gdr@PacBell.COM (Guy D. Ridley) (12/29/89)
I am trying to get my 520 upgraded. I am not too familiar with the innards
of my machine, and after talking with some dealers I am even more confused.
1) Can the ease of upgrading the memory be dependent on which version of
TOS I am running, or are these entirely separate issues?
2) One dealer says it will take three weeks, another says it takes an
hour (and his cost is better too.) However, after 6 weeks the chips
are not in yet. Other dealers confirm that the chips are hard to
get. There is no dealer in the S.F. Bay Area that can do the work
*now*, mainly because the chips are not available. Is this normal?
3) One dealer said that in January there will be a board that will
accept plug-in memory chips. Is this really true? Will it really
be in January (1990)?
4) Where can I get the chips, assuming I will have to get them myself,
and dealers don't have them?
5) What sorts of things can go wrong during this procedure, and how can
I test it afterwards? (I assume by reading & writing to the highest
memory location???) I am conversant in assembler if the answer to
this requires such.
Guy Ridley
Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) (01/02/90)
Guy Ridley writes about having difficulty in getting chips for upgrading
his 520ST to 2.5 meg or so.
1) Can the ease of upgrading the memory be dependent on which version of
TOS I am running, or are these entirely separate issues?
Entirely separate issue... I've had a 520, 1040, and a a few
Megas upgraded. These were our lab's units and there were no problems.
My personal Mega, a really near brain dead unit, was also upgraded. These
units all span five years. No problems at all on upgrades.
2) One dealer says it will take three weeks, another says it takes an
hour (and his cost is better too.) However, after 6 weeks the chips
are not in yet. Other dealers confirm that the chips are hard to
get. There is no dealer in the S.F. Bay Area that can do the work
*now*, mainly because the chips are not available. Is this normal?
This is definitely not normal. See, folks? We used to complain
about Atari's requirements for strong technical support in each store.
3) One dealer said that in January there will be a board that will
accept plug-in memory chips. Is this really true? Will it really
be in January (1990)?
There have been boards since 1986 which allowed for the plug in
of memory chips. I would suggest raiding the magazine racks of your
local book store and pull some ST magazines and scan the ads, but
ST magazines are all but impossible to find except through subscription,
at least in my area. You might have better luck than me. There are
several boards though, at least their ads seem to be numerous.
What the SF Bay Area dealers are telling Guy astounds me and is
another sad testament to the 'quality' of many dealers. My dealer in
Fort Worth is a very small store and yet, has the ability to do such
upgrades and OTHER modifications (rack mounting, acceleration, etc.),
without much delay. His profit is up and he is quite happy. However,
he hustles and keeps up on the detail of the product. He is also
quite active in the local computer club. I really wonder if many of
the dealers are really wanting to be spoonfed by Atari and the
enthusiasts. It is just simply amazing to me that Guy's dealers are
telling him these things.
I probably would not be reacting this way if it wasn't for the fact
that my equipment, including the shop's, was upgraded or given
an overhaul this month (December). No waiting for chips, nothing. He
has an ample supply of parts. Ok, I quit. No more rambling...!
Larry Rymal: |East Texas Atari 68NNNers| <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET>Henry_Burdett_Messenger@cup.portal.com (01/09/90)
> I am not too familiar with the innards > of my machine, and after talking with some dealers I am even more confused. I don't blame you; they don't understand them, and they have an unbelievable ability to pass on their confusion to others. > 1) Can the ease of upgrading the memory be dependent on which version of > TOS I am running, or are these entirely separate issues? They are totally separate issues. However, TOS V1.4 is more _convenient_ to use with large memory machines, because it does not insist on clearing all free memory at image activation time. There are patches that alter this behavior on older versions of TOS. > 2) One dealer says it will take three weeks, another says it takes an > hour (and his cost is better too.) However, after 6 weeks the chips > are not in yet. Other dealers confirm that the chips are hard to > get. There is no dealer in the S.F. Bay Area that can do the work > *now*, mainly because the chips are not available. Is this normal? Ah, so you want the _dealer_ to do it for you. Not an unreasonable attitude. "The chips are hard to get"? You _must_ be joking. I live in the SF Bay Area, and I just upgraded my machine (1040STf) to 2.5 megabytes. I bought a Z-RAM 3D from San Jose Computer, and 1 megabit low-power CMOS DRAMs from Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale. Both were easy to get (one afternoon) and install (took me about a day). > 3) One dealer said that in January there will be a board that will > accept plug-in memory chips. Is this really true? Will it really > be in January (1990)? Come now. See above. > 4) Where can I get the chips, assuming I will have to get them myself, > and dealers don't have them? Fry's advertised price, 1 Mb/80 nS DRAMs: $8.99 each. > 5) What sorts of things can go wrong during this procedure, and how can > I test it afterwards? (I assume by reading & writing to the highest > memory location???) I am conversant in assembler if the answer to > this requires such. Well, unfortunately many things can go wrong. The expansion board I used came with two diagnostic programs: one a simple tester, and the other is an exerciser. It also came with a LOT of troubleshooting information, including scope, multimeter and logic probe tests. Oh, I forgot to mention: the documentation says the company will do the whole schmear for you for $30, and return your ST to you in 72 hours. And they're in southern California, not too far away. > Guy Ridley --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Henry B. Messenger | Suspended in Ethernet henry_burdett_messenger@cup.portal.com | Opinions expressed are my own; I have no connection to the above companies except as a satisfied customer