[SunRescue] more nvram hell - why me? MeeTOO but OK...

[BSD Bob the old greybeard BSD freak]

> I just "won" a Sparc 2 from Ebay,
> and much to my dismay, the nvram
> is dead, dead, dead. My first impulse
> was to strip out the ram, HD, whatever
> was of value in it - and *chuck* the
> useless piece of (*^&!!

Hey, I, myopic ol' geezer Bob, just ahh, er... repaired, or make that
rebatteried one of those chips for my 4/330 crate.  It requries a steady
hand, a mill bastard file as thick as the width of the epoxy channel
on the tail end of the chip, and a 15 watt soldering pencil (fine tip).

1.  File the butt of the chip, lengthwise at about a 45 degree angle,
    lightly, until you just see two triangles appear, or maybe about
    a dozen light strokes.  If it does not come clean around the epoxy,
    you might take a knife and scrape the triangle connections a bit
    to clear them up for soldering.  Once exposed, tin the triangles
    before trying to solder on the battery leads.

   pin 1                                        butt end
   +---------------------------------------------+
   |                                             |
   |   top battery/xtal compartment              |
   |                                             |
   +---------------------------------------------+
   |   bottom sram chip part                     |
   |                                            / <---file here gently
   +-------------------------------------------+      in the middle end
                                                      at a 45 degree angle.

2.  Solder up a 3.5 volt lithium battery from a defunct peecee.
    WATCH POLARITY... the triangle on the pin 1 side of the
    end of the chip is ground and the other is +3.x volts.

3.  Velcro into some convenient place, with sufficient lead wire
    length.

4.  DON'T GET THE CHIP REPLACED BACKWARDS... it won't work that way.
    The chip will be fine, but the clock won't work and the cpu won't
    come up and all the idiot lights will glow red.  How do I know
    this.....(:+}}.....


Good Luck

Bob