AlphaStation 200 NVRAM Problem

[Robert Jarratt]

> 
> Someone mentioned there is a battery. It could be held by that, or a
module
> from ST Microelectronics or Dallas Semiconductor. The latter two tend to
be
> plastic packages that are ~28 pins or so and taller than normal chips. The
> Dallas and ST modules have RAM/real time clock and a battery in one
> package.
> 
> In the case of some arcade games (Silent Scope from Konami is a big one),
> once the NVRAM looses it's contents the machine wont load past it in the
> bootup process. On the Sun Workstations when the modules go bad it will
> boot but but the MAC address is blank. It's possible to reprogram the
> contents back on the Sun workstations.
> 
> If the case of the AlphaStation is that it can't get past post without the
> contents of the NVRAM, and the NVRAM is in a Dallas or STM module then
> the easy solution is to get a dump of a working system, perhaps hex edit
the
> contents to correct the MAC address, then plug it in (hopefully socketed.)
> 
> If the NVRam is held by a CR3202 battery and a SMD SRAM chip or
> something, there would have to be a way around it being blank I'd imagine.
> 

In my case there is just a CR2032, and no Dallas module. I will try
replacing the CR2032 again.

Regards

Rob