On board clock exchange ?

[tenmetalman]

Hey,
I'm new to the forum, forgive my lack of knowledge. I'm dealing with a single board XT computer that controls a cnc mill in my hobby shop. the computer has developed a couple of problems that are driving me nuts. For back ground I've assembled my own computers, years ago I knew basic (tells my age don't it) but know very little about the inter workings where the smoke is.
the first problem is that when I try to bring the machine up. I get a message that the on board clock battery is dead and I need to enter the correct time..
When I first started the machine it had sat for about six months and the time & date was wrong, after that it's been correct.
Second problem the computer can't find the hard drive, I plugged a much newer hard drive in and restarted and got pink hash on the montor.....
I've looked at the board and see nothing that looks like a battery. on another board that the manual states is the power to maintain the system settings, the batterys were good but I put new ones in to be sure.
the clock on the mother board is a DALLIS DS1287 can I sub a BENCHMARQ bq3287TM to see if it solves the problem ? any help will be greatly accepted
tenmetalman

[Will.Spencer]

The Benchmarq BQ3287 is "Functionally compatible with the DS1287/DS1287A and MC146818A."

I'm not sure if that means that you can use it as a drop-in replacement. I'm a bit nervous about the term "functionally compatible."

The DS12885, DS12887, and DS12C887 real-time clocks (RTCs) are designed to be direct replacements for the DS1285 and DS1287.

On the hard drive issue, it could be that the system BIOS does not support the newer hard drive (this was very common years ago), but it could also be that the system BIOS simply needs to be configured for the new hard drive. If the system has lost it's CMOS setup, the system might even need to be re-configured for it's old hard drive.