[rescue] NVRAM

[Scott Stevens]

>Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 11:17:09 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Andrew Michael Eberbach <ameberba at student.math.uwaterloo.ca>
>To: rescue at sunhelp.org
>Subject: [rescue] NVRAM
>Reply-To: rescue at sunhelp.org
>
>Hi all,
>Anyone have any NVRAM's kicking around for a SS1 that they can sell me?
>
>Thanks,
>Andrew

I have had good luck tacking in an external battery to revive the NVRAM on 
my Sparc hardware.  A few times I've used a lithium coin battery but now I 
just go down to Radio Shack and buy a dual-AAA cell battery holder and 
hotglue it in on the chassis.  There are detailed instructions on how to 
patch in an external battery connector at: 
http://www.dbaseiv.net/sun/sun-nvram-hostid.faq.html#attach.   It basically 
involves using an Xacto knife to make several minor incisions into the chip 
package to expose contacts to which external battery leads can be attached. 
I like it better than trying to find a replacement NVRAM because you can 
easily replace the batteries with the power on, thus never again having to 
reprogram a NVRAM from scratch.  But I'm a hardware guy and it's an 
empowering experience for me to use a solder iron to service a 
SparcStation.  Details for reprogramming it after replacing the battery, or 
for if you go the route of buying a whole new module, are in the same FAQ.