Help Request: Removed CMOS batt.

[Misfit]

Hi Guys,

This is my first post here so kind of an informal intro as well.

The situation is this, I have a Solus Ultra with 13.2 software. I had the bright idea to tear it down and repaint the body(pretty scratched up).

Normally, pulling the CMOS battery is no biggie(I work in IT), but after I did that I screwed the date back to 1970 and it "expired my software"

So fast forward to today, I met with my SO guy and had him attempt my 13.4 upgrade. It downloaded fine but failed during the install, siting a bad date(Duh!)

Now its at a black screen, forgot the description and just beeps-won't boot into any software.

I know there has to be a way to recover this and I am very tech savvy if given the right info. Will the Yes/No + Power trick help at all?

My warranty was gone before I opened the case.

Thanks in advance

[Joe Rappa]

I haven't heard of anyone doing that, so I believe your only hope is to call Tech Support. I am pretty sure it is going to have to go in for repair, but they may just be able to help you remotely.
Call them at 800-332-2526

Joe

[Misfit]

Surely there has to be a device menu or config that I can access on it?

I have a back up of the SD card that I made just in case.

Sending it back to SO will cost big $$ will it not? Experts please chime in.

Thanks

[Modis500]

You guessed one thing right....sending it in will be pricy I guess that's how we all learn mistakes in life....
A wise man once told me: "...experience is just a nice way of saying I've already F#$%ed that up once!"

[Misfit]

I have already got the Ultra booting up again, with the new software too.
But the date is still off.

I know the BIOS has to be accessible, these things aren't built on wizardry.

With all that goes on on this forum, someone has to know how to access it.

I appreciate the help so far!

[transporter]

Read through the forum and send some emails to people who appear to know more. Many come here only from time to time. Maybe a computer shop where they build PCs could be able to help.
Good luck with it. Let us know what was the fix, so we learn something.

[crackerclicker]

Surely there has to be a device menu or config that I can access on it?

If it helps you any, please note that the Ultra doesn't use MS Windows. It uses the SMX OS. Maybe some research there will help, I dunno. Good luck!

[Misfit]

Thank you to all that posted here. I tried my best as well as an engineer friend of mine. We considered correcting the date with a JTAG but decided against it. It's into SO for repair and let's hope it's reasonable

[Misfit]

You guessed one thing right....sending it in will be pricy I guess that's how we all learn mistakes in life....

I finally got it back after a long trip to Snap-On repair. It fell under a Level 1 Repair so it was $300.
In addition to fixing the date, they replaced the Screen,Buttons and the front bezel(Which prompted this whole thing).
They also reinstalled 13.4 and I am a very happy camper.
I had no idea they would replace all that, that made the price and situation overall a bit more bearable.

[Modis500]

Very Good to hear it wasn't too expensive of a lesson. I have heard many happy customers after their repairs from the repair center. I have also had success with them. Including some of the early model Modis owners that were upgraded to the 2006+ style screens. Plus some will be returned to owners with software upgrades too!

[Misfit]

Very Good to hear it wasn't too expensive of a lesson. I have heard many happy customers after their repairs from the repair center. I have also had success with them. Including some of the early model Modis owners that were upgraded to the 2006+ style screens. Plus some will be returned to owners with software upgrades too!

Yes it was a lesson well learned, but your use of the word makes you sound like a grandfather . I am one of those owners, they shipped it back with 13.4 Euro included so I'm very happy.

As an aside, I wish there was more traffic on these forums, there could be some great discussion here.

Thanks to all who chimed in on this thread

[Crusty]

Yes it was a lesson well learned, but your use of the word makes you sound like a grandfather . I am one of those owners, they shipped it back with 13.4 Euro included so I'm very happy.

As an aside, I wish there was more traffic on these forums, there could be some great discussion here.

Thanks to all who chimed in on this thread

There might be more "traffic" IF...IF....IF SnapOn actually LISTENED to what some of their die-hard customers have been saying for YEARS.
Myself and others don't expect everything to be "perfect" in an imperfect world but when something gets broken with each new "update" and then it takes years again to get it unbroken....well, guys (and gals) get disillusioned and leave.

This particular thread regarding something as simple as replacing a battery (HEY SNAPON...BATTERIES WEAR OUT AND NEED TO BE FIELD REPLACEABLE...DOH-!!), that should be (as you said) no biggie, caused a major foul up of a very expensive tool.
Even when a SnapOn tool truck dealer reloaded the machine, it still didn't allow setting the date and the tool remained a wheel chock. This situation forced the customer to be without his equipment for several days or weeks and cost a great deal of money.
Even the OTC-Genisys allows replacing a $3.25 C-Mos battery....and it doesn't scramble the machine to the point where it needs to be sent in. Just sayin....

That makes for one heck of an expensive battery at 300 bananas-!!!! About 1,000-percent more expensive than the above example.

While they did do a lot of other things, why should the initial situation have occurred in the first place-??
Because the people with the six and seven, yes seven-!! figure incomes are more concerned with their own interests instead of building a culture of responding to customers, correcting company created problems, and then having the gaul to make the customer pay for the next update, where the problem still exists.
Hey, they can break a function with one update, then it takes 4 and 5 updates to fix it again....and sometimes (quite often really) it can take longer than that, if it EVER gets addressed at all.
The company claims they don't have the "resources" to effect repairs yet they do have the resources to support several people around the board room with multi-MILLION dollar salaries-!!

I am glad to hear you eventually got back a working tool. Too bad it took that long and it became a 300 dollar battery. That's not as costly as a battery for a electric car-!! ROFLMAO

[Modis500]

Yes it was a lesson well learned, but your use of the word makes you sound like a grandfather . I am one of those owners, they shipped it back with 13.4 Euro included so I'm very happy.

As an aside, I wish there was more traffic on these forums, there could be some great discussion here.

Thanks to all who chimed in on this thread

Grandfather, huh? Hahahaha that's rich! I am old for my time (33) but I was raised in an old fashioned household. I'll take it as a compliment as being mature

[dodge6000]

Almost a decade later, and it seems this problem is still a mystery--other than to $end the unit to $nap On for $ervice, but after these many years, they won't even remember this "great tool" (as advertised in it's days) and refuse to work on it. They will push, however a newer "great tool". And all this due to a simple 3v CMOS battery that needs replaced.

[hatzie]

I've replaced the calibration memory battery in my HP3478A benchtop multimeter without borking the memory.
You need to provide a power source so the CMOS doesn't lose its marbles.
Install flying leads on the board to attach a temporary 3.3v battery then swap the battery.

The same technique can be used on this Snap-On tool.