SUN date problem

[James H. Cloos Jr.]

In article <21024 at oliveb.olivetti.com> ilcu at icoven.UUCP (Daniela Papa) writes:
>
>Every time I reboot my SUN 3/50M I get the message that the clock lost
>29 days. While running the clock slows done about 10 minutes per hour, I
>avoid this by speeding up the clock rate ( date -annn.sss ) but having to
>reset the date every time I boot is a pain in the neck. Has anybody 
>experienced this problem? Is it a hardware bug.... I tried pulling out
>the lithium battery and short-circuiting the electrolitic capacitor in
>order to reset the Intersil ICM7170 but nothing happened except that I
>got the message the the tod clock wasn't initialized. Any pointers....
>
>The header isn't completely correct because I'm not in Cupertino but
>in Ivrea, Italy and read news through our link to Cupertino.

10 minutes per hour, huh?  Which means that your clock only registers
50 minutes for every 60 that pass.  Kinda like running a US spec AC
clock in Europe.  The clock would expect 60 hz but get 50 hz, causing
it to slow down 10 min per hour.

But a clock running on a lithium battery would be DC, no??
And DC should not be affected by the change in Hz in the AC line.

Is it possible that the capacitator is not matched to the battery correctly?

(Now that I think of it, when I use Kodak Lithium 9-volts to back up my
 alarm clock, rather then Alkaline 9-volts, the clock gains about a min
 per hour, so choice of battery could be a factor.  Can anyone explain
 my problem w/ lithium 9 volts either???)

Good luck.
-JimC

-- 
batcomputer!cloos at cornell.UUCP  |James H. Cloos, Jr.|#include <disclaimer.h>
cloos at batcomputer.tn.cornell.EDU|B7 Upson, Cornell U|#include <cute_stuff.h>
cloos at tcgould.tn.cornell.EDU    |Ithaca, NY 14853   |"Entropy isn't what
cloos at crnlthry.BITNET           |  +1 607 272 4519  | it used to be."