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From: sdawalt@cs.wright.edu (Shane Dawalt)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: IDE's :Want to Know More
Message-ID: <1991May25.205455.24162@cs.wright.edu>
Date: 25 May 91 20:54:55 GMT
References: <1991May20.151010.11704@vaxa.strath.ac.uk>
Organization: Wright State University
Lines: 37

From article <1991May20.151010.11704@vaxa.strath.ac.uk>, by cnav11@vaxa.strath.ac.uk:
> Recently I bought a 386 25MHz IBM compatible.After a few weeks
> the computer wouldn't start up and kept giving very "strange"
> messages including
> 
> Cannot find operating system
> 
> CMOS battery state low
> 
> When I took the computer back to the dealer he said that the
> latest range of IBM compatibles have IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)
> disk controllers and since I had been using Norton Utilities and
> PCtools this had probably corrupted the reserved sectors on the
> hard disk resulting in the system crahing.
> 
> He couldn't however find the exact fault so he gave me a computer
> with a new motherboard and advised me to avoid using utility 
> programs.
> 
> Does anyone have any more information on IDE's and was the dealer
> correct in telling me to avoid using utility programs.?

  If the dealer thinks that the CMOS battery state is stored in
the IDE special sector then he had better sell his business and
start hauling garbage.  Although the reserved sectors could be
corrupted by the utility programs, it would certainly not cause
the "CMOS battery state" message.  More than likely, something died
on your motherboard.  Detecting the operating system and low
voltage on the battery is two physically separate circuits.

  Shane();

-- 
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From the keyboard of:			     email: sdawalt@cs.wright.edu
	Shane A. Dawalt
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