Can I use 3 AA or AAA batteries to test my Alpha Multia?

[retrobits]

Howdy,

I have an Alpha Multia with a dead NVRAM battery. I've got a new one on order (from Batteries Plus). But it will be at least a week until the battery arrives. The battery is a replacement for a Rayovac 840 4.5V alkaline.

Can I hook up 3 AA or AAA batteries to the same connector to test the Multia? Or will the extra current capacity of 3 AA or AAA batteries fry something?

Thanks,

- Earl

 

[Chuck(G)]

Unless there's something electrically wrong with the "keep alive" circuitry (in which case a new battery won't help you), you're fine with 3AA(A) alkaline batteries. The current consumption is very low--under 1 ma, so you may want to consider the cheaper cells a permanent fix.

 

[mc68010]

Yes you can. I've done it on a couple Multia back in the day.

 

[retrobits]

I did this and it worked great. However, there might be a problem with the floppy disk in the system - I couldn't get it to read anything. Not sure if it's dead - I have heard that the floppy is a common problem in these systems.

I'm going to look for a cable to hook up an external SCSI CD drive, and attempt a Windows NT 4.0 load on the system using the ARC console. It appears you can load Windows NT straight from the CD, without using a floppy drive.

- Earl

 

[ajacocks]

Earl,

Which model multia do you have? There are a variety, with different configurations. I'm a great fan of these machines, though I run NetBSD on mine.

The biggest issues with these little guys are that they run blazing hot (especially one particular bipolar IC, on the back side of the board), and that they take 2.5" _SCSI_ HDDs. That particular issue means that you will want to track down a 2.5" SCSI-IDE bridge board, so that you can run a higher-capacity, cooler, 2.5" IDE disk.

Really good resources:
http://www.netbsd.org/ports/alpha/multiafaq.html
http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/computers/udb.html

- Alex (you may remember me, from K-Fest)