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 Topic  |
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Wasper
Infrared Wave
USA
232 Posts |
 Posted - 12/07/2002 : 01:40:43
A while ago , I booted up my old computer which as hasn't been turned on or plugged in for quite awhile, and I noticed that the timer at the bottom right corner of the screen still had the right time! I don't see how the computer kept track of time even tho it was unplugged. Unlike a clock , which resets time when you unplugg it a computer keeps track of it even when it was unplugged. How is this possible?! It's not even turned on , how is it keeping track of time when nothing is functioning? I find this to be very curious. Anyone know the answer?"Man's worst enemy is himself."
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BoulderHead
Gamma Wave
Canada
2364 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2002 : 01:45:04
Hello,
It does it by means of a battery, often a coin shaped lithium type, that is typically mounted somewhere on the motherboard. Eventually the battery will fail, though it can take several years.Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
-- Ambrose Bierce
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Wasper
Infrared Wave
USA
232 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2002 : 01:48:22
quote:
Originally posted by BoulderHead:
Hello,
It does it by means of a battery, often a coin shaped lithium type, that is typically mounted somewhere on the motherboard. Eventually the battery will fail, though it can take several years.Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
-- Ambrose Bierce
A battery? Humm.. how come I have never heard of this.. I have taken a look at my mother board many times before and I have never spotted anything that looks like a battery. It must a very small battery I bet. "Man's worst enemy is himself."
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BoulderHead
Gamma Wave
Canada
2364 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2002 : 01:51:27
It could also be incorporated into a DALLAS chip, which is a black rectangular box about 1.75 x .75 inches.Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
-- Ambrose Bierce
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kyle_soule
Infrared Wave
USA
327 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2002 : 02:04:33
Look on your motherboard documentation and it should have a detailed diagram of where and what everything is on it. I have never heard of it being built into the chip, not discrediting the idea; chances are good that it is on there.I just thought, the motherboard and CPU are made seperately, a CPU maker would not build in a battery since this is always done by the motherboard manafacturers job. ____________________
Since man does not know the true laws of God, why should any one human viewpoint be singled out as more correct than any other?
EDIT: I thought you meant a DALLAS chip, like as in a CPU, sorry . I had never heard a cpu manufacturer named DALLAS heheh.
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Edited by - kyle_soule on 12/07/2002 05:00:54
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BoulderHead
Gamma Wave
Canada
2364 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2002 : 02:11:47
The CPU is not used for keeping the clock set, it would suck a battery dead in no time. This is accomplished by additional circuitry. When a DALLAS chip goes bad (the battery inside dies) you have buy a new one. The timekeeping circuitry and battery are all encapsulated in one package that is often soldered onto the motherboard. It was a bad idea and I don't know if they still use them or not, but I'm guessing no.Info;
http://store.firmware.com/cgi-bin/mfi/DS12887A.html Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
-- Ambrose Bierce
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trmptsmrf
Radio Wave
USA
25 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2002 : 08:22:07
if what you say is correct, BoulderHead, and i'm assuming it is... then why was everyone so worried about the turn of the century? i heard it was because all the clocks were going to fail... maybe i just heard wrong... either way, i would appreciate a clearer understanding of Y2K... thanks!"Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly."
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reefer kills
Infrared Wave
USA
415 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2002 : 09:13:57
the y2k issue was blown way out of proportion and many people made up many things about what was going on without haveing a clue. the fact of the issue is simple; many programs were writen so the date is tracked but the last two digits of the year, so when the date rolled over to 00 the computer would think it was 1900. granted there were a whole heap of issues that this brough up, but not nearly as many as some would have had you belive.
as for the computer keeping time, seems dallas chips are used in big computers such as sgi machines. our basic pcs, like has been said, keeps power to a clock with a battery. the system bios reads the clock and windows gets the info from the bios.
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Edited by - reefer kills on 12/07/2002 17:14:59
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reefer kills
Infrared Wave
USA
415 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2002 : 17:16:43
also, i am not actualy sure were the clock is contained but i imagine it is very similar to the internials of your average digital clock.
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Edited by - reefer kills on 12/07/2002 17:17:50
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BoulderHead
Gamma Wave
Canada
2364 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2002 : 17:25:13
I have an old 486 board in front of me that has a DALLAS chip soldered to board. It was manufatured in 1994, and has failed. I have another identical board in a working computer that hasn't failed yet, but is no doubt getting close. No way would I shell out for a new chip 'cause the entire computer could be had for under $10 at a thrift store.
The ability for time keeping on the circuit board is slightly removed from the Y2K issue. Be assured that a battery is involved, even if you cannot find it.Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.
-- Ambrose Bierce
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reefer kills
Infrared Wave
USA
415 Posts |
Posted - 12/07/2002 : 17:54:00
doh, so i should claify my above statemnt "our basic modern pcs..."i started truely geting deep into hardware in the p2 era and up untell now i was completely unaware of a dallas chip, though i have seen a battery on every motherboard i have ever touched. i dug around the web and found mention of dallas chips on sgi and cray machines as well as old macs. and ya the y2k thing is prety far off, i was just responding to trmptsmrf's question. btw, thank you BoulderHead, always cool to learn something new.
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Integral
PF Mentor
USA
2665 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2002 : 15:16:13
Back in the 8086 days the onboard clock was simply a counter that only ran while the computer was on. You could put a line in your autoexec.bat file to prompt for the date or the time, it would then set your clock accordingly. It then advanced to the point where you could buy ISA RTC cards (Real Time Clock) that would keep real time, the cute part was that you now entered the command for Time and Date in the autoexec.bat file and it would automatically READ the RCT and set the internal clock. So you only used the RTC at boot up. (This may still be true.~^) IIRC 286 boards had a RCT and a battery, generally rechargeables soldered on to the mobo. It was not until the Pentium era that RTCs were really integrated into the mobo with the coin sized battery pretty much standard. Yes my first IBM clone was a 8086, followed by a 286, 386, 486 a cyrix pr200, etc.
__________________________
"A Physicist is an atom's way of learning about atoms"
G. Wald
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nowonmai
Radio Wave
Ireland
26 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2003 : 15:54:54
^^my god, I remember this... am I really that old :(
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