GTI@PSUVM.BITNET (Leon Geesey Jr) (02/26/88)
I bet this is probably old hat, but since I'm not that familiar with
real IBM PC's I was wondering what it would require to upgrade an
old IBM PC/XT from it's standard 256k to 640k. This PC was bought
by a department here at Penn State/York Campus to run just 1 package
and it seems as if the new version of this package requires more that
256k depending on what you are doing. It gives us an error message and
then keeps on going, but giving strange results. The reason I think
that it needs more ram, is because we also have this program installed
on a IBM PC/XT with 640k and all seems to run ok. I've been told that
I can upgrade to 640k without installing an expansion board, and other
people have told me I need an expansion board. So which is it???
Any help would be appreciated.
Leonmovshon@acf8.UUCP (Tony Movshon) (03/02/88)
The following recipe for upgrading IBM PCs and XTs to 640k of memory on
the motherboard was posted in 1985 by Mike Brown of Nicolet. I did this on
my PC Portable (XT motherboard) and it worked like a charm. It seems like
it's time for a repost ...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This document describes how to install 640k of RAM on the system board
in the IBM XT and the IBM portable (which uses the same mother board).
Parts list:
Quantity Description
---------------------------------------------------------------
18 256k by 1 Dynamic RAM chips (any of the following)
Manufacturer Part number
----------------------------------
Fujitsu MB81256-15
Hitachi HM50257-15
Mitsubishi M5M4256-15
NEC uPD41256-15
OKI MSM41256-15
TI TMS4256-15
Toshiba TMM41256-15
1 74LS158 Decoder/multiplexer Integrated circuit
IBM XT Instructions:
1. Turn off the system unit, and disconnect the power cables, monitor and
keyboard cables and any cables that may be connected to expansion boards.
Remove the monitor and the keyboard. Place the system unit in a convenient
work area.
2. Take off the cover from the system unit by removing the 5 screws on the
back (4 corners and top center), slide the cover forward and tip up to
remove completely.
3. Take out any boards installed in the expansion slots by removing the hold
down screw at the rear of the chassis, and pulling the card straight up.
4. The floppy disk drives will have to be removed to gain access to portions
of the mother board. This is done by removing the screws on the left side
of the drive(s). Gently slide the drive(s) out of the unit far enough
to get at the cables plugged into the back of them. Making note of where
each cable goes, remove the data and power cables by gently pulling them
away from the drive. When the cable are off, remove the drive(s) from the
chassis and set them aside.
5. Refer to figure 1 and locate the jumper block labeled E2 on the mother
board. It is located near the edge of the board near the power supply.
6. A jumper has to be installed between pads 1 and 2 on E2. This can be
done without removing the mother board using a short piece of wire. Hold
the wire with a pair of needle nose pliers and heat up one of the pads
with a soldering iron. When the solder melts, push the wire into the pad
and remove the soldering iron. Do the same thing with the other end of
the wire and pad.
7. Refer to figure 1 and locate the IC socket labeled U84 on the mother
board. This will be an empty socket near the front of the board,
underneath where the floppies were mounted. Install the 74LS158 chip in
this socket making sure pin 1 (marked with a dot or notch) is pointing
away from the front panel.
8. Remove the 64k RAM chips in the rows labeled BANK 0 and BANK 1 (9 in each
bank) on the mother board using an IC puller. If you currently only have
128k of memory on the mother board (BANK's 2 and 3 empty) you can move
these chips to those banks. Be careful not to damage the pins when
removing them (you can sell them to a friend whose machine has amnesia).
9. Install the 256k RAM chips in the now empty sockets of BANK 0 and BANK 1
making sure they are installed correctly with pin 1 pointing away from
the front panel. You should now have 2 banks (0 and 1) of 256k RAM chips,
and 2 banks (2 and 3) of 64k RAM chips, giving you a total of 640k.
10. Refer to figure 1 and locate the switch block, SW1 on the mother board.
Make sure that switch positions 3 and 4 are in the OFF position.
11. Re-install the floppy drive(s) by sliding them into the front panel about
half way and reconnect the data and power cables in the same locations
they came off of. Push the drive(s) the rest of the way in and anchor
them with the screws removed earlier.
12. Re-install the your expansion boards (minus any memory boards that used
to be in the system) in the reverse order of when you took them out.
13. Put the cover back on, re-connect the cables and install your monitor and
keyboard.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| | |
| EXPANSION | |
| SLOTS | |
| | |
| | |
|--------------------------------------------- |
| |
| ------------------------------------ |
| | BANK 0 | ---- |
| ------------------------------------ E |12| |
| ------------------------------------ 2 |34| |
| | BANK 1 | --- ---- |
| ------------------------------------ |S| |
| ------------------------------------ |W| |
| | BANK 2 | |1| |
| ------------------------------------ --- |
| ------------------------------------ |
| | BANK 3 | --- |
| ------------------------------------ |U| |
| |8| |
| |4| |
| --- |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Figure 1
(XT/Portable motherboard)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tony Movshon
Internet: movshon@nyu.edu
Usenet: movshon@cmcl2.uucp or {ihnp4|allegra}!cmcl2!xp!tony
US Mail: Department of Psychology, NYU
6 Washington Place, room 1083
New York, NY 10003
Phone: (212) 998-7880