[comp.sys.ibm.pc] more memory problems

jjoshua@topaz.rutgers.edu (Jon Joshua) (05/27/88)

Thanks to all who replied to my original posting......


Here's what happened:

1. I got the diagnostics disk.
2. I ran it.
3. I set the base memory for 640k.
4. It will only set the ammount of extended memory in increments of
   512k.

I have 1024k and the only configuration that works is 512k and 512k.
This sucks!

Can I put back the original 128k and put the new 512k ram chips on
a card to give me 512k of extended memory?

I am really stuck (pissed off) here.  Thanks in advance for any
replies. 
-- 
 _____________________________________________________________________________
|o|   Jonathan Joshua    jjoshua@topaz.rutgers.edu          Why not...      |o|
|o|                                                   Nothing better to do  |o|
|o|                 Anything is possible,                                   |o|
\o|                     except for skiing through a revolving door.         |o|
  \_  ____/ \                                                               |o|
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madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost) (05/28/88)

In article <May.26.17.55.16.1988.11908@topaz.rutgers.edu> jjoshua@topaz.rutgers.edu (Jon Joshua) writes:
|It will only set the ammount of extended memory in increments of
|   512k.
|
|I have 1024k and the only configuration that works is 512k and 512k.
|This sucks!

Sorry about my last posting; I had forgotten that most clones had 2
banks of 256kbit and 2 banks of 64kbit chips.  Silly, I know.

Now onto your problem.  I have a friend next to me who used to build
clones and he says that many of the clones only support the 512k/512k
or 1Mb real/extended configuration, as you report.  So much for what I
thought.  Actually the dim recesses of my memory seem to tell me that
it's that way for true blue -- I know that in order to make our Above
Board AT work we had to sacrifice some of the RAM.

About the only thing you can do to have 640k is to configure it as 1Mb
and use the other memory as a RAM disk or print spooler with the
appropriate software.

|Can I put back the original 128k and put the new 512k ram chips on
|a card to give me 512k of extended memory?

Yes, something like the Above Board AT would probably do the trick.
I'm pretty sure that you can leave your AT at 640k with the 64kbit
chips and then use all of the memory on the board as extended.  This
is obviously kind of expensive, and adding new chips is far from cheap
(we priced 156kbit chips an Unitech a couple of minutes ago -- 256kbit
120ns chips are basically 10x what they were eight months ago, about
$18+!  64kbit are about $4-$5).  Above boards aren't too expensive
when ordered with no RAM, and there are always cheaper clone cards.

jim frost
madd@bu-it.bu.edu