🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <372@briar.UUCP> brb@briar.UUCP (Brian Bertan) writes:
>The Real-time clock on my PCAT does not tick once I turn the machine off.
>On power-up, it contains the time at which I last powered down.  I thought
>that it might be the battery, however, the configuration and time remain
>stored in the non-volatile RAM.  Any suggestions for diagnostics/repair?
>
>This problem is fairly recent; the beast was working fine for almost a year.
>
I had a similar problem with my AT clone (American Micro Tech.) when I first
bought it.  The problem turned out to be the power supply; it didn't meet
spec on an output line that was called "power is good".  Apparently the
real time clock used this line to determine whether to use the battery or
the power supply for its power.  Eventually, the problem got worse to the
point where the setup information was lost when the machine was turned off.

Anyway, the problem disappeared when AMT replaced the power supply.

					Hope this helps,

						Marty Smith

To: mcnc!philabs!briar!brb
Subject: Re: PCAT Real-time Clock Problem
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
In-Reply-To: <372@briar.UUCP>
Organization: CS Dept., U. of N. Carolina, Chapel Hill
Cc: 
Bcc: 

Hey, the real-time clock in my PCAT seems to not be working too!  It's been
working fine for the last year or two but now it's off and Diagnostics
Setup won't fix it.  I just figured I was going to have to get in there and
fool around with the battery.  Reading Brian's article makes me hope one
of you hardware people out there will enlighten the net with all the ins&outs
of AT clocks and batteries.
                             Terry Hudgins {seismo,decvax}!mcnc!unc!tth

--
When my PC/AT battery went out a few weeks ago for the first time,
the people at Businessland who usually do our repair work here said that
they were seeing a lot of batteries needing replacement around then.
Apparantly they last about a year.

BTW, my symptom was just like the original poster's:  The clock stopped
when the power was off.
-- 
"Ribbit!"     Scott (Beam Me Up, Scotty!) Scheiman   Industrial Networking Inc.
  `/\/@\/@\/\       ..decvax!amd!ubvax!scott           3990 Freedom Circle
  _\ \ -  / /_           (408) 980-5572                  Santa Clara, CA 95050

>
>Hey, the real-time clock in my PCAT seems to not be working too!  It's been
>working fine for the last year or two but now it's off and Diagnostics
>Setup won't fix it.  I just figured I was going to have to get in there and
>fool around with the battery.  Reading Brian's article makes me hope one
>of you hardware people out there will enlighten the net with all the ins&outs
>of AT clocks and batteries.
>

well, the timing of this discussion worked out nicely.

after having to remove the fdisk out of our sick AT last week ("106 --
System Board Error"), inside, i saw this little grey box stuck onto the back
of the unit with velcro.  the box said "ibm battery" or some such.

now this pc has _never_ kept its own time (or anything else important for
that matter :-) and i'd like to ask what is its purpose?  do they ALL not
work?  what does the diagnostics setup have to do with it? 


-- 

                .^.                             michael regoli
                /|\                   ...ihnp4!inuxc!isrnix!mr
               '|!|`       iu - bloomington   <mr@isrnix.UUCP>
                      ...cbosgd!inuxc!isrnix!mr@seismo.CSS.GOV
                                          regoli@iubacs.BITNET

>When my PC/AT battery went out a few weeks ago for the first time,
>the people at Businessland who usually do our repair work here said that
>they were seeing a lot of batteries needing replacement around then.
>Apparantly they last about a year.

  My AT is now over two years old.  (Yes, I was the first kid on the
block to purchase one.)  It still has its original battery (though not
its original fixed disk).  As of this posting, I have had zero trouble
with the clock, etc.  Looks like some batteries last longer than others.

Carrington Dixon
UUCP: { convex, infoswx, texsun!rrm }!mcomp!mic!d25001

In article <843@isrnix.UUCP> mr@isrnix.UUCP (mr) writes:
>
>now this pc has _never_ kept its own time (or anything else important for
>that matter :-) and i'd like to ask what is its purpose?  do they ALL not
>work?  what does the diagnostics setup have to do with it? 

The PC-AT has a battery which keeps enough power around so that the clock
settings and the set-up information does not get lost.  When that battery
starts to die you start getting time and set-up errors.

-- 

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