Hardware lockup - need suggestions for diagnosing

[Larry Cook]

And we have a winner!!!

Bill McGonigle wrote:
> One more thing you can try - see how much current is coming out of the 
> motherboard settings battery with a meter.  Or just replace it and see 
> if things improve.  I've had some of the weirdest symptoms vanish with a 
> new battery - things you never would have guessed would have had 
> anything do do with CMOS settings backup based on your sophomore 
> computer architecture class.

This appears to be the problem.  I disconnected the CMOS/NVRAM battery, 
which is pretty much dead.  I was then able to run memtest for 14+ hours 
w/o a problem.  Also, I had noticed that the detected CPU speed was 
under 800MHz, when it is really 850MHz.  Just thought is was a 
miscalculation by memtest.  Now it is detecting it as 851.9MHz.  So I 
guess the dead battery was draining some power, thus under powering the 
CPU as well as other things.

Thanks Bill, and everyone else for your suggestions.  Now for the last 
two questions:

1) Any recommendations on where to get a replacement?  Is it a Varta 
7.2v 15mAh Ni-MH six coin cell pack.  I found this 40mAh (which I need 
to get for an older Latitude), which looks the same:

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/NMH-16/160300/7.2V_40MAH_NIMH_COIN_CELL_PACK_.html

2) Would it be safe to use the 40mAh instead of a 15mAh?  What risks 
would I be taking?

Thanks,
Larry