Juergen Keil wrote:
> Hmm, I've observed cmos time-of-day problems with the AMD-766
> southbridge chip (tyan tiger mp board), when using a PS/2 keyboard, or
> when using an USB keyboard or mouse in "USB legacy" mode.
>
> See
>
> http://www.tools.de/solaris/amd/

Thanks -- that information could turn out to be VERY helpful!

Indeed it is the AMD 760 chipset, and I am using a PS/2 keyboard.
Perhaps I should try a USB keyboard. (I bought the system from
a friend who says he never had troubles -- quite possibly because
he uses a USB keyboard!)

Of course, there are some other strange behaviors, like that
1/2 of the time, it simply won't boot up. Cold boot (i.e. power
cycle) seems to work, but just hitting the reset switch causes
it to go into some sort of bizarre state where even the graphics
card is turned off. (But there are no POST error beeps like
there are when, say, I remove all the memory.)

Gotta love flakey PC hardware. Have to admit I never had this
sort of problem with Sun machines. Not to say they're trouble-free
completely, but they do tend to not make it to market with a
wide variety of glaring stupid problems...

- Logan