ebrill@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Ed Brill) (07/27/90)
I have been trying for the last two months to upgrade the memory in my Zenith Z-159 PC XT clone. A coworker generously donated some 256k chips to the cause, and I installed them without a problem. The system then reported 640K memory -- even though I had put 18 chips in, which should bring the system up to 1024K, not 640 (I started with 512).. Through some calls and some research, I found that the boys in Michigan designed their system to require what they call "Control PAL" chips on the board to allow the system to use memory beyond 1 Meg (640 usable). The catch here is that nobody stocks these chips because they are Zenith proprietary...and ZENITH ONLY SELLS THEM AS PART OF AN EMS UPGRADE KIT, which costs several hundred dollars. They also told me that the 5 control chips I need are $20...which I would spend. But they won't sell me the control chips without the EMS upgrade which includes 18 256k chips... which I already got. Has anyone else encountered this situation, and found a helpful source of Control PAL chips? I have more information, if it would help -- send me email. --- Ed Brill (708) 719-7800 | My boss won't let me use my opinion on Floral Network, a Division of FTD | the job...so USENET gets it instead!! :) --------------------------------- |------------------------------------------ ebrill@ddsw1.mcs.com | ebrill@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu
micki@thraine.UUCP (Michelle Stone) (07/28/90)
In article <52252@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> ebrill@ddsw1.mcs.com (Ed Brill) writes: >I have been trying for the last two months to upgrade the memory in my >Zenith Z-159 PC XT clone. A coworker generously donated some 256k >Through some calls and some research, I found that the boys in Michigan >designed their system to require what they call "Control PAL" chips on the >board to allow the system to use memory beyond 1 Meg (640 usable). The >catch here is that nobody stocks these chips because they are Zenith >proprietary...and ZENITH ONLY SELLS THEM AS PART OF AN EMS UPGRADE KIT, Welcome to the wonderful world of Zenith Computers... I had a similar problem with a machine that I purchased many years ago. While disk and memory prices plummeted, those for my machine upgrades remained excessively high.... so I dumped the machine. In any case, I would suggest that you find your nearest HeathKit dealer and just go order the parts you need. Yes, they sell Zenith stuff as kits and you can always get replacement parts through them. Good luck!