[NoSurprise]

I have an 18 year old Digital Dec station 325C, with a 386 CPU and 4 meg extended memory card.
This computer has worked very well as an interface with my optical comparator and measuring software.
But last week when booting up, after the memory check, I got the error message
“(18) invalid configuration information”
“Please run setup program”
“strike any key to continue”
So I try all the numerous ways to enter the BIOS… F1, F2…F12, DEL key, ESC key, CTRL+ALT+ESC,
CTRL+ALT+INS, CLRT+ENTER,CLRL+ALT+S, PAGE UP key, PAGE DOWN key ect, ect.
Nothing worked.
I then booted the DEC to DOS from a floppy and got to the A: prompt.
But the DEC computer does not see the C drive.
I have removed the hard drive and installed it in a semi-older ME machine and only let it boot from the DOS floppy disk and ran the SpinRite software program. It took a while but SpinRite found the drive and preformed its checks and reported the drive to be error free. Great program.
So I’m back to how do I reset the BIOS or run the setup program to get into the BIOS on this computer.
I have the original DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 disks but do not have a “BIOS setup disk” for the DEC.
This isn’t the $64,000.00 question but I have been quoted $6000.00 for an upgrade!
Without the monitor!
Digital was once second to IBM, but there is very little to no information on this older computer on the net, I’ve looked.
So Guys, this forum is my best chance to save this computer.

Regards,
NoSurprise

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This sounds like the CMOS battery is dead.
There will be a round battery somewhere on the main board, a CR2032 battery that looks like this:
http://en.wikipedia....hium-cr2032.jpg

You can get these for peanuts from pretty much anywhere.
Put a new one in and the machine should set itself back up automatically. You just need to set the date and time again. You can usually do this from within Windows.

[Neil Jones]

This sounds like the CMOS battery is dead.
There will be a round battery somewhere on the main board, a CR2032 battery that looks like this:
http://en.wikipedia....hium-cr2032.jpg

You can get these for peanuts from pretty much anywhere.
Put a new one in and the machine should set itself back up automatically. You just need to set the date and time again. You can usually do this from within Windows.

[NoSurprise]

Thanks Neil for your reply.
I cannot even remember what my first 286 computer's insides looked like and
this one is a 386.
This one has a back plane board with ISA slots for the add on cards
and a different slot for the card with the CPU on it.
Ok, there is a battery! But it's not the standard round one I've already been looking for.
It was velcoed to backside of the front inter panel!
I've read where the original was good for 3 years. This first one lasted 6x that!
It has a P/N and I found a refurbished one available at CodeMicro with 100% guarantee.
I have discovered that the computer was made by the Tandy Corp. for Digital.
So I'll be web searching about Tandy if I need a BIOS setup disk.

Regards,
NoSurprise