Thanks for the replies. To recap, when I started it, the display said 'cmos battery indication low', plus the keyboard wouldn't work. The problem appears to be a clock chip soldered on the computer board which has the backup battery in it. So, one possibility is to replace that chip. Here's Jerry's first reply:
There are 2 options, to send this board to 1 of my distributors to have them change the battery cmos chip or option 2, we can do a Pentium upgrade here. I would need the computer chassis with all the boards installed. I would then remove the cpu and flash memory board, and VGA board. I would put in a Pentium 233 MHz with 8 meg ram cpu and an 8 gig hard drive for program storage for $1950.00 plus labor, generally 1 hour labor @ $105.00 an hour.
From my standpoint, spending over $2,000 to repair a very obsolete controller just doesn't make sense. If the machine had been churning out parts that were making me big bucks, and all I wanted was to get it back on line as soon as possible, it would.
I've already studied the whole retrofit subject a fair amount, and I think the 'upgrade to Mach3 with Gecko drives' is the logical thing to do.
That appears to be the most well-proven route, and it would improve the machine's capabilities considerably. And, not having to rely on Anilam would be a big plus.
While I was writing this, I got another request for info from Jerry. I tried the machine again, and I actually got to the point of loading the control software. So, it looks like it's going to work. We'll see.