Stacked 14 - review by Captain Jack| Author | Post |
|---|---|
| willywilly Member  Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 |  Posted - Aug 15 2006 : 6:37PMThis is about an older computer. Pentium, not P2 or 3 or beyond. Has 2 sticks of ram in it. One is 64M and the other is greater - can't really remember - probably 128M or 256M. Computer was fine one day - it was used all day, and shut off for the evening. Next day, powered up and Windows98 reports that there is only 64M of ram. Poof! - Gone. Opened it up, removed both sticks of ram to re-seat them. Actually put them back in the slot that the other one came out of. Rebooted. Same result. :( It has been some time since I've done much with hardware, so I'm not up to date on things. What's the next step? Expecting somebody to say to put in known good memory. Hoping to avoid that, as I'd have to buy it to try it. I think it is SDRAM. As a matter of fact, how can I determine exactly what it is?  [Link] |
| Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99 | Posted - Aug 15 2006 : 7:07PM General terms woudl help too. SIMM? DIMM? # of contacts? Part number from one of the chips would help to deterimine the type of memory. If it's an old Pentium class system I would guess that the memory is EDO or FPM and not SDRAM. I have a bunch of that stuff laying around and would be happy to toss them in the mail for you to play with if they match your system. I'll just end up throwing them out eventually anyway.  [Link] |
| willywilly Member Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 | Posted - Aug 15 2006 : 7:27PM This is fuzzy - but could it be that one has chips on just one side of the module, and the other has chips on both sides? I can count them and report back. Might not be for a few days.If it is not printed right on it somewhere, as mentioned above, can you advise me on how to determine the part number?It is. AMD processor.EDO is a familiar looking term. That could be it too.I'm hoping when you, or anyone else, replies to the questions in this post that I'll be able to take their advice and determine exactly what it is. Regarding your offer: that would be very nice! Hold that thought. :) [Link] |
| willywilly Member Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 | Posted - Aug 15 2006 : 7:28PM [Link] |
| Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99 | Posted - Aug 15 2006 : 7:56PM [Link] |
| Unicorn Member 156 Posts 4/04 | Posted - Aug 15 2006 : 8:53PM It will then take you to a page with compatible parts. Hope this helps! Uni [Link] |
| willywilly Member Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 | Posted - Aug 18 2006 : 9:39PM DIMM But email just sent, with pics of module attached. Other info, etc. in that email. [Link] |
| willywilly Member Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 | Posted - Aug 18 2006 : 9:41PM Thanks anyway though. [Link] |
| Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99 | Posted - Aug 18 2006 : 10:07PM [Link] |
| budtugley Senior Member One man's trash can be the next man's treasure. 1187 Posts 1/04 | Posted - Aug 19 2006 : 3:29AM DocMemoryDIMMSPDReader and it's designed for SDRAM. [Link] |
| Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99 | Posted - Aug 19 2006 : 8:15AM [Link] |
| Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99 | Posted - Aug 28 2006 : 9:47AM [Link] |
| willywilly Member Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 | Posted - Aug 28 2006 : 2:18PM So I went there and downloaded it. Tried it. But by then , I'd already removed the bad memory module. [Link] |
| willywilly Member Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 | Posted - Aug 28 2006 : 2:23PM Just curious - would like to learn something. In email I told you about some long number I found on a sticker on one of the chips. You didn't mention that number, so I'm assuming that is not the part number. Just had another look. I missed something the first time.
[Link] |
| willywilly Member Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 | Posted - Aug 28 2006 : 2:25PM Is that the extra, small IC on one end of the card? Looks like an 8 pin chip. What is its purpose? [Link] |
 | |
| willywilly Member Activated Member 662 Posts 2/05 | Posted - Aug 28 2006 : 2:27PM Look for an email from me later today. It is very nice of you to remember this, and to take time to come here and message me. Thank you. [Link] |
| Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99 | Posted - Aug 28 2006 : 3:55PM [Link] |
| Drew Black broken crankshaft 8009 Posts 9/99 | Posted - Aug 28 2006 : 4:12PM The orignal IBM PS/2s were the first computers to use a Presence Detect mechanism on standardized memory modules. (72 pin Fast Page Mode DRAM SIMMs circa 1988.) Back then Presence Detect was a fancy way of saying "shorted to ground". Originally there were 4 pins on a module (a 5th was added later) that could be used in combination to indicate a binary value to the computer. This binary value represented a particular module size, speed and configuration. Eventually the modules used in the PS/2s started being used by every major computer manufacturer and were standardized by the JEDEC committee. As memory densities increased and modules changed it became necessary to stop dedicating additional pins on the module to just presence detect functions. (Connectors with more pins are more exensive and the PCBs that plug into the connectors get bigger and more expensive too.) That's were serial presence detect comes into the picture. It's cheaper to use a small serial EEPROM chip to store data about a module than it is to add an extra 12 - 16 pins needed to cover all of the various current memory module configurations. Programmable memory is far more flexible that hardwired bits. [Link] |
| Use the code below to link to this topic or a specific post. |
| URL of this thread |
| Link to this post with HTML |
| Link to this post with Forum Code |
