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Anyone have software or drivers for an AST Rampage?

L

Lord Moz

Experienced Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2009
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217
Location
Texas
Now that I have all 1.8GBs working in my XT, I am trying to get the rest of it setup.

I acquired an AST Rampage w/1MB ram currently filled, but it didn't come with any software, and google doesn't seem to be turning up anything.

I've seen a few other RamPages before on eBay with software, but I don't really want to buy another card just for its software (this is why I have 4 CoCo3s... :rolleyes:).

Since this appears to have been a fairly popular board in its day, I was hoping someone here might have a copy of the drivers for it, or be able to point me in their direction.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
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Trevor
 
All you really need to do is configure the jumpers on the card properly, and then load a copy of REMM.sys. REMM can be tweaked by adding parameters.
 
Anonymous Coward said:
All you really need to do is configure the jumpers on the card properly, and then load a copy of REMM.sys. REMM can be tweaked by adding parameters.
Click to expand...

Do you have a list of the settings? My card doesn't look like the one on TH99... instead of 2 blocks of switches along the top, I have an E1 2 pin jumper near the top, and a 3 pin jumper with E2, E3 and E4 labeled, then a set of 4 2 pin jumpers labeled B1, B2, B3 and B4.
I managed to get copies of remm310.sys, remm330.sys and remm.sys that is v4.7.

No success so far. When loading any of the drivers without parameters they all say they can't find any EMS cards.

What next?
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Trevor
 
Maybe you have the AST Rampage/2?

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/memory-cards/AST-RESEARCH-INC-Memory-RAMPAGE-2.html

Download the configuration software:

http://www.ari-service.com/ftp/epg/astats.zip

"Note:The function of E2 is to signal to the configuration program that the configuration of the board has changed. To trigger this function, before powering on the computer change the setting of jumper E2 from pins 1 & 2 closed to pins 2 & 3 closed, or vice-versa. Then the configuration program will auto-detect the amount of memory currently installed."
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the lead, but nada... the program says it can't find any SmartSwitch devices.

I attached a picture of the board. It very clearly says AST Rampage, just doesn't really look like the ones I see at TH99.

You'd think that as popular as these things were they would be better documented. *sigh*

I don't suppose anyone knows anything about the AST Preview I/O either?

More ideas please! :D
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Trevor
 

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Here is some drivers I use for mine (can't take a look at it at the moment to see which one).
The remm470 works for me.
 

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  • ASTRAMPAGE.zip
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The board in the picture that you submitted is the AST Rampage/2 aka AST Rampage/PC. Is does not explicitly say that on the board, but that is what it is. The total hardware site is just missing some of the jumper locations, that happens with a lot of the hardware on there. Are you certain that the RAM chips are good?
 
Anonymous Coward said:
The board in the picture that you submitted is the AST Rampage/2 aka AST Rampage/PC. Is does not explicitly say that on the board, but that is what it is. The total hardware site is just missing some of the jumper locations, that happens with a lot of the hardware on there. Are you certain that the RAM chips are good?
Click to expand...

I was starting to feel that it was the /2 as well.

I do not know that the ram is good. Lacking a memory tester, I suppose I could pop the chips out of the card and the XT's MB and let the MB/BIOS test them.

Or is there a better way?

Do you know what the remaining jumpers are for?
Oh, and the system doesn't seem to want to boot if E2/3/4 is jumpered to 3/4. It will only boot set to 2/3 or off completely.

Thanks for the confirmation on the board ID :)
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Trevor
 
I have a zip file with most of the settings for AST cards, but I didn't see anything listed for Rampage/2 or Ramage/PC.

What speed does your XT run at. It's possible the AST card might be running out of spec.
 
It's a 4.77Mhz 256-640KB IBM 5160 board w/V20. I will try swapping out the ram chips sometime and see what happens. I suppose it is possible that the card and/or chips are bad. I should have gotten around to testing it a long time ago.
I see a regular Rampage on eBay I might get... price is fine.

Thanks for the help.
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Trevor
 
I removed the first bank of 256KB from the MB and in turn cycled each bank from the Rampage onto the MB and let the BIOS do its POST... no failures, although one 41256 did lose a leg :(

Yes, that is the card I am looking at... I bought my current board from him too, probably over a year ago. I didn't know it was any different than a regular Rampage.
In my picture before, in the top-right corner of the board there is an empty socket. Is it supposed to be empty? Also, on the back of the board there are a number of tiny green wires where the board was modified. Was this an AST last minute patch, or was someone tinkering with it? (i.e. are Rampage/2s known to have rework/patching done to them?)

Thanks for all the help... just really don't know what else to try. What's life without a few challenges though, eh? :D
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Trevor
 
I've owned quite a few AST memory cards, and every now and then I'll get one with the patch wires. It really wasn't that unusual to see it on stuff back then, so unless you see some connections that have come loose I wouldn't worry about it too much. The empty socket isn't necessarily a problem either. I think there are one or two empty sockets on my AST Rampage! board as well.

I have a feeling the problem must be with the E2-E3-E4 jumper. I'm guessing it must have something to do with the number of Rampage boards installed or the page frame type.
 
If you want a generic REMM.SYS driver, check out a copy of Windows/286 and that might help. Microsoft was kind enough to supply EMS drivers with that software.
 
Any Luck?

Any Luck?

Lord Moz said:
Thanks for the lead, but nada... the program says it can't find any SmartSwitch devices.

I attached a picture of the board. It very clearly says AST Rampage, just doesn't really look like the ones I see at TH99.

You'd think that as popular as these things were they would be better documented. *sigh*

I don't suppose anyone knows anything about the AST Preview I/O either?

More ideas please! :D
__
Trevor
Click to expand...

I know this is a stale thread, but did you ever figure out what those other jumpers are for on your Rampage? I have a Rampage/2, which looks very similar, in one of my XTs that's loaded with 256k 1-bit chips (2048KB total) that I'd love to get working. I've had some success with various utilities (remm, astats, etc.), but it still detects the wrong amounts of RAM and when I try to use it gives me parity errors. I've tried numerous combinations of filling some through all of the banks and tried swapped the chips with some 64Ks I have lying about. In short, I don't think the DRAM is the problem. Maybe I just have a fried board, but I keep coming back to those undocumented E1 and B1-4 jumpers...

Also, you mentioned that astats.com won't detect your board. Do you happen to have another AST board present with a clock (sixpak, megapak, etc.)? I had a MegaPak installed that was causing me the problem documented here: http://textfiles.com/computers/ASTRESEARCH/0322.tb.

Thanks!
 
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