🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <815682413snz@zhochaka.demon.co.uk>
           dbell@zhochaka.demon.co.uk "David G. Bell" writes:

| 486 motherboard, with a 3v replacable Lithium battery rather than Ni-Cad
| pack, newly installed, and the real-time-clock works erratically, if at
| all.
|
| If the computer is turned off for more than a few minutes, the RTC
| stops, or slows down dramatically.  Sometimes it is not more than 4 or 5
| hours slow in 8 or 9 hours.  Sometimes it seems to have stopped almost
| when the main power is turned off.
|
| So far I have seen no sign of CMOS settings being lost.
|
| Anyone had this problem when it wasn't a dodgy battery?  I'm replacing
| the battery when I get the chance -- probably mail-order from Maplin,
| since I don't have the free time to get into town.

   Yes I have come across somthing similar.  I few years ago I bought a
   then top of the range 486DX2-50 and the NiCad battery would run down
   over the weekend.  After trying lots of things I finially concluded a
   motherboard fault. I put the battery on long leads out of the case and
   inserted an ammeter in the circuit. I could change the battery for a
   fully charged one and could also observe there was a healthy charging
   current when the PC was powered on.  However I found a very high
   discharge rate when the PC was off i.e. several millamps when you
   would expect microamps.  I can understand that this part of the
   motherboard is not routinely tested so a fault could slip through even
   the best QA procedures.  I sent the motherboard back to the supplier
   who replied denying there was a fault, but strangely suppling a
   replacement board that didn't have the problem!  So I was happy.

| Is the BIOS date of july 1994 any guide to when the motherboard was
| assembled?

   Well it obviously gives an earliest date.  The thing to look for is
   the date stamp on the IC's on the board.  The latest date will give
   you some idea of when the board was assembled.

|
| According to the manual, and the jumper settings, the battery shouldn't
| have been powering the CMOS until I switched to the internal battery
| setting -- the jumper is in the 'clear CMOS' setting when the board
| leaves the factory (and it was).
|
   See above - I suggest a faulty motherboard draining the battery very
   quickly.

--
Peter Hayward, Cambridge, UK.      | In a democracy the public will only
peter@cdsl.demon.co.uk             | respect laws if they respect the
tel +44-1223-312-923               | politicians that make them.