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Revisiting the IBM 5170 Extended Memory Quest!

S

Super-Slasher

Experienced Member
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Jun 21, 2003
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Ontario, Canada... the frosty north.
Well, I finally got my paws on a nice EISA memory card that takes 30-pin RAM, which I now have an abundance of! So I figured I could now see how much RAM I could cram into my PC AT...

I thought I'd start off with my main selction of RAM to begin with: 8 sticks of 9-chip (pairity, right?) 1MB SIMM's; the maximum my Boca card could handle. My system will actually count up the RAM, right into the 8 or 9KB range before it gives me a pairity error. Same thing with any other of my 9-chip 1MB sticks, and with any other sticks of RAM (3, 2, and 8 chip) the system won't even count the RAM.

Almost the same thing on my IBM extended memory card (3MB, max.). I currently have 2MB - 2 sticks of 1MB, 9-chip - installed, yet when I try any other combination of RAM, with or without the working 2 sticks, it wouldn't count up any RAM aside for what's on the motherboard and 128KB base memory card, 640KB.

This really has me scratching my head, as I have tried almost every combination of RAM and I can't get anything to work aside from the 2, 1MB sticks in the IBM memory card. The only thing I know for certain about all of this is that the system archetecture requires pairity RAM to operate.

Any thoughts?
 
Re: Revisiting the IBM 5170 Extended Memory Quest!

Super-Slasher said:
Well, I finally got my paws on a nice EISA memory card that takes 30-pin RAM, which I now have an abundance of! So I figured I could now see how much RAM I could cram into my PC AT...
Click to expand...

Are there any DIP switches? Jumpers? Config software needed?
 
I wouldn't think so, because in one of my other 286 systems, it seems to access any memory installed on the card (up to the 3MB BIOS limit). My only problems are with the PC AT when it comes to memory.

Plus the thing about needing drivers to access the memory card, no drivers can be loaded while the computer is booting up and counting the RAM, so if it can't access the RAM because of a lack of drivers at startup, then what's the point?
 
Super-Slasher said:
Plus the thing about needing drivers to access the memory card, no drivers can be loaded while the computer is booting up and counting the RAM, so if it can't access the RAM because of a lack of drivers at startup, then what's the point?
Click to expand...

My question was about CONFIGURATION software, not driver. I have seen hardware that "remembers", but must be setup initially. (Much like hardware jumpers)
 
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