posting this on behalf of my brother, who regrettably does not have access to the Net. He recently purchased a 386-20 motherboard at a computer show. (Editorial comment: I'm beginning to think that purchasing AYNTHING at a computer show is a bad idea.) It worked just fine for about 6 months. Now, however, if he runs a program that displays the time in hours:minutes:seconds format, he can see that the seconds tick off about three times as fast as real clock seconds. To complicate the situation , the problem is sporadic. Also, the machine hangs up shortly after the symptoms appear. Does anyone have any suggestions. With my limited expertise I suggested that perhaps the crystal has gone bad. If so then 1) can he simply purchase a new one, unplug the old one, and plug in the replacement, and 2) how can he recognize the crystal on the motherboard? Thanks in advance for your help. Jim Dalin Attmail: !jdalin
berger@iboga (Mike Berger) (01/30/91)
jdalin@devildog.att.com (Jimmy Dalin) writes: >He recently purchased a 386-20 motherboard at a computer show. (Editorial >comment: I'm beginning to think that purchasing AYNTHING at a computer show >is a bad idea.) It worked just fine for about 6 months. Now, however, if >he runs a program that displays the time in hours:minutes:seconds format, he >can see that the seconds tick off about three times as fast as real clock >seconds. To complicate the situation , the problem is sporadic. Also, the >machine hangs up shortly after the symptoms appear. *---- Does he run Stargoose? It has a known bug in that it leaves one of the timer interrupts running at 3x normal speed. I'd check for a software cause first. -- Mike Berger Department of Statistics, University of Illinois AT&TNET 217-244-6067 Internet berger@atropa.stat.uiuc.edu
cd5340@mars.njit.edu (Charlap) (01/30/91)
The problem might also be in your clock battery. Solid-state clocks tend to speed up as the battery dies, until they stop all together. Try replacing it. A Ray-o-vac computer battery costs about $9 at trade shows. Mine has gone about 2 years without a problem. Before, when I was using lithium watch cells, the clock would run away from me all the time. --- dave (cd5340@mars.njit.edu)
poffen@sj.ate.slb.com (Russ Poffenberger) (02/01/91)
In article <2169@njitgw.njit.edu> cd5340@mars.njit.edu (Charlap) writes: >The problem might also be in your clock battery. Solid-state clocks >tend to speed up as the battery dies, until they stop all together. > >Try replacing it. A Ray-o-vac computer battery costs about $9 at >trade shows. Mine has gone about 2 years without a problem. Before, >when I was using lithium watch cells, the clock would run away from >me all the time. > The CMOS real-time clock does NOT drive the system clock while the system is running. It is read once at boot time, then the BIOS keeps the time. Also, the CMOS clock is usually powered by the system power supply when on, not by the battery (this is only while turned off). Russ Poffenberger DOMAIN: poffen@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: {uunet,decwrl,amdahl}!sjsca4!poffen 1601 Technology Drive CIS: 72401,276 San Jose, Ca. 95110 (408)437-5254