Flashed IBM NetVista 2292, now won't save CMOS settings.

[bizzybody]

I made certain I downloaded the correct BIOS for the motherboard's FRU number. FRU 49P 4384

The latest BIOS fixes a slew of bugs AND adds 148 bit LBA. No earlier version for this FRU# has 148 bit LBA, so going to a prior version isn't an option.

The boot disk that's supposed to automatically update the BIOS wouldn't work so I ran phlash16 manually and did it.

The beeper beeped regularly all the time it was flashing.

Everything works OK except that it will not keep the CMOS settings when the power cord is unplugged or the switch on the power supply is turned off. (It acts like a Mac with a dead PRAM battery.)

IT HAS A BRAND NEW CR-2032 BATTERY INSTALLED. Yes, I tested it with a digital voltmeter. (The cluebat is at the ready for anyone suggesting it might be a dead battery. )

The board didn't have this problem before, but the CMOS battery was totally dead before I changed it and updated the BIOS. Dunno if it wasn't saving CMOS (with good battery) before the update.

The system is useable, but having to reset everything whenever it'll lose power will be a big PITA.

P.S. When I first got the board I tried a Celeron CPU but it would claim a "CPU error" and refused to allow the BIOS to be flashed in any way. It has a 1.6Ghz Willamette core P4 now, can go up to a 2.2Ghz Northwood core P4.

[edwin]

Yes, I tested it with a digital voltmeter.

In-circuit? On it's own it might show 3V but when under load it still may be low. Why am I asking? Got bitten by this myself.

[bizzybody]

Nooo, not with it on the board. But it makes a white LED bright enough to be too painful to look at directly.

I tried doing a BIOS recovery then a normal flash to see if that'd fix it. Nope!

I also found out that nukes the serial number and machine ID! Thank you IBM *so much* for not making that super extra clear this would happen. Would it have been so bleeping difficult to make the recovery process save them?!

So since I didn't write them down I hunted around the web until I found a machine ID for a 2292 and the serial number format and gave it 123A1234.

It didn't wipe the unique identifier, I wonder if there's a way to find out the original serial number and the three characters/digits on the end of the machine ID? (Not that they're super important, it's just a code for the option package it originally came with.)

I've decided to shuffle it off to someone else. Put it in a generic case with a hard drive, videocard, couple of burners, Travan 4 drive, CD-R with all the drivers, and a boot floppy with IBM's CMOS save/restore program- with batch files to make it easy. I put a cheap price (enough to pay for the new CPU cooler and a couple other parts that cost me $) on the thing and tossing in a box of other PC parts for free.