Now, I don't have this exact card but I have a trio64 card and I can tell you that on my card the chips get hot, but I have never smelt any burning smell coming from it.

My mistake was to insert the 2 memory chips using the wrong orientation. I then put the memory chips in the right orientation, as seen in the photo below. Everything now works. I was lucky I didn't break anything.

Well, in hindsight you should have checked closer before powering it on, but honestly I wouldn't really say it's your fault... that would be an easy mistake to make on that card. I can't recall ever having seen a card with the memory facing two different directions like that, and it seems like kind of a dumb layout.

Once I'd been experimenting on an old 286 board with the ram being in DIL sockets. It also had some parity chips, which I've been removing and replacing, and on another moment I realize they're getting too hot. I then switched of the system, and saw that I had placed them wrong, just like RG100.

good thing nothing bad happened

one time I was messing around with my OAK VGA card (what a POS) because my 386 wouldn't boot and the video card was just a flaky POS..... I flipped the even and odd bios chips around... turned it on... the chips started smoking after a few seconds... nearly burned a hole through one! 🤣

this was almost 20 years ago... but had I not do that, I would've never upgraded to a ATI Graphics Pro Turbo 😀

retro games 100 wrote:

I put 2 60ns memory chips inside the 2 memory upgrade sockets on a Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM VLB VGA card. I switched on power, and noticed that the BIOS POST screen looked garbled. A couple of seconds later, I could smell burning. I switched off the PC, and examined everything. I could not see any burn marks anywhere.

I then touched the 2 memory upgrade chips, and they were extremely hot. The smell must have been the air around the chips getting extremely hot. My mistake was to insert the 2 memory chips using the wrong orientation. I then put the memory chips in the right orientation, as seen in the photo below. Everything now works. I was lucky I didn't break anything.

You must be the luckiest destroyer of hardware there is. Even if you burn stuff, it refuses to die! 😁

It may die later

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

It may die later

Oh dear, that's unfortunate. When you say that it may die later, what do you mean by "it"? Do you mean -

a) Just the video card. (The memory chips are left inside the memory sockets)
b) Just the video card. (The memory chips are removed from the memory sockets)
c) Just the 2 memory chips
d) The video card and also the 2 memory chips. (In other words, everything.)

Please can you explain why "it" may die later? Thanks a lot.

retro games 100 wrote:

Oh dear, that's unfortunate. When you say that it may die later, what do you mean by "it"? Do you mean - […]
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h-a-l-9000 wrote:

It may die later

Oh dear, that's unfortunate. When you say that it may die later, what do you mean by "it"? Do you mean -

a) Just the video card. (The memory chips are left inside the memory sockets)
b) Just the video card. (The memory chips are removed from the memory sockets)
c) Just the 2 memory chips
d) The video card and also the 2 memory chips. (In other words, everything.)

Please can you explain why "it" may die later? Thanks a lot.

When you smell smoke, it usually implies some damage has taken place. The damage may not be obvious now, but may become evident at a later date.

sliderider wrote:

retro games 100 wrote:

Oh dear, that's unfortunate. When you say that it may die later, what do you mean by "it"? Do you mean - […]
Show full quote

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

It may die later

Oh dear, that's unfortunate. When you say that it may die later, what do you mean by "it"? Do you mean -

a) Just the video card. (The memory chips are left inside the memory sockets)
b) Just the video card. (The memory chips are removed from the memory sockets)
c) Just the 2 memory chips
d) The video card and also the 2 memory chips. (In other words, everything.)

Please can you explain why "it" may die later? Thanks a lot.

When you smell smoke, it usually implies some damage has taken place. The damage may not be obvious now, but may become evident at a later date.

This right here.

Smoke is NEVER a good sign.

I have a feeling if anything were to fail, it would be the memory chips which were inserted backwards, but it could also include the vrm circuitry on the video card that feeds the chips. Depending on how that goes, you could lose the board.

Chances are very good if anything happens, it will happen in the next month, or it will take years. Retro rigs don't get as much use as an everyday driver, so what would normally fail within a year might take ten years. I'd also bet if it does fail, removing the offending memory may solve the problem.

Regarding smoke: I didn't see any. I just smelt a burning smell.

Probably only the memory chips.

They usually say something like this in the chip datasheets:

Absolute maximum ratings: -0.3..6V

Stress beyond these values can cause permanent damage.

You gave them -5V.

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

Probably only the memory chips. […]
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Probably only the memory chips.

They usually say something like this in the chip datasheets:

Absolute maximum ratings: -0.3..6V

Stress beyond these values can cause permanent damage.

You gave them -5V.

Don't these chips run @ 5v, just like regular memory of the time?

-> Absolute maximum ratings: -0.3...6V

Recommended operating conditions: 4.5...5.5V

That's the technical stuff 😉

h-a-l-9000 wrote:

-> Absolute maximum ratings: -0.3...6V

Recommended operating conditions: 4.5...5.5V

That's the technical stuff 😉

Doh! I misread what you wrote and though you meant 0.3xx6 volts instead of {0.3v,6v} 😜