The clock on my old HP Workstation was getting funny, loosing time, wouldn't hold the correct time, etc. After a bit of investigating, I came to realize the ~10 year old battery was probably shot.
So I found a technical manual just to determine the battery number, it's one of those lithium coin cells. Curiously, the battery replacement instructions included a caution that the system settings should be backed up on a floppy before removing the battery.
So I dug out some old 3.5" floppies and put them in the computer just to check things. The floppy drives haven't been used in ~5 years. At first I got an error and then the same error on another computer of the same vintage, but after a bit of fidgeting with it, the floppy drives seemed to come to life and start working. So then I saved the system settings.
After replacing the battery, the computer seemed to be working OK but I noticed a problem with the audio. There would be periodic, very brief drop-outs in the sound when watching a video. Annoying and a real problem as I like to record music through the computer. So then I restored the system settings.
This fixed the audio problem. It probably set a higher priority for audio data, not really sure, but the problem was solved. I would have been sunk without the system settings disk.
It reminded me it pays to read the instructions, even for something as simple as replacing a battery.
Just thought I'd share.
So I found a technical manual just to determine the battery number, it's one of those lithium coin cells. Curiously, the battery replacement instructions included a caution that the system settings should be backed up on a floppy before removing the battery.
So I dug out some old 3.5" floppies and put them in the computer just to check things. The floppy drives haven't been used in ~5 years. At first I got an error and then the same error on another computer of the same vintage, but after a bit of fidgeting with it, the floppy drives seemed to come to life and start working. So then I saved the system settings.
After replacing the battery, the computer seemed to be working OK but I noticed a problem with the audio. There would be periodic, very brief drop-outs in the sound when watching a video. Annoying and a real problem as I like to record music through the computer. So then I restored the system settings.
This fixed the audio problem. It probably set a higher priority for audio data, not really sure, but the problem was solved. I would have been sunk without the system settings disk.
It reminded me it pays to read the instructions, even for something as simple as replacing a battery.
Just thought I'd share.