Preventing the Gotcha!

The next day I called the RAM card manufacturer to complain. The technician could not tell me why a battery that was supposed to last for a year, died after only three months of use. He did offer the information that the battery warning device in the 95LX was set too low. By the time "LOW CARD BATTERY" appeared on the screen, the A drive had already lost data.

I asked what I could do to prevent such a gotcha from happening again. Here are the instructions as I recall them.

1. 1. If you see a LOW CARD BATTERY message on the 95LX, believe it. It's no joke.
2. 2. If, or when, the message appears, do NOT turn the 95LX off. Keep it on. The main batteries will supply enough electricity to the card to prevent any further damage.
3. 3. Do NOT remove the card from the 95LX. Do NOT perform a backup or any other operation that drain the main batteries.
4. 4. Replace the RAM card battery ASAP, with the 95LX still ON.
5. 5. Once the RAM card battery is replaced, test all the files on the A drive. For a quick test use the DOS command, COPY filename NUL, to see if each file can be copied to the NUL device (computer nowhere land). Delete any files that don't copy. Copy the remaining files to another disk -- not your backup disk.
6. 6. Format the RAM card using the Format command in SETUP (or use the Format program that came with your RAM card). Then restore the A disk from your backup disk and add any new or changed files from the other disk.