On Fri, Jun 07, 2002 at 03:07:01AM -0700, ben wrote: > On Friday 07 June 2002 01:55 am, Karl E. Jorgensen wrote: > > On Thu, Jun 06, 2002 at 06:28:27PM -0700, Cam Ellison wrote (slightly > > > > reformatted): > > > * Karl E. Jorgensen (karl@jorgensen.com) wrote: > > > > Problem: I have a machine that keeps loosing it's CMOS settings. > > > > Changing battery works - for a couple of weeks. > > > > > > Just a guess: your quickly-discharging battery suggests a > > > high-resistance or intermittent ground somewhere. Maybe you should > > > take the box apart (completely) and have a close look? > > > > Been there :-) Last time I changed the battery, I had a good look around > > inside it, but I didn't find anything I didn't expect to. Sherlock > > Holmes could probably have dated the machine merely based on the > > thickness of the dust layer. > > > > I doubt whether the dust could have caused it though - it still has the > > problem after a bit of cleaning. > > whether dust or anything else, something just ain't right if you're sucking > the life out of a lithium battery every couple of weeks. maybe the battery > socket is hosed. Yep. Something is definitely wrong with it. But to the naked (and admittedly not electical-engineer-trained) eye, the hardware looks OK. > how old is the board? Not sure - but it is old. Pre-1994, but without obvious Y2K bugs!?. Borderline carbon-dateable. The whole box is a salvage job. Yes: I admit there might have been a reason for its disposal :-) > if there are jumper pins near the socket, check to see that they're > intact. make sure that the jumpers are set correctly. As far as I remember, there aren't any jumpers in the immediate vincinity of the battery. I'll have a look. > next time you get to pulling a battery, swab the area around the > contacts with alcohol and let it evaporate before you replace the it. > those batteries should last for at least half a year. Cheers. Didn't know about the alcohol trick. It's probably a terrible waste of snaps though... -- Karl E. Jørgensen karl@jorgensen.com www.karl.jorgensen.com ==== Today's fortune: "What I've done, of course, is total garbage." -- R. Willard, Pure Math 430a
Attachment:
pgpjMl8oTksGl.pgp
Description: PGP signature