brand@janus.Berkeley.EDU (Graham Brand) (01/22/91)
A friend of mine purchased a 25 MHz '386 clone recently and has been having an intermittent problem. Every now and then, with no discernably pattern, the machine will boot up **very** slowly (as if it is in 6MHz mode), and then say CMOS checksum error! When the setup program is run, it appears that the configurations have all been lost (hard disk, video controller etc) and must be reset. Everything is fine once this has been done. I suspect that the battery is flakey but am not sure. Does anyone have any suggestions? If it is the battery, are there any special precautions that must be taken when changing it? Cheers, -Graham (brand@janus.berkeley.edu) (P.S. - The machine is under warranty but, for some good reasons, it is not convenient to return it to the store.)
dlow@pollux.svale.hp.com (Danny Low) (01/24/91)
>(Graham Brand) >I suspect that the battery is flakey but am not sure. Does anyone >have any suggestions? If it is the battery, are there any special >precautions that must be taken when changing it? It's either that or an intermittent short killing the CMOS configuration. Replacing the battery is simple and easy once you find it. Finding where the battery is hidden can be an interesting adventure. Danny Low "Question Authority and the Authorities will question You" Valley of Hearts Delight, Silicon Valley HP CPCD dlow@pollux.svale.hp.com
hollen@megatek.UUCP (Dion Hollenbeck) (01/26/91)
>I suspect that the battery is flakey but am not sure. Does anyone >have any suggestions? If it is the battery, are there any special >precautions that must be taken when changing it? It could also be that the power supply is spiking the contents of the CMOS RAM when it is turned on. This occurs if one puts a BABY AT board in an old XT chassis without upgrading to AT power supply. Although I don't know a lot about electronics, I surmise that it might be possible that some sort of filter on the power supply could be deteriorating and letting a spike through. I had these kind of problems with some power supplies and not with others, your mileage may vary. -- ----- Dion Hollenbeck (619) 455-5590 x2814 Megatek Corporation, 9645 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA 92121 uunet!megatek!hollen or hollen@megatek.uucp