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fun error "906E 201" on my 5150....

J

JDT

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Joined
Feb 17, 2007
Messages
564
Location
Cicero, NY
Good Day

I am trying to configure my AST sixpak plus to give my machine 640k of ram. however when jumpers are set as:

256k motherboard set to:
SW2: 1(on) 2(off) 3(on) 4(on) 5(off)

ast six pak plus
1(odd) 2(on) 3(on) 4(on) 5(on) 6(off)
(assuming with switches down (toward planar = off)

I get 906E 201 and normal ram chip swapping leads me no where in terms of finding a faulty chip

any help appreciated. Thank you.
 
JDT said:
I get 906E 201 and normal ram chip swapping leads me no where in terms of finding a faulty chip
Click to expand...
Information at http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/5150/5150_ram.htm indicates that the "90" portion equates to a problem at address 576KB.
The "6E" portion equates to errors in bits 6/5/3/2/1. From experience, that many bits in error usually indicates NO RAM.

JDT said:
256k motherboard set to: SW2: 1(on) 2(off) 3(on) 4(on) 5(off)
Click to expand...
Good.

JDT said:
ast six pak plus
1(odd) 2(on) 3(on) 4(on) 5(on) 6(off)
(assuming with switches down (toward planar = off)
Click to expand...
Assuming that your 64KB-256KB motherboard has 256KB fitted, then you need the SixPakPlus to provide 384KB of RAM starting at address 256KB.

Looking at your switch settings, they are correct for the above if you have the long version of the board.
But they are wrong for the short version (specifically switches 4/5/6).
Do you have the long or short version?

If you have the short version, the manual is at http://www.minuszerodegrees.net/manuals.htm
Switch settings are on pages 2-6 and 2-7
 
Thanks Modem,
I have the long version of the six pak plus.
it didn't dawn on me to think the 6E could indicate multiple bits, I had assumed (lol) that the ram test stopped on first error found and perhaps I had something even more sinister toying with me. My troubleshooting previous has been to get the error, trace back to the chip and reseat/replace the chip. and Keep doing that until it posts without error. I'll try replacing the entire stack of chips on the last bank and see what happens.
 
I also have an AST SixPakPlus. Mine is a half-length card. All my switches are in the up position except 1 and 7. By up I mean towards the switch numbers (i.e. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8). Be aware that you need to put the RAM in a rather particular order in the SixPak. Bank 0 (the one furthest right looking at the card with the ISA connector down) should be full with 64k chips. These usually came with the board when you bought it. Now the next bank (Bank 1) can be either 64k chips *or* 256k chips. The last bank (Bank 2) can *only* be 256k chips. You have to have the board fully loaded in order to get the entire 640k: 576k on the expansion card with Bank 0 = 64k, Bank 1 = 256k and Bank 2 = 256k. That, plus the 256k on the motherboard gives 832k total. The extra 194k can be used in any number of ways, like as a virtual diskette drive via a small program that came with the SixPak. I think you can find it on the same website that “modem7” directed you towards to get the manual.

So basically just make sure you max out the card in order to get all 640k, even though you’ll have 194k extra RAM. This was done to allow 64k 5150 motherboards access to all 640k without needing to have another version of the card or add more banks to the existing design.

-Isaac
 
Note that the sunglasses smiley face is supposed to be an eight "8" with a closed parentheses ")". I guess the system thought I was making a "cool" smiley instead of and 8 and ).

Rather funny, but also rather annoying too. Oh well, now you know why that's there. :)

-Isaac
 
IBM said:
Note that the sunglasses smiley face is supposed to be an eight "8" with a closed parentheses ")". I guess the system thought I was making a "cool" smiley instead of and 8 and ).
Rather funny, but also rather annoying too. Oh well, now you know why that's there. :)
Click to expand...
You can prevent that behaviour when writing your post by using the 'Go Advanced' button then ticking the 'Disable smilies in text' option.
 
UPDATE:
ok replacing all the chips in the last bank still results in a 906E 201
If I remove any single chip in the last bank I get 80xx 201 error corrosponding with seemingly the previous bank (80xx being 2nd to last bank?) chip, even though I'm pulling chips from the last (9th) bank?
Is my six pak ... packed up and done? is there a main memory controller chip I can reseat? I am able to set the system to 512k and its stable... but, being what I am... I want a full 640k functional.
 
JDT said:
UPDATE:
ok replacing all the chips in the last bank still results in a 906E 201
If I remove any single chip in the last bank I get 80xx 201 error corrosponding with seemingly the previous bank (80xx being 2nd to last bank?) chip, even though I'm pulling chips from the last (9th) bank?
Click to expand...
Those symptoms are explained if your SixPakPlus is starting the RAM at 192K rather than 256K.
Try rocking switches 1/2/3 on the SixPakPlus a few times in case of improper contact.
 
i probably just moves all switches back and forth 2 dozen times, its conceivable that perhaps corrosion or.. whatever could prevent proper contact. Thank you.
Alas, 906E 201 remains.
 
JDT said:
i probably just moves all switches back and forth 2 dozen times, its conceivable that perhaps corrosion or.. whatever could prevent proper contact. Thank you.
Alas, 906E 201 remains.
Click to expand...
I've pulled out my 5160 from storage. It has a 256K motherboard, and a 'long' SixPakPlus providing RAM in the range 256K to 640K. I confirm that switches 1 to 6 are down/up/up/up/up/down (off/on/on/on/on/off).

If you have a multimeter, you'll be able to test the SixPakPlus switches. Assuming that your SixPakPlus is indeed incorrectly starting the RAM at 192K, it would be switch 3 that is suspect because the settings are:
1/2/3 settings for 192K start = down/up/down
1/2/3 settings for 256K start = down/up/up

It's possible that your card has failed in another way that is causing an addressing issue.

Something else to check, just in case. Verify that all 6 banks have 64Kbit sized chips. On my card are LH2164, D4164, and MT4264.

Have you tried cleaning the card's edge connector, and trying the card in a different slot?
 
I ended up cleaning the edge connector and reseating all chips, turns out a few of the chips has some corrosion on the legs, had to clean a few chip sockets too... found 2 bad chip but now I'm back up to 640k. YAY! =)
 
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