At 14.11.2000 05:33:00, you wrote:
<snip>
>Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 01:17:02 -0500 (EST)
>From: "Thomas Mueller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: Virtual Arachne/Re-grading Arachne
>
>I notice a pack of 4 little batteries, 1.5v, that the people who replaced my
>full-tower case that had the bad power supply with a minitower case couldn't
>figure what those batteries were for. Now I think it might possibly be for the
>CMOS. Lack of those batteries might have been the reason for difficulty booting
>after the power had been off for some time, and why Linux was giving "hdc busy"
>messages repeatedly (phantom third hard drive?). Maybe I should shut down,
>power off, open the case, and see if I can plug that battery pack back in? How
>will I know if I am plugging it in backwards? Connector plug has four little
>nearly square holes.
>
>But the year 1994/2094 problem existed long before the power supply went bad, so
>presumably was not due to losing the CMOS.
>
<snip>
{That's from Arachne Digest #1338)
The only obvious solution to the 1994/2094 problem is, unfortunately, to upgrade the
BIOS.
There are a few early versions of Award Bioses written in such a way that, simply
hacking the
century byte in CMOS (if that byte is really there!) is noy enough to solve the
solution to the
Y2K problem !
AFAIK Award offers upgrades to this kind of BIOSes. Try to find the serial number of
your
BIOS and go to their web site. As an alternative, contact the manufacturer of your
motherboard
(or visit their web site). Their technical support should offer you some kind of help.
Anyway,
there are several steps involved and I can give you some details if you want, It is a
matter of
replacing a non-volatile memory chip on the motherboard with a fresh programmed one.
The
operation can be done only by some authorised people. Your job is to search the
sources above
and find a file containing the newer BIOS version (binary or hex). Then contact the
nearest
computer repairing centre equiped with an universal programmer (that's a device not a
human
being :-) ).
Best regards
Cristian Burneci
