Compaq 3200 manual Batteries, 16Understanding Drive Arrays

E-16Understanding Drive Arrays

Batteries

The Array Accelerator contains batteries that maintain any data cached there if a system power failure occurs. The batteries can preserve data in the Array Accelerator for up to four days. When power is restored to the system, an initialization process writes the preserved data to the disk drives.

The cells used in the Array Accelerator batteries are recharged with a “trickle” charge applied while system power is present. If posted Writes were stored in the memory of the Array Accelerator and power loss occurs, you must reinstate power within approximately four days or the data stored in the memory will be lost. This depends on the present condition of the Array Accelerator batteries.

IMPORTANT: It is possible for the batteries to be depleted when you install a new Smart Array 3200 Controller. It can take up to 36 hours of system operation to fully charge the batteries. In this case, only the Array Accelerator is affected; your system will continue to run without interruption.

During Power-On Self-Test (POST), the Smart Array 3200 Controller checks the batteries. If the battery charge is low or depleted, a 1794 POST error message displays, indicating that the Array Accelerator is disabled. The controller temporarily disables the Array Accelerator until the batteries reach 90 percent charge. The board continues to function properly, but at a slightly lower performance until the batteries reach 90 percent charge. At this point, the Array Accelerator is enabled automatically.