ST>KEEPTIME v1.0 System patch for dead Real Time Clock
Kevin Savetz
of
your RTC is dead. This text has been written for the Atari Falcon. It
may be
applied to Falcon, TT and compatibles.
--------------
The Problems
--------------
"My Falcon losts the time and date when I switch off."
( 15/31/07 0:00 for each boot )
"My Falcon boots in low resolution."
"My TOS is always in English and the keyboard is Qwerty."
----------------
The Explanation
----------------
Whenever you are shutting down your Falcon, the time,the date and NVRAM
settings are saved into the RTC chip ( Real Time Clock ).
The Real Time Clock can also be named 'CMOS Clock' or 'CMOS Battery'.
The RTC contains a 128 bytes memory to save setup information.
The approximative life length of this chip is about 10-12 years because
the
RTC contains a built-in battery. The Falcon is not a very young machine,
so
the battery of your RTC is now dead !!
This chip soldered on the Falcon motherboard ( U64 ) is a Dallas DS1287.
It
can be replaced by unsoldering with the same chip or equivalent ( ST
MK48T87B-24, MC146818A, MCCS146818BM ) . The Dallas DS1287 is, in fact, a
DS1285 which a lithium battery has been included in the same block. So
you
can also break the shell of the RTC to find the built-in battery.
Then, you must disconnect the circuit of the battery and redirect it to a
new external battery added. You can find infos about this process on
Atari
forums on the web or inside ST Magazine.( issue 141 )
Unfortunally, you don't want to open your Falcon and replace the RTC chip
because you think you are not able to do this !
-------------
The Solution
-------------
First of all, a good solution is to launch the classic accessory Control
Panel to set the time and date for each boot of the machine.
Yes, it's a safe solution but there is a problem !
If you are using TOS or MagiC operating systems, when you quit a
program, a
time and date reset occurs ! No problem, if you are using Mint OS.
I think it is a little bit irritating to work with that !
It is due to the specific XBIOS Function Gettime(). This same function
can
be found on TOS versions 3.xx ( TT ) and 4.xx ( Falcon ).
This function is called by the system when you return to desktop after
closing an application.( I don't know why... )
The Gettime() function has a special behavior when it finds that the
battery
of the RTC is dead, this function simply resets the time and date!
The dead battery information is sent by the RTC itself.
KEEPTIME is a patch to disable in TOS the time reset by Gettime()
function
if the battery of your RTC is dead.
http://doyeuxyvan.free.fr/keeptime/v1.0/
You must run it in the AUTO folder.
Caution: To take effect, the TOS must be found in RAM !
Basically, the Falcon works with the TOS located in ROM.
Therefore, the TOS in ROM must be copied in RAM.
So you can use the excellent free tool by Uwe Seimet called ROMSPEED:
http://www.seimet.de/files/atari/romspd31.zip
http://doyeuxyvan.free.fr/keeptime/v1.0/romspd31/
You have just to run ROMSPEED.PRG in the AUTO folder before KEEPTIME.PRG.
In this case, you must know that the MMU is used by ROMSPEED to remap
TOS in
memory. KEEPTIME takes into account this functionality to locate the TOS.
Under MagiC operating system, the same function Gettime() as the TOS is
present. However, you don't need to run ROMSPEED because MagiC is already
loaded in RAM.
Copy in this order ROMSPEED.PRG and then KEEPTIME.PRG in your AUTO folder
( Generally C:AUTO ). Be sure that your XCONTROL.ACC file is present in
the
root directory. ( Or any kind of another tool to set time and date )
"Thanks, time and date reset has been disabled as long as my Falcon is
powered on, but I'm still booting in low resolution with wrong keyboard
configuration..."
Yes, it remains the NVRAM configuration problem.
You can find different tools to set up keyboard, TOS language, etc.
But you can only reboot your Falcon if you want that parameters take
effect.
I have selected NVRam by Centek:
http://centek.free.fr/atari/softs/nvram.zip
http://doyeuxyvan.free.fr/keeptime/v1.0/nvram/
With this tool you can, of course, configure the NVRAM ( into the RTC
chip ). In addition, you can write a bootable program on a floppy disk
which
writes your selected configuration into NVRAM chip for every Falcon boot.
Be sure that your floppy disk is present in the drive of course !
Follow this process to create a bootable floppy disk with NVRam:
- Run NVRAM.APP from the desktop.
- Set keyboard and TOS language, time format, boot resolution, ...
- Click on the floppy disk icon and insert a floppy disk in drive A.
- Click on the left icon ( NVRAM -> Floppy Disk ) in the new window
opened.
The program quickly writes the boot sector program on the disk with your
NVRAM Settings.
- Then quit NVRam application. Your floppy disk is good.
( If you click on the NVRAM icon for quit, the settings are saved on
NVRAM
chip, but to take effect you must reboot. So, you can perform inifinte
reboots with your good parameters until you switch off your Falcon. )
At each boot, NVRam bootable program looks for if it has been already
installed in memory. In the case of NVRam already installed, the NVRAM
config is not written.
So be careful when you have just switched off your Falcon, the memory and
the RTC are not cleared instantly because it may remains residual
current in
the components. I advise to wait a long minute.
---------
The End
---------
Here is my summary procedure to work with a dead RTC battery:
- Switch on the Falcon with the correct floppy disk in drive.
- Very quickly, the floppy disk boot program will be read ( You can read
on
the screen NVRam flag ) and a system reset will occur.
- Now your Falcon boots with the correct NVRAM settings.
- After comes ROMSPEED and KEEPTIME loading.
- On the desktop, it remains to set the correct time and date in the
Control
Panel.
- That's all! Good Luck!
Yvan Doyeux
Dallas Semiconductors Maxim : http://www.maxim-ic.com/
ST Magazine : http://stmagazine.org/
URL: http://doyeuxyvan.free.fr/keeptime/v1.0/
[This news item courtesy of Atari.org - http://www.atari.org]
--
Kevin Savetz - comp.sys.atari.announce moderator
Curator of Classic Computer Magazine Archive - http://www.atarimagazines.com
& AtariArchives.org - http://www.atariarchives.org
& Retro Roundup - http://www.retroroundup.com