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Trouble getting 256mb ram in a 486 Pentium Overdrive

O

oronco

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Joined
May 13, 2012
Messages
7
Hello everyone, I'm having trouble getting the 4x 64mb sticks to work on my mobo. Component list is:

Pentium Overdrive CPU (tried an amd 133 x5 aswell)
Soyo SY-4SAW/2/W5 motherboard
4 x 64MB EDO SIMM 60ns non parity (tried 2 x 64mb parity 60ns SIMM aswell)

I also have to 16mb sticks. (not sure which type)
When I try the 16mb sticks, it will recognise 32mb of ram
when I try the others, it wont boot.
but when i combine 2 x 16mb sticks with 2 64mb sticks, it treats the 64mb sticks as 16 mb. (totalling 64mb of ram)
The manual says the motherboard supports of to 256mb of ram, whats the issue here ?
 
oronco said:
Hello everyone, I'm having trouble getting the 4x 64mb sticks to work on my mobo. Component list is:

Pentium Overdrive CPU (tried an amd 133 x5 aswell)
Soyo SY-4SAW/2/W5 motherboard
4 x 64MB EDO SIMM 60ns non parity (tried 2 x 64mb parity 60ns SIMM aswell)

I also have to 16mb sticks. (not sure which type)
When I try the 16mb sticks, it will recognise 32mb of ram
when I try the others, it wont boot.
but when i combine 2 x 16mb sticks with 2 64mb sticks, it treats the 64mb sticks as 16 mb. (totalling 64mb of ram)
The manual says the motherboard supports of to 256mb of ram, whats the issue here ?
Click to expand...

seems like a conflict with the sense lines on the motherboard does it support that much memory?
 
oronco said:
When I try the 16mb sticks, it will recognise 32mb of ram
when I try the others, it wont boot.
but when i combine 2 x 16mb sticks with 2 64mb sticks, it treats the 64mb sticks as 16 mb. (totalling 64mb of ram)
The manual says the motherboard supports of to 256mb of ram, whats the issue here ?
Click to expand...
1) The two 16 mb sticks seem to work so they're probably ok.

2) Two 64 mb sticks with two 16 mb sticks = 160 mb which is *not* a valid configuration for that board. One 64 mb stick with either one or two 16 mb sticks *is* valid. Check your manual.

3) The board will accept one 64 mb stick in Bank 0 so you need to try each 64 mb stick one at a time in Bank 0 and see if any work that way. If some work and some don't work that way you probably have some good ones and some bad ones. After you try this test get back to us with your results.
 
If you don't have the manual use this. Also, my past experience always shows that identical modules is the best you can have.
 
Stone said:
1) The two 16 mb sticks seem to work so they're probably ok.

2) Two 64 mb sticks with two 16 mb sticks = 160 mb which is *not* a valid configuration for that board. One 64 mb stick with either one or two 16 mb sticks *is* valid. Check your manual.

3) The board will accept one 64 mb stick in Bank 0 so you need to try each 64 mb stick one at a time in Bank 0 and see if any work that way. If some work and some don't work that way you probably have some good ones and some bad ones. After you try this test get back to us with your results.
Click to expand...


One other thing I noticed is that the 2 16mb sticks need to be in bank 2 or 3 to work with the 64mb sticks.

I did try every stick individually in bank 0 and none of the 64mb stick work alone. The 4 64mb edo sticks are all identical and the 2 x 64mb fpm sticks are identical aswell. Im starting to think I just have a faulty mobo ?
 
Are your 64mb sticks x32 or x36? I did up several Soyo mobos back in the day, mostly AMD to start with, but had several issues where putting in max ram required specific chips. Even though it says it will take x32, it may be a problem with the 64meggers not being x36. I know there are logical arguments against this, but I know what I saw back in the day. Also try a lone 64m in each bank by itself and see what you get. Also was it the parity or non-parity that did recognize as a 16m?
 
oronco said:
I did try every stick individually in bank 0 and none of the 64mb stick work alone. The 4 64mb edo sticks are all identical and the 2 x 64mb fpm sticks are identical aswell. Im starting to think I just have a faulty mobo ?
Click to expand...
Even though it doesn't seem likely it could be faulty memory. Do you have someplace else to test the memory?
 
Hi Oronco,

Sorry to hear that you're having such a hard time with your Soyo. The following is a link for the manual: http://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/Archive/Soyo/manual/486/4sw/4sw-mu20.pdf

According to the manual you are free in install the sticks in any slot that you wish. Make sure you at least have 72-pin 80 ns RAM as per the manual. Also, I'm not a big proponent of the Pentium Overdrive (I have it, have run it & don't like the performance). With a your board you'll want the the 133 which you can easily oc to 150 or more.
 
dracos said:
Are your 64mb sticks x32 or x36? I did up several Soyo mobos back in the day, mostly AMD to start with, but had several issues where putting in max ram required specific chips. Even though it says it will take x32, it may be a problem with the 64meggers not being x36. I know there are logical arguments against this, but I know what I saw back in the day. Also try a lone 64m in each bank by itself and see what you get. Also was it the parity or non-parity that did recognize as a 16m?
Click to expand...

The set of 2 is 32 and the set of 4 is 36 or visa versa. Both parity and non Parity work as 16meg.
 
oronco said:
Hello everyone, I'm having trouble getting the 4x 64mb sticks to work on my mobo. Component list is:

Pentium Overdrive CPU (tried an amd 133 x5 aswell)
Soyo SY-4SAW/2/W5 motherboard
4 x 64MB EDO SIMM 60ns non parity (tried 2 x 64mb parity 60ns SIMM aswell)

I also have to 16mb sticks. (not sure which type)
When I try the 16mb sticks, it will recognise 32mb of ram
when I try the others, it wont boot.
but when i combine 2 x 16mb sticks with 2 64mb sticks, it treats the 64mb sticks as 16 mb. (totalling 64mb of ram)
The manual says the motherboard supports of to 256mb of ram, whats the issue here ?
Click to expand...

I've researched a bit further, apparently 64mb sticks of ram take dma channels from other devices, anyone care to comment on this ?
ill try removing all my cards (except video of course) and see what happens......
 
oronco said:
I've researched a bit further, apparently 64mb sticks of ram take dma channels from other devices, anyone care to comment on this ?
ill try removing all my cards (except video of course) and see what happens......
Click to expand...

Still no luck, grrrrrrrrrrrr !!!
 
Like i said it might have to do with the sense wires.(My initial post in this thread)
There are 0 Ohms resistors on the memory modules repending on their placement the size of the Module gets detected.
If for some reason a line does no longer work you get a faulty memory size report if the system will boot at all.
On some systems they are not fully wired or are not even available hence a memory limit to some boards.
 
Crypticalcode0 said:
Like i said it might have to do with the sense wires.(My initial post in this thread)
There are 0 Ohms resistors on the memory modules repending on their placement the size of the Module gets detected.
If for some reason a line does no longer work you get a faulty memory size report if the system will boot at all.
On some systems they are not fully wired or are not even available hence a memory limit to some boards.
Click to expand...

The manual says it supports 256mb of ram ?
 
The sense pins are not connected on a lot of 72-pin SIMMs. Most PC chipsets didn't use them, and worked out the memory size by doing a count during POST instead. If your motherboard does use the sense pins, but the RAM doesn't have them connected then the board won't be able to determine how big they are.
 
486s are pretty picky about 72-pin memory. I often have problems, especially with double sided EDO SIMMs. If you want to play it safe, you should get 9-chip (parity) non-EDO 64MB SIMMs.
 
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