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8-bit ISA RAM Card
- Thread starter Raven
- Start date
Trixter
Veteran Member
I thought you expanded from 256 to 512 on the motherboard, right? I don't recall (it's been a decade since I opened mine) but I thought there was just a discussion on that here.
Terry Yager
Veteran Member
The mainboard in the Sr. Partner is already maxed-out at 256K, you can't add any there (IIRC, it's a long time since I had one).
--T
--T
patscc
Veteran Member
Sr. Partner RAM
Sr. Partner RAM
It shipped with either 128k or 256k on the motherboard. The Panasonic expansion card goes in the memory slot, and comes in 128k & 256k flavours. I can't remember now if the 128k expansion has sockets for the next 128k or not. If you need a picture of what it looks like, I've got the card laying around here somewhere.
Now I can't remember if a standard ISA RAM expansion card will work in the 1 standard ISA slot the beast has, anyone ? My Sr. Partner is a bit tough to dig out right now.
patscc
Sr. Partner RAM
It shipped with either 128k or 256k on the motherboard. The Panasonic expansion card goes in the memory slot, and comes in 128k & 256k flavours. I can't remember now if the 128k expansion has sockets for the next 128k or not. If you need a picture of what it looks like, I've got the card laying around here somewhere.
Now I can't remember if a standard ISA RAM expansion card will work in the 1 standard ISA slot the beast has, anyone ? My Sr. Partner is a bit tough to dig out right now.
patscc
patscc
Veteran Member
confused
confused
Now I'm all confused.
Does it count to 256k when you boot ? Then it's on the motherboard.
Do you have a Panasonic expansion card in there now ? There should be sockets on it( I made a boo-boo in the earlier post). If you do, it takes 4164 DRAM.
If you don't have the card, I found mine, so I can send you a pic if you want to know what it looks like. It's model no. RL-M900, and has two annoying lips on either side of the edge connector, so it doesn't fit in a standard ISA slot, so you can only use one at a time to begin with.
The one I have actually has 128k populated, but two more 128k banks socketed and free. I'd forgotten about that, I thought there were two total. This means the card can take 384k max.
Now I'm wondering if the maxed out card on a maxed motherboard will actually take it up to 640k. I'll try to pull mine out this weekend and try it out.
patscc
confused
Now I'm all confused.
Does it count to 256k when you boot ? Then it's on the motherboard.
Do you have a Panasonic expansion card in there now ? There should be sockets on it( I made a boo-boo in the earlier post). If you do, it takes 4164 DRAM.
If you don't have the card, I found mine, so I can send you a pic if you want to know what it looks like. It's model no. RL-M900, and has two annoying lips on either side of the edge connector, so it doesn't fit in a standard ISA slot, so you can only use one at a time to begin with.
The one I have actually has 128k populated, but two more 128k banks socketed and free. I'd forgotten about that, I thought there were two total. This means the card can take 384k max.
Now I'm wondering if the maxed out card on a maxed motherboard will actually take it up to 640k. I'll try to pull mine out this weekend and try it out.
patscc
Anonymous Coward
Veteran Member
I have an AST Combo Plus card which has 256kb, serial + parallel and real time clock. It is for full length 8-bit ISA slot. Why specifically do you want a 256kb card when it is so easy to get the 384kb ones?
I'd take a 384K if that's what was available, I haven't been able to find any 8-bit ISA cards, and I'll take any size that would work in my machine to get it closer (or to) 640K.
Alternatively, an XT Accelerator would do the job (of getting me to/beyond 640K), assuming it's one that doesn't require you to remove the original processor from it's socket (I know they exist..)
As well, an XT Accelerator would let me use the 8/16-bit ISA combo Ethernet card I purchased.
Whatever board that can solve my RAM shortage that will work in my Sr. Partner, I'll purchase (as long as it's at a reasonable price), so make suggestions if you think something else will work.
As well, since there are only two 8-bit ISA slots on the machine, the more functionality that is packed into the card, the better. The ideal combination for me would be an XT Accelerator or RAM card with 10-base-T ethernet jack, though I doubt that exists. One of the ISA slots doesn't have back panel access, so if it doesn't include an ethernet card, any ports on the accelerator/RAM card are useless, as the ethernet card must take the accessible slot.
Alternatively, an XT Accelerator would do the job (of getting me to/beyond 640K), assuming it's one that doesn't require you to remove the original processor from it's socket (I know they exist..)
As well, an XT Accelerator would let me use the 8/16-bit ISA combo Ethernet card I purchased.
Whatever board that can solve my RAM shortage that will work in my Sr. Partner, I'll purchase (as long as it's at a reasonable price), so make suggestions if you think something else will work.
As well, since there are only two 8-bit ISA slots on the machine, the more functionality that is packed into the card, the better. The ideal combination for me would be an XT Accelerator or RAM card with 10-base-T ethernet jack, though I doubt that exists. One of the ISA slots doesn't have back panel access, so if it doesn't include an ethernet card, any ports on the accelerator/RAM card are useless, as the ethernet card must take the accessible slot.
Trixter
Veteran Member
Why do you say this?
The only drivers I could get to run required 80186 instructions, which the Sr. Partner as an 8088 doesn't have. An XT Accelerator would give it those.
The other drivers wouldn't load due to memory constraints, which an XT Accelerator would also fix.
The other drivers wouldn't load due to memory constraints, which an XT Accelerator would also fix.
patscc
Veteran Member
Nic ?
Nic ?
What NIC are you using ?
patscc
Nic ?
What NIC are you using ?
patscc
patscc
Veteran Member
SoftSet
SoftSet
Have you run SoftSet to configure it ?
patscc
SoftSet
Have you run SoftSet to configure it ?
patscc
patscc
Veteran Member
EtherExpress 16
EtherExpress 16
I was going through some more info, and here's another couple of suggestions:
If you can't get SoftSet to find the cad, try softset /bart
If you still can't get it, you might need to put it into a 16-bit machine to configure it.
patscc
EtherExpress 16
I was going through some more info, and here's another couple of suggestions:
If you can't get SoftSet to find the cad, try softset /bart
If you still can't get it, you might need to put it into a 16-bit machine to configure it.
patscc
I put it into a Pentium-class machine, configured it to run in 8-bit mode, and then put it in the Sr. Partner, this is when I had the results I did with the drivers not running due to lack of RAM. They wanted something between 384K and 640K (I don't recall), while I have 256K.
patscc
Veteran Member
Panasonic Sr.
Panasonic Sr.
Okay, I dug out a Sr., and I'll have a look inside tonight.
patscc
Panasonic Sr.
Okay, I dug out a Sr., and I'll have a look inside tonight.
patscc
Terry Yager
Veteran Member
patscc
Veteran Member
Panasonic Sr.
Panasonic Sr.
Well, motherboard has 128k. There are no empty sockets on it, there isn't even room for an additional 128k on that board anywhere. Maybe they piggy-back them.
Unfortunately, my motherboard has a bad ram chip in row 2, so until I fix that, it's a bit iffy.
The Panasonic expansion cards are both the same, 128k on, room for another two banks of 128k.
The card is attached to the case, in it's "special" slot, by nylon standoffs. You have to do a bit of disassembley to get the bugger out. Apparently the folks at Panasonic thought a single screw & bracket is for wusses.
I yanked the card, and put in a AST Six-pack.
It turns out the motherboard switches on the Panasonic work like the ones on the XT, pretty standard. As I said, because of my bad ram on the mobo, it's a bit flaky, so I set the Sixpack for a 128k boundary, throttled the mobo down to 64k with the switches, booted into DOS 3.2, and then used the debug -f & -d command to peek and poke a few ranges in the 500k region with 42 and see if it took. I figure if I put it there and it sticks, it'll do as ram. If I can dig up more chips, or a 512k board, I'll see if I can push it higher.
Point is, this is with a regular AST Sixpack, NOT the Panasonic card. You'd need to take the bracket off, since there's no opening in the back, but no biggie. Of course you can't stick a Sixpack in there to begin with, since the slots are too short, but a 2/3 or half-length card should fit fine. (I tried this with the mobo out of the case)
I tried the card in both slots, seems to work just fine (as far as I can tell from the peek & poke method of memory testing) in either one.
Next thing I tried was a Trantor T130B in the "custom" slot, and it works about as well in there as it does in anything else.
Looking at the traces on the board, the "custom" connector pretty much is wired to the regular one, just like on the proper bus. And that's it for now, since I don't have the time to replace the RAM chip, which isn't socketed.
EDIT:
Oh, I almost forgot, per Terry's suggestion, the Panasonic board seems to work equally well in both slots. Tomorrow I'll try the Panasonic board in a proper PC, and see if I can't figure out what the heck the switches map to, and if it even works, though I don't see any reason why it shouldn't.
patscc
Panasonic Sr.
Well, motherboard has 128k. There are no empty sockets on it, there isn't even room for an additional 128k on that board anywhere. Maybe they piggy-back them.
Unfortunately, my motherboard has a bad ram chip in row 2, so until I fix that, it's a bit iffy.
The Panasonic expansion cards are both the same, 128k on, room for another two banks of 128k.
The card is attached to the case, in it's "special" slot, by nylon standoffs. You have to do a bit of disassembley to get the bugger out. Apparently the folks at Panasonic thought a single screw & bracket is for wusses.
I yanked the card, and put in a AST Six-pack.
It turns out the motherboard switches on the Panasonic work like the ones on the XT, pretty standard. As I said, because of my bad ram on the mobo, it's a bit flaky, so I set the Sixpack for a 128k boundary, throttled the mobo down to 64k with the switches, booted into DOS 3.2, and then used the debug -f & -d command to peek and poke a few ranges in the 500k region with 42 and see if it took. I figure if I put it there and it sticks, it'll do as ram. If I can dig up more chips, or a 512k board, I'll see if I can push it higher.
Point is, this is with a regular AST Sixpack, NOT the Panasonic card. You'd need to take the bracket off, since there's no opening in the back, but no biggie. Of course you can't stick a Sixpack in there to begin with, since the slots are too short, but a 2/3 or half-length card should fit fine. (I tried this with the mobo out of the case)
I tried the card in both slots, seems to work just fine (as far as I can tell from the peek & poke method of memory testing) in either one.
Next thing I tried was a Trantor T130B in the "custom" slot, and it works about as well in there as it does in anything else.
Looking at the traces on the board, the "custom" connector pretty much is wired to the regular one, just like on the proper bus. And that's it for now, since I don't have the time to replace the RAM chip, which isn't socketed.
EDIT:
Oh, I almost forgot, per Terry's suggestion, the Panasonic board seems to work equally well in both slots. Tomorrow I'll try the Panasonic board in a proper PC, and see if I can't figure out what the heck the switches map to, and if it even works, though I don't see any reason why it shouldn't.
patscc
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