2 Dec
1998
2 Dec
'98
9:23 a.m.
On Wed, 2 Dec 1998, Tony Duell wrote:
If the RTC chip is much taller than the other chips on
the mainboard (say
about 3/8" high) then it probably contains an internal battery. Dallas
and Mostek/SGS-Thomson made chips like that.
It is. I forget offhand who made it, though. Would it be powering the
NVRAM, though? On a SPARCstation you actually have to replace the NVRAM
chip itself. I guess it couldn't hurt to try to replace it.
You're supposed to replace the chip when the
battery fails (after about
10 years). I have heard of people carefully slicing the top off the
package and replacing the lithium cell inside, but I've not had to do
this myself - yet.
It isn't inconceivable; the machine was made in the middle of 1991, so
it's probably about time.
It looks a lot like a standard part. I'll have to try to source one.
Otherwise the battery could be just about anywhere
inside the machine.
There is defintely no obvious battery inside. It'd have to be in one of
the chips. Since it's almost all small 14-18 pin DIPs and RAM chips, I'm
willing to bet the chip containing the battery (if it turns out to be
other than the RTC) should be easy to find.
ok
r.