🚀 go-pugleaf

> I haven't swapped the cmos battery yet because it's one of those
> "Real-Time Clock" one's and I can't find anybody with them in
> Australia... :(

Sound's like you've got it sussed out but every motherboard I've worked
on since the late 80's has used either a CR2032 or LR2032 (ones a
alkaline the other a lithium cell) for the RTC.  You can get the CR's
from Woolies and the LR's from Tandy.....just a thought.
 
> My question is:
> a> Is the reason Linux won't load due to the flat CMOS battery?
> b> does anyone know where I can get a DS12887 chip in Australia or
> elsewhere for that matter? (cheap?)

Okay, makes first part of my reply a little redundant :)  Get in touch
with any of your local hardware retailers and ask them for a RTC clock
board.  You basically plug them into a spare ISA slot (never seen a PCI
one) and it will automagically override the clock in the BIOS (even if
it's dead).  Depending on how accurate you want it to be this shouldn't
set you back more than about $40-$50....but if you want a +/-0.001sec
per day version be prepared to fork out around $700+!!

Good luck,

James