UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum - View Single Post - Mostek/ST 'Timekeeper' IC (Sun NVRAM) repair

neon indicator · 28th Jun 2011, 6:37 pm

Yes, only 64 bytes is the "original" PC AT spec. I meant "similar" in sense of potted with internal battery. Obviously not the same as they are all MC146818 compatible if from a PC (I think one or both Dallas modules may be from something else). But one place I worked "assembled" a lot of PCs using Mobo with the "Odin" part.

I forget if those modules came from 286, 386, or 486. Definitely an Asian clone maker though.

The tricky easier to "brick" PCs where the ones that only lost time and not BIOS settings if battery failed. We did actually have one some years ago, AMD cpu and Nvidia chip set that got "bricked".

Regular PC mobos it only Power fail during Flash Firmware update that bricks them. I fixed a "bricked" one by putting a good BIOS chip from same model, boot Floppy, carefully lever out chip and plug in "bricked" one while power on and then run the Floppy based Flash Firmware upgrade. If I had thought this likely to be a regular occurrence, I'd have made a daughter board with two sockets and a switch.

I might even still do that as you can put ANY file on the Flash memory and I have loads of them from scrapped Mobos. Apparently if you program Z80 and want to do your own code for original mono Gameboy the PC bios chips can wire direct to cartridge socket with no additional circuitry.

So what you going to use the Sparc for Kat?

28th Jun 2011, 6:37 pm	#9
neon indicator Retired Dormant Member Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Co. Limerick, Ireland. Posts: 1,183	Re: Mostek/ST 'Timekeeper' IC (Sun NVRAM) repair Yes, only 64 bytes is the "original" PC AT spec. I meant "similar" in sense of potted with internal battery. Obviously not the same as they are all MC146818 compatible if from a PC (I think one or both Dallas modules may be from something else). But one place I worked "assembled" a lot of PCs using Mobo with the "Odin" part. I forget if those modules came from 286, 386, or 486. Definitely an Asian clone maker though. The tricky easier to "brick" PCs where the ones that only lost time and not BIOS settings if battery failed. We did actually have one some years ago, AMD cpu and Nvidia chip set that got "bricked". Regular PC mobos it only Power fail during Flash Firmware update that bricks them. I fixed a "bricked" one by putting a good BIOS chip from same model, boot Floppy, carefully lever out chip and plug in "bricked" one while power on and then run the Floppy based Flash Firmware upgrade. If I had thought this likely to be a regular occurrence, I'd have made a daughter board with two sockets and a switch. I might even still do that as you can put ANY file on the Flash memory and I have loads of them from scrapped Mobos. Apparently if you program Z80 and want to do your own code for original mono Gameboy the PC bios chips can wire direct to cartridge socket with no additional circuitry. So what you going to use the Sparc for Kat?