hi w_tom,
thank you for replying and for the info.............
[...below...]

w_tom wrote:
snip
(printed all the info for future reference)

BTW, you refer to something unique only to that product -
called an Access Station. What is it? An important piece of
information that I don't understand because I do not know what
the Access Station is called in all other machines.

it is the media console: a 3rd piece of h/w.
it contains the cd-rom drive, the floppy drive and the on-off switch.
these are attached (via a cable) to the 'media console controller card'
which goes into an isa slot on the motherBoard.
(btw, i was INcorrect about the -12 volts from the psu: it is the -5 volts
which are / were sometimes used for
older isa devices. however in this case the power connector (going to the
media console controller card), has the +12 volts, the 2 grounds and
the +5 volts (SOOoo it does not use the - 5 volts, [or the -12 volts])
another thing: i read in the 2159 service manual (.pdf) that the psu ALWAYS
generates 5
volts of auxiliary power to the board (when the pc is off) -- (it's a
warning to unPlug it when
working on it) not even sure why it lost the settings to begin with if it
receives this 5 volts
and finally, the .pdf file states that if both fans are running then the psu
is fine.
thank you for the help.
sincerely
Tanya
p.s.
i had not changed ANY cmos settings initially:
it "lost them" as soon as it began eliciting "time and date" changes.
(before removing the old 3 volt Li battery)

what seems to have *fixed* this pc is the following:
1. rearranging the start-up order (which the pc (not me had changed to:
1st and 2nd start-up devices = the floppy drive; 3rd was disabled and 4th
was the cd-rom.)
2. ENabling numLock (this is minor but this is supposed to be enabled by
default and the pc
had changed this to being disabled.)
3. changing lpt1 to ecp (from "compatible")
4. ENabling 'cache state' (which had reset itself to being disabled)
5. changing disk bios translation to lba (FROM CHS)


the only problem is that i don't even know why it lost settings (before i
cleared the cmos which i did b/c it would not boot after replacing the
battery) to begin especially since the *old* battery was 3.06 volts and the
*new* was 3.26 volts AND since the psu generates the +5 volts ALL_THE_TIME.


Tanya wrote:
hi thanks again for replying!
[...below...]

w_tom wrote:
Since colors do not match what should be ATX power supply wires, I
suspect this is an AT type machine. Is this a 486 computer or an
computer not using PCI cards?

it's a pentium 200 mhz mmx.
it is NOT an ATX (it does not have the *normal AT* form factor (i
can look it up) however the psu should behave like an AT psu)

One voltage is wrong because I believe it should have read -5 volts
and not +5 volts.

i will retest it (i unhooked the zip drive (which is not working)
and the slave hard drive just now and it only reached the ibm
splash screen (counted video, cache and system ram -- accurately)
then stopped (no POST no beep code and it won't even read the boot
disk nor let me into the bios)

The + 12 and -12 volts are both too low. Normally
this would means doing the next step for excessive ripple voltage
(which requires better equipment). However + and - 12 volts don't
drive anything critical on AT type computers.

actually what i have read is that the -12 volts is for isa devices
and this pc has the media console controller card (which is isa)
(the media console is a 3rd piece -- it has the cd-rom drive, the
floppy drive and the power switch in it -- connects to the card
(via a cable)) i'll redo the voltages i also found the service
manual which has the correct ones (the colors are different from
ats that i have seen)

This post will continue on an assumption it is an AT type
computer - noting that if it is an ATX computer, then it might
be a severely questionable - probably defective - power supply.
But we assume it is AT.

Anything that is IBM original checks out just fine with those
diagnostics from IBM. Rarely do diagnostics get updated when
they are working fine - Y2K not really considered important.

except that it only tests 32 MBs of ram and did not test the 30
gb maxtor drive but tested only 3.2 gbs of the slave (ibm) drive
(which is 6.4 gbs) i'll try it on the off chance the pc will
start gain

But for added peripherals such as CD-rom or hard drive, then you must
download the diagnostics from the manufacturer of that peripheral.

the cd-rom, floppy drive, psu, cpu and 2 of the 4 simms are original.
(the board was replaced supposidly in 1999)

A 30 gig drive in an older computer like this means the computer
is probably using some type of Bios Extender - Ez-Bios or whatever
that hard drive manufacturer provided. You must identify that
Bios Extender and obtain operational details. For example, some
require the BIOS to be set to a non-standard setting. If you did
as so many others want - fix this and fix that rather than first
collect facts - then it is possible you have lost what is the
unique settings for that Bios Extender program (that is loaded on
the hard drive).

i used max-blast (hard drive install utility (version 1.26s)) on
the 30 gb maxtor (in 2000) -- there was nothing in the bios to
change... it's on a floppy disk

Generally Bios Extender programs would announce themselves when
computer first booted normally.

it always announced ezBIOS right after passing the POST. (but i
had not see the ezBIOS text since i replaced the battery 2 days
ago) this morning after changing the boot order ezBIOS appeared
again.

Software is often provided by hard drive manufacturer on
manufacturer's web site. But at any rate, discover if and what
that Bios Extender is. Normally your computer (check the
manual) would only understand hard drives of maybe 8 Gig max.

it only sees a bit over 8 gb (in the bios -- always) but windows
sees all 30 gbs

To see a 30 Gig drive, unique software such as a Bios Extender,
or an ISA slot card that provides extended Bios, or a hard drive
interface card with that Bios Extender must be somewhere in that
machine.

it is a diskette.

Diagnostics from hard drive manufacturer might help to
identify that Bios Extender.

i don't know whether maxtor still exists... i was using a 3rd
party diag on some baby ats but cannot recall what it was
called but it was good

Also what can provide useful information is to boot machine with DOS
(if possible) and run the MS provided program called FDISK.

i cannot do that right now... b/c of the above
...