GENWiki

                     IBM Wouldn't Do This, Would They?
                              (But They Did!)

I am not currently an AT user. Otherwise, I might have discovered

   this before now and probably at  some inconvenience.  I pass it on  so
   that many of  you who are  using AT's might  be aware of  the possible
   inconvenience Big Blue has planned  for AT users.  The following  item
   appeared in the Lotus Magazine, Vol.2, No.9, September, 1986 (p. 26).

Jack Kilday, Sysop

Northern Lights BBS

                                        207-766-2467    2400/1200

Preventing PC AT Amnesia

If you've never pulled the cover off an IBM PC AT, you may not realize

   that there is  a battery inside.   If that news  comes as a  surprise,
   there's  no  need  to  be  embarrassed;  you  apparently have a lot of
   company.

According to Alex Papakyriakou, general manager of International

   Battery Corp.  (IBC) (Reseda, Calif.),  a sizable number of IBM  PC AT
   owners  --  including  some  large-scale  corporate buyers -- are just
   realizing  this  because  the  batteries  are beginning to fail.  This
   causes  the  loss  of  not  only  time  and  date information but also
   internally stored configuration information like the machine's  memory
   size and type and number of disk drives.

When a PC AT's battery fades out, you are forced to enter the

   configuration info each time you start the system -- a tedious process
   that  leads  to  a  quick  search  for  a  replacement  battery.   The
   difficulty users face  in finding the  batteries is what  got IBC into
   the AT battery business.

IBC was getting requests for the 6-volt lithium units and couldn't

   find  a  supplier  until  they  came  across  Tadiran, a major battery
   manufacturer headquartered in Israel.

IBC obtained exclusive rights to aftermarkets sales of Tadiran's

   AT-compatible batteries and is selling them by mail order for  $27.50,
   which Papakyriakou claims  is $15 less  than IBM sells  them for.  But
   IBC is likely to have competition soon in this lucrative market.   The
   market-research firm Dataquest (San Jose, Calif.) estimates there will
   be more  than one  million IBM  AT's in  use by  the end of 1986, each
   having a battery that runs out of juice every one to three years.