RTC RAM Failure

[camidon]

I have a Dual PIII machine that is rebooting itself like 2 times a day. When I plug in Microscope 2000 and run checks on it it gives me an "RTC RAM Failure". I've never seen an error like this but I was thinking that it could be the CMOS battery. Has anyone seen a failure like this before? And if so, what did you do to correct it? Could the BIOS need flashing?

 

[cdogg]

Not sure if this helps, but RTC stands for "Real-Time Clock" which is maintained by the CMOS battery. So yes, I would go with your first instinct and replace the battery.

However, it is still puzzling why it says "RTC RAM"...

 

[camidon]

I was thinking that it should read "RTC ROM" rather than "RAM".

 

[ErikZ]

Why would the battery need replacing if the machine is on?

Doesn't Microscope 2000 tell you what the errors mean?

Is your board still under warranty? Can you email their tech support?

 

[cdogg]

camidon,

Yes, that was my thinking as well. It would make much more sense if it said "ROM". I'll see what I can find...

 

[smitee]

camidon

"Y2K synchronicity problem perhaps"

Excerpt..

"Our solution is two-fold:

Test the RTC, BIOS, and DOS to ensure they are Year 2000 compliant, and report the status to you.
Repair any non-compliance in the BIOS and RTC each time you boot the computer.
The only other way you can fix the bug is to add in an expensive BIOS replacement card, replace the BIOS chip, or replace the motherboard. While it is usually more cost effective to replace the motherboard, that does cost a lot of money, especially when you have quite a number of non-compliant systems. It is much more cost effective to use Y2K Wizard.

http://www.pcdiag.com.au/y2k.htm

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Some additional reading although I didn't see a fix

http://www.wco.com/~mvv/y2kare/teknikl.htm

http://cbr.nc.us.mensa.org/homepages/saphena/faq.htm#q3

http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/test2000.htm#RTC

http://www.mitre.org/research/cots/PC_BIOS.html

 

[camidon]

This has been confirmed to be a y2k compliant board. I am, however, going to flash the BIOS and if that doesn't work, I'm going to clear the CMOS settings and see if any of that helps. I'm almost sure those 2 steps will correct my problem. If not, I will have to attempt to find a new IC chip and I can't be positive that it will fix my problem either.

Thanks for the input guys, I'll let you all know what corrects my problem.

Chris