How to replace a Sun NVRAM Battery chip (No Dremeling)

For just $20 you can get a new clock battery chip for your Sun that'll fix slow boot times, lack of networking, and "idprom contents invalid" and even better you don't need to dremel your old one.
The programming guide: www.obsolyte.co...
The chip the SS20/sun4m uses:
www.digikey.co...
Sun3x/Sun4c: www.digikey.co...
Sadly the M48T59Y from the Ultras is out of production but I've heard the 58y works:
www.digikey.co...
Have fun avoiding paying the eBay markup.

[@ocprime]

Thanks -- I was wondering how that chip carrier works. I need to pull one from my SS20. I ordered the M48T08-100PC1 from Digi-Key, about $20+shipping. Came in a comically large box for the size of the chip. The date code on your chip is '833' -- 8 = 2018, 33 is 33rd week of the year. For anyone else interested, the ones are ebay are knockoffs from China -- or old chips with who knows how old lithium battery. I wanted a fresh battery, and real deal ST chip, so ordered from digi-key. Got a newly made in 2020 chip from them. (Date code 011)

[@Technoid_Mutant]

This is nostalgic for me. In 1999/2000 I fought this fault with a SparcStation 4/330. Then, the chips were in heavy demand (y2k). Instead of paying an arm and a leg, I decided to chip out the epoxy and find the battery terminals on the original (failed) nvram chip.

[@davidknoll]

Why waste my time Dremeling when they're $20? Maybe I have an E4500 with 2 I/O trays so I have 3 of these chips to replace!

[@giorgione71]

This is a great video. I have a similar issue on a Sun Blade 2000 and I'm interested on an alternative part to use in place of the official part number which costs $75 + shipping.

[@davidmattinson890]

Did you manage to find a part number for one with the Sun Blade 2000?

[@gn7026]

No, I didn’t find one yet.

[@randomwanderings782]

It's still ironic you can get a new NVRAM that works in the SS20 and below, but those for Ultras are considered EOL. Go figure.

[@stevedonkers9087]

Thanks bro. I've got a SS20 with absolutely blazing fast dual 85MHz processors. I bought this chip but I live in Canadia so it was a bit more expensive. This will be quite handy.

[@ultrametric9317]

This saved my $36 on my E420R server! The Sun part on Ebay is $50, but the ST version is only $8 plus shipping from China, about $14. (My NVRAM is a different model. No luck on Digikey.)

[@ktteol]

Will these parts from digikey work on a Sun Blade 100?

[@martintang719]

This is a great video, I will have a try. But usually I bug new one, and change the hostid on it, that's also fine.

[@cepfyahmad6162]

Whats the program for copying or remake the nvram program?

[@bacardilove1981]

Hello there from Greece i have 4 sunblade 150 and i want to buy 4 more. Do you now where can i get 4 sunblade 150, also if i put a hdd not from sun will work??????

[@martintang719]

PM me, I can help on this.

[@bacardilove1981]

@@martintang719 [e-mail] send me details

[@carlettosan]

​@@martintang719how do I PM you for help? Need some advice on a Sparcstation 10 hard disks etc.

[@wintersgrass]

Has anyone tried the M48T58Y-70PC1 on the Ultra 30?

[@wintersgrass]

I purchased one and it seems to accept the programming commands but I get a "Incorrect configuration checksum" error when booting. I don't know if anyone has the same system to test this?

[@cassiasilva4990]

@@wintersgrass you have to program the hostid on the new nvram acording the model machine. After it , on the ok prompt, execute "set-defaults" and after it executes "reset-all" . I will try this T18 on my machine, but I did it with T59 and worked well.

[@wintersgrass]

@Cassia Silva Have you tried this on an ultra 30? I will try what you mentioned and report back.

[@wintersgrass]

@@cassiasilva4990 Hi, I still get the Incorrect configuration checksum after programming and then running set-defaults

[@palomarjack7090]

Don't get me wrong, I like messing with older computers, too. But honestly, what can you do with these old Suns other than just look at it? It's parts are proprietary, too slow for anything, no games for it, etc. It's probably worth more as scrap than the new NVRAM costs. Sometimes, it's just time to move on. If you really want to play with Unix, build a Linux or Free BSD box.

[@Koka2609]

You just don't get it, do you :)

[@TalesofWeirdStuff]

This is one of those "if you have to ask, you'll never know" situations. :)

[@sluxi]

You could say this for any retro system really. People enjoy things besides gaming.