EZ Trak trouble

[Old Car Guy]

Introduction:
As my handle suggests, I’m into old cars, and the older the better. I have been around machine tools since I was 9 years old and served apprenticeship in Tool and Diemaking, though nearly all my career was in designing and supervision. However I have been acquiring machinery and tools all my life for my approaching retirement. My obsession for old cars necessitates the need to reproduce parts and is therefore complemented by my passion for machinery. Although my toy chest may be considered rather extensive, all my equipment is hobby related.

Now onto my dilemma…
My 1994 Bridgeport Series One EZ-Trak SX has performed without a glitch for the past 5 years. Recently it will not boot up and the screen displays “Run setup utility,, Press <F1> to resume.” With the following errors: cmos system options not set, cmos display type mismatch, and keyboard error. When I press <F1> noting happens. The same happens when I power up with the utility disk in the floppy drive.

With the machine power off, I found what I believe is a 3.6 volt round battery soldered on the main board (located in the lower LH side of rear panel) that reads only 1 volt with a test meter. Can this be the problem or where else should I be looking elsewhere? Please be easy on me, as I’m not well versed in electronics or computers.

Thanks,
OCG

[machintek]

Yes, you have found the CMOS battery and yes it is reached the end of its life. Fortunately, it sounds like it has not leaked its elektrolyte out. This is a stack up of 3 Ni-Cad button cells. The juice inside is potasium hydroxide (I think) and when it leaks, it takes off the deposited wires on the mother board causing it to fail in a permanent fashion.
All you have to do is unsolder this battery and solder in a new one. Make sure you keep the polarity correct. I buy them locally for less than 10 dollars.
Alternative is to still remove this battery and hook up a lithium battery. I remember that Radio Shack used to carry these. Them came with double sided tape and some wire and a plug that plugged into the mother board. You will have to find your mother board book and move the jumper from internal battery to external.
Then you need a full size keyboard, and you need to reset the CMOS. This will be time, date, type of floppy (3.5 inch, 1.44 MB) and turn the keyboard test off.
Best to find a geek teenager to do this who will get a big kick out of something so old and slow (like me).

George

[Old Car Guy]

Thanks George,

I removed the old battery (3 cells shrink-tubed together) from the motherboard this morning. Then soldered wires (making sure polarity was correct) attaching a new lithium batter battery that I wire-tied to the nearby board support bracket. The new lithium battery is the size of a “D” cell and 3.6 Volts. I have a stash of them at work for other machine controls.

To my dismay all the keyboards that I have at home had the smaller PS2 plugs. I had several with the correct size and even an adapter; but a recent de-bulking for my move in the spring, they were all tossed out. Setting the CMOS will have to wait until I bring home an old keyboard with the correct plug from work on Monday.

[Pat2000]

Bah,sorry I carn't seem to delete this post -please ignore

[Old Car Guy]

I can put that heavy rotary table back in the corner where it belongs!

Being that I had to stop by the plant for some unseen startup problems tonight, I fished out an obsolete keyboard from a collection of junk computers. Came home plugged her in, and after three tries in setup she was running.

Thanks for your help George!