Indigo: get around "can't set tod clock" message?

[Georg Schwarz]

My two faithful R4K Indigos both, after having been unused for a long
time, now start up with the "can't set tod clock" repeating all over on
the console. This to my knowledge seems to indicate a dead battery
(soldered to the board).
Is there any way to bypass that message and boot up the machine short of
unsoldering and replacing the battery?

[Walther Mathieu]

Post by Georg Schwarz
My two faithful R4K Indigos both, after having been unused for a long
time, now start up with the "can't set tod clock" repeating all over on
the console. This to my knowledge seems to indicate a dead battery
(soldered to the board).
Is there any way to bypass that message and boot up the machine short of
unsoldering and replacing the battery?

Yes. The original battery is hard to get AFAIK, but a solution is
to solder in a coin cell holder (+ a bit of wire) and use a CR2032 3.6V
battery.

I did this a few times and it works like a charm ever after.

Easy job, but be careful not to damage the precious main board:
it is ESD sensitive, so both you and your soldering iron must be
grounded properly.

Btw., there are plenty of threads covering this issue at nekochan.net.

Walther