CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 10:58 pm Post subject:

From what I've seen, there's no direct way to get power to the Dallas chip, at least to the internal battery. Long ago I tried measuring the pins of an ECP Dallas chip, and the battery is 'in' the chip, somewhere deep, so that the battery voltage never comes out to the pins of the chip. Sad

Good idea though.

Although, pressing the RAM button on the YA board resets but also dumps the memory, so to get the set to fire up again, you need to nuke the memory.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:00 pm Post subject:

Oh, and last question on this: I am ASSUMING that a blank Dallas chip with a good battery will fire up the G90, it just has no memory setting? (and hour/serial number, etc), or does the firmware in the G90 software need to be loaded onto the G90 before it will work?

CIR Engineering · Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2011 11:11 pm Post subject:

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:03 am Post subject:

OK, got it, thanks! Sorry, I know this has been posted at avs, but I never needed the info until now. Smile

So the guy a while back that was selling 'programmed' Dallas chips for $150 on ebay probably just put some generic data on the chip, so the buyer wouldn't get the 30 error at powerup, right?

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:25 am Post subject:

But now that I've reset it, there's no point...

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 1:07 am Post subject:

In order to get the set working so I could make sure it's OK before I ordered a new LUG for it, I had to initialize the RAM, as per Craig's instructions above. That worked. That also wiped out the RAM, serial number and hour counter, so it's completely blank now, no info is stored in it.

CIR Engineering · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 4:16 am Post subject:

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 5:31 am Post subject:

OK, got it now. I think I was sorta trying to say that, but said it incorrectly. Smile

Anyways, I got it now. Again, since this is a new installation, copying the data from another good Dallas chip isn't going to do anything in this case. I agree though for any G90 owner reading this. If you've got a good setup, esp, if it's ISF calibrated, copy the existing Dallas data onto your computer in case your Dallas chip dies. Then at least you have a backup.

barclay66 · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 10:31 am Post subject:

Hi,

just some additional information (I learned about it as I had to repair PC motherboards):
The Dallas chips and alike are memory technology from the stone age. Instead of using flash memory as nowadays (which is non-volatile per design) they use a low power static RAM plus real time clock circuitry (depending on model). On top of this they glue a lithium battery which supplies the RAM if there's no supply from the board it is plugged onto. If this battery fails the memory content becomes corrupt and can't be corrected. It is still possible to rewrite the RAM but it will lose its data when powering off.
On PC motherboards this typically would result in an error 'CMOS Checksum error'. You would then be able to restore at least default data coming from the BIOS ROM and continue working for that day. Next day the message would reappear until you replaced the Dallas chip.

Regards,
barclay66

CIR Engineering · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:32 pm Post subject:

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:06 pm Post subject:

<smacks forehead>.. I thought 'he' you were referring to was Craig. Smile

I can't remember the ad, but I think the guy just loaded in some firmware so that you didn't get the 30 error when powering up with the new chip. Was he offering to copy existing data? I didn't see the ad when I looked for it yesterday on eBay..

macgyver655 · Joined: 22 Aug 2007 Posts: 8508

HaydnG90 · Joined: 22 May 2006 Posts: 1356

He sold 2 chips through that Ebay ad. Its gone now though. IIRC he did offer to copy the data from the old chip to the new one. Personally I'd feel more confident having this service performed by someone like Craig. He could then keep a copy of the file on his PC in case it was ever needed in the future. This is what FrankD did for me a couple of years ago when I started to get paranoid about the longevity of my Dallas chip.
As Curt said, if you have a nice calibration especially if performed by one of the experts it makes sense to protect that investment and maintain a copy somewhere safe.

overclkr · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 4227

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:54 am Post subject:

New Dallas chip came in, inserted it, got green 30 error like Craig said, reset it, 30 error went away and set now turns on.

Thanks for the info guys.

FYI, this Dallas chip lasted 11 years, it was made in 2000. Sooo nice to see a new Dallas chip with '11' as the first 2 numbers in the date code. Smile

For those that don't know, most chips have a date code on it, as in 0211.

That means the chip was made in the 11th week of 2002. FYI.

wallace123456 · Joined: 14 Aug 2006 Posts: 2236 Location: Northwest VA area

Mine (projector) has a date of Sept. 2000. Thankfully, Craig will be out here soon and replacing mine.

I do wonder, what makes some chips last longer than other. From what I understand, the battery in the chip is not reliant on external power to keep it "charged". So, unless I am wrong, the chips (battery) should be going bad within a few years/months of each other depending on the year the chip was made. No?

wallace

overclkr · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 4227