Science Forums 2

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by Buffy

Also, I don't know when they added it, but I can assure you that the original PC2 (2-floppy) and first XT machines did *not* have batteries! Mine had an add-on card (I don't remember what it was) and a program reference in the autoexect.bat to get the time off the card. If you had nothing on it to do so, the first thing DOS would do was ask you the time and the date!

I vague recall PC-XT clones that would, due to some little dead battery on power up, not only demand you tell them the time and date, but a bit of arcane data about their hard drive (# tracks & cylinders, etc).

My old box had a battery-powered clock that updated the system clock that fit between its 8087 coprocessor and its slot (it worked fine with or without an 8087 on top of it), a little gadget I found for about $20 at some computer store. Like Buffy’s card, it updated the system clock at boot time, via a line in autoexec.bat referencing an executable that came on the 5.25” floppy packaged with it. To set it, you had to invoke the executable with another command line switch.

It didn’t appear to have a changeable battery. When last I booted the box ca. 2001, the clock was within a minute or two of correct.