macduff@cbnewse.att.com (Roger R. Espinosa) (02/06/91)
Hi. Currently, I have 2Mb in my Archimdes, but thinking about the future (and possibly flashbacks to my memory-hungry Mac days), I'm trying to piece together how one goes about upping the RAM in an Archimedes 410. I've seen ads for Atomwide's 8Mb deal, and Morley has both a 1Mb and 3Mb listed, but since I already have 2Mb, I'm not sure how this complicates things. Anyone have any advice? Instructions (like, "Where *is* the RAM located inside the A410?" :-) would be greatly appreciated, too. Email would be fine for replies, unless you think this is of wide interest to the group. Thanks! Roger rre@ihlpm.ATT.COM
osmith@acorn.co.uk (Owen Smith) (02/07/91)
In article <1991Feb6.143949.19191@cbnewse.att.com> macduff@cbnewse.att.com (Roger R. Espinosa) writes: >Anyone have any advice? Instructions (like, "Where *is* the RAM >located inside the A410?" :-) would be greatly appreciated, too. The RAM on a 400/1 series machine is right at the front of the main PCB, hidden underneath the floppy and hard disk drives. On a 410/1 and 420/1, there are 8 chips soldered into the PCB, and 24 sockets to accept the remaining 3 MB. On a 420/1, eight sockets already have chips in, these are the eight that are interleaved with the 8 chips soldered in (makes one rwo of 16 chips). Since you have 2 MB RAM, this should be the situation in your machine. The other 16 sockets in a row need chips fitting to go up to 4MB. So persuading people to do a 2 -> 4 MB upgrade should be simple, as it is just 16 chips instead of 24. Note that to get at the RAM chips you will definitely have to draw the main PCB of the machine out. You can avoid losing your CMOS RAM settings though - the battery lead is just long enough to let you pull the board out far enough to get at the RAM chips. You will need to remove the podule backplane, power connectors, floppy and hard disk cables, fan leads, and the six way speaker/LEDs connector. Once you've got the chips in, the RAM size links should be set as follows: LK15 LK14 1M b b 2M b a 4M a a Anything beyond 4MB is an add-on board, although I haven't seen any of them. I suspect they occupy a podule slot or two. Owen. NOTE: This is NOT an official Acorn statement on this subject.
charles1@garfield.cs.mun.ca (Charles Loader) (02/25/91)
This seems a good topic! I have a 310 with I megabyte. I have felt kind of neglected by Acorn in that they never came through with any upgrade for the 310. Right now I am finding things a bit cramped using !Impression and a scanner. Most of the upgrades that I have seen advertised seem to call for shipping the machine to the company......not very practical from Newfoundland...at least very expensive. Can anyone suggest a not too expensive memory upgrade for my 310? Charles Loader charles@munucs.ucs.mun.ca
J.W.Harley@newcastle.ac.uk (Jon Harley) (02/28/91)
charles1@garfield.cs.mun.ca (Charles Loader) writes: >This seems a good topic! I have a 310 with I megabyte. I have felt >kind of neglected by Acorn in that they never came through with >any upgrade for the 310. Right now I am finding things a bit cramped >using !Impression and a scanner. >Most of the upgrades that I have seen advertised seem to call for shipping >the machine to the company......not very practical from Newfoundland...at least >very expensive. >Can anyone suggest a not too expensive memory upgrade for my 310? Dealer-only RAM upgrades for the A300's are available from several UK companies, including PRES, IFEL, Watford Electronics etc. IFEL are planning to bring out a plug-in RAM upgrade for the A305/A310 in about a month's time. It will be a version of the 4 or 8 Mb board they already make. They plan to release it at a special introductory price of just 299 pounds which is dead cheap! I've already decided to buy one when they come out, so I'll post more details at the appropriate time. >Charles Loader jon. _____________________________________ ________ / --Jonathan Harley / One cannot be precise and // // / E-MAIL: J.W.Harley@uk.ac.newcastle / still be pure -Marc Chagall ////// /________________PHONE: 091-222-8504 /______________________________///// //
SCST86@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK (03/04/91)
Hi There, Reguarding upgrading the RAM on a 310:- I can recommend the Ifel upgrades. I purchased the 4Mb version and, taking my life in my hands, did the upgrade myself. It's a relatively easy to do. You have to remove 3 chips (which you don't have to keep so you can clip them out), and solder sockets into their place. This is basically it. You turn the machine on, it says '4096k' and whoosh....... The build quality of the board is quite good and the instructions are very well done. I bought the board (4Mb) for `350. Not bad eh? Jason Timmins My Card.... +-------------------------+ Dept. Of Computer Science, | | University Of Liverpool. | Jason Timmins | JANET: SCST86@UK.AC.LIV.IBM | (I can waggle my ears) | OR: SCST86@UK.AC.LIV.UXA | | TELE: (UK) 0860 600 758 +-------------------------+
gtoal@tharr.UUCP (Graham Toal) (03/07/91)
In article <91063.110842SCST86@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK> SCST86@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK writes: > I bought the board (4Mb) for `350. Not bad eh? > >Jason Timmins No, but doing it yourself for 100 is even better :-) G -- (* Posted from tharr.uucp - Public Access Unix - +44 (234) 720202 *) t]". >If anyone knows how to answer this thing, please let me know. This >"friend" calls me every hour (all nite) wanting me to check rec.misc.games >to see if some kind soul has responded. At this point, I have no pride, >(oops, wrong game [sorry for that]), I'll beg! |:'( Tell your friend to find snoopcheri. Danny Low "Question Authority and the Authorities will question You" Valley of Hearts Delight, Silicon Valley HP CPCD dlow@pollux.svale.hp.com
gtoal@tharr.UUCP (Graham Toal) (03/09/91)
>An electrical engineering student suggested this to me some time >back. Should I trust him? I have a 310 with no warranty. Are there >drawbacks? like not being able to buy an ARM3 when I win the pools. or >it being terribly slow? > >I really want 4meg but I *can't* afford the ridiculous price people >are asking for it. Well, if you're not an EE student yourself, see if you can get your friend to do it for you; the upgrade needs an experienced solderer, and a calm temperament :) ... Les suggests taking a weekend over it, with several breaks. I bought the ram mail-order from Germany (where *everything* seems cheaper - check out Chip magazine if you can get it) but I think you can find almost as good prices in britain. The catch is the work is really tedious; and the main part is unsoldering all your current ram chips and inserting sockets instead. G PS Les's home-made arm3 upgrade is compatible with his ram upgrade :) -- (* Posted from tharr.uucp - Public Access Unix - +44 (234) 720202 *)