I've got a couple of spare PCs that I don't really use "that much" that are stored safely out of the way in a big walk in closet. I decided to boot one of these up yesterday as it has a load of emulation files on one of it's HDs that I needed.

When I switched it on the error "CMOS Checksum error, defaults loaded" popped up. This normally means the CMOS memory has lost settings due to a flat battery. I thought this was a bit odd as it worked fine the "last time" it was booted up, so I hit F1 and let it boot. But once in Windows the Athlon XP 3000+ was running at 1300MHz. Hmm... So I rebooted and went into the BIOS and due to the CMOS error everything was reset to the defaults. So I set the multiplier and FSB and rebooted, but it was dead! Wouldn't boot at all and no keyboard lights or beep happened.

After looking through the motherboard manual I found a jumper that could be reset to a safe mode if after changing BIOS settings the system refused to boot. I moved this over, and the system rebooted. Now showing 1.7GHz CPU speed (as the FSB was still at 100MHz due to the jumper), so I powered down again and moved the jumper back and it now shows the correct 2.16GHz and Athlon XP 3000+ in the BIOS and in Windows.

But... then I got a shock. I checked the system error logs and... the last time I switched the system on seems to be August 2006!!! I thought I hadn't used the system much, but over a year! Time is flying too quickly!

Do I therefore really need that PC? Or the other one in there that can't have been switched on in as long (need to power that one up too to check). Anyone need a PC?

The odd thing is that I also have another really old P2 450MHz system that I switched on recently to test some very old hardware and it booted fine, and that has the same CMOS battery it has as new in 1998!

Hmm... that makes 4 spare PCs! 1 old laptop I never use (except to play around with Linux), the old P2 PC, and two Athlon XP 3000+ based PCs. (Plus the 4 PCs I actually use every day!) I could start a shop.

It also makes me wonder how long ago I last switched my Amiga A4000 on! Definitely longer than that PC, could even be 2 years! I tend to just connect up one of my A1200's or A500's if I need an Amiga. Maybe I should sell the A4000. How much are they now worth? They are getting very rare now after all.