Hi Vipersan,

this chips here, despite having the right amount of pins and form factor did not work in my T3200SX.
I got a error at bootup with any sort of combination.

Maybe that did not help that much...

best reg4rds
\ chozilla

chozilla wrote:

Hi Vipersan, […]
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Hi Vipersan,

this chips here, despite having the right amount of pins and form factor did not work in my T3200SX.
I got a error at bootup with any sort of combination.

T3200SX-Fail_memory.JPG

Maybe that did not help that much...

best reg4rds
\ chozilla

Yep ...I'm not surprised at all Cho.
Once again Toshiba has restricted choice by using proprietory simms..
which is why I wanted to get good close pics of both sides of a 'genuine' working stick
..which _have_ to be fitted in pairs A and B ...
preferably matching.

But there is also some memory that magically works.
Not sure if that is good or not.

The top two were a pair and the bottom two.
I am leaving the top two out now since my system seems to be more stable.
The bottom two identify as 2MB each so my system is now at 5mb with both.

best reg4rds
\ chozilla

Took what I think is an expensive gamble ..
From what I see and read ..
Even numbers of chips appear to be more compatible on simms
ie ..6 not 7 ....8 not 9 ..
I have a gut feeling this is a parity thing...the odd number chip usually providing parity..
Matched pairs are always best ...
and 2mb per chip rather than 1mb ..being the way to go
so 2x2mb matched non parity /even chip numbers ????
As I said ..this is a gamble anyway.
The only thing I could find which fits my criteria was in the US ..
and if the photo is to be believed..
Toshiba brand chips ..
It costs more to ship than to purchase ...but have set the dice rolling with a single purchase (approx $25) total
gonna take a while to get here but..
This is what I ordered..
wish me luck ..

I guess I can always sell them on if not compatible.

So far so good ..
Wolf 3D started and didn't crash ..
Extended memory at boot showed 2mb extra ...and I got to the C:> prompt without parity complaint ..
I found these on ebay at the weekend ..so took a chance.
A matched pair of IBM 1mb simms ?
so maybe I will at least get an upgrade without mods to the simms ?
rgds
VS

I deserve to win the lottery once in a while..
fingers crossed for the 4mb I ordered from the US
😉

Have a look at Vipersans other thread. Both my compatible modules and modified ones that work seem to have odd numbers of chips, funnily enough. I think the first ones you posted Chozilla (the ones with 9 pins) could be made compatible like mine. I also provided pictures of the compatible ones it came with they have 3 chips. One for parity.

Oh great...

I am getting parity errors and I think they are the reason why the system crashes after some time.
The only problem is... this is happening without any additional RAM.

Well time to Trash the Memory-Board I guess...

reg4rds
\ chozilla

I'm fairly certain the IBM 1mb simms I pictured above will work very comfortably in the T3200SX ..
So much so ..after locating 2 more in Germany ..I found some more in the US ..and immediately placed an order.
Dare I venture to say ..this has improved the buy and hope lottery for other 3200 users.
Yes there are only six slots that we can use these in ..so a max of 6mb ...but 6mb is far better than than none.
I case anyone also wants to take a punt ..
Here is the US supplier ...
search ebay item :- 131905925586

at the moment I only have 4mb fitted ..and believe me ..these were not easy to find.
rgds
VS

Keeping in mind I now have 4mb extended memory ...and hopefully I will be able to upgrade to 6mb
640K conventional memory and a 286 cpu in my T3200sx
640x480 vga
and using a CF card hard drive.
Is it practical to run Windows 3.11
over Dos 6.22 ?
If not ...what are my practical options..
DOS only ..or can I have both.
One for the experts I think
rgds
VS

Woah, wait now. The T3200SX is a 386SX16, not a 286. The T3200 was a 268SX12 iirc.
I am running mine (T3200SX) with 6MB extra which gives 7MB total. Even with 4MB fitted (5 total) running Win 3.1 is viable and I am getting good results.

Just keep in mind that with 16Mhz you cannot run demanding games like Civilization for Windows, that would be a slide show. But very early Windows 3.1 games actually run very well.

Whether it's practical, you have to decide. But it is definitely viable.

OOps ..
quite right JZ ..
yep as you rightly say it is a 386 ..
with a 387 math co pro
I wont bother to correct my typo ...as it would fail to make sense regarding your reply ..and this reply..
..at least with that IBM ram ...I have yet to see any parity errors at all..
🤣

Nice!
I guess running Win 3.1 in Enhanced mode and loading apps until the memory is full would make your ultimate parity test, then 😁

But you should be alright, as I have been running Win 3.11 on the T3200SX for a while now without hickups with my modules that dont give any errors either and get detected as 1MB each

I need some help here JZ ..since you have successfully installed 3.11 on the 3200
I rather suspect it is the CF I'm using.
I am trying to use a 4GB Transcend ..which does not appear to boot after DOS or 3.11 is installed ?
Both DOS 6.22 and Win3.11 completed installation ok ..but when I power down and up again ...the system hangs at booting C:
ie ..the CF C: drive isn't actually bootable ...although the installation appeared to go smoothly enough.
Is it perhaps that DOS can't use the 4gb ..even though DOS itself did the format ?
I assume DOS did not use the whole available size of the CF ...but not checked as yet.
Or ..perhaps I need to switch a bit in the CFs structure to make it bootable ..(mode of operation)

or maybe I am doing something wrong ..or in the wrong order..
I tried inserting DOS setup disc 1 and sys C: ...
There was A: activity ...and it appeared to transfer to C ...but still no boot ?
I am confused to say the least.
I'm also annoyed as it took an age to find working floppies ...and a long time to actually perform the installations using the original Toshiba Floppy drive ..which is slow as you know.
Help !!
rgds
VS

Just checked the CF ..and DOS did indeed use half capacity ..and formatted in fat 16 ..
as I sort of suspected..
rgds

Rinse and repeat. Delete all partitions with FDISK.
Use an FDISK version that is aware of drives bigger than 512MB, and format two new partitions with 2Gb max, as this is FAT16 limit.
Afterwards make sure that the first partition (C:) is marked "Active" ("A" in the status screen you can summon with "4" or "5" option in FDISK, i dont remember which. If it's not active, activate it with the appropriate function.)

Also I used Windows 3.11 (not WfW). Also I installed the 3.1 version first and then installed the manual update, that gives you a Win 3.11 boot logo that otherwise doesnt exist (the non-WfW version didnt have a "Win 3.11" boot logo).

So ..
I have to conclude the Transcend 4gb CF is somehow unsuitable ..
I can't even get DOS 6.22 to run ...never mind windows.
I have successfully got DOS running on a different CF ..made by Danelec.
this one is a 2gb CF however.
What I have tried..
mount the Transcend ..and boot with a Windows 95B floppy (banana)
run up FDISK ..and deleted everything.
No partitions.
Using the same FDISK I made 2 partitions ..
C: exactly 2gb Primary ..and the other left untouched Extended ..
neither of which were formatted ...but C: was made active
rebooted ...and inserted DOS 6.22 disk 1 ..and run setup ..
I allowed DOS disk 1 to do the format of C:
The install then proceeded to conclusion floppies 1 through 3 ..
I then allowed to reboot expecting C: to boot to MS DOS ..but it hangs just as before.
This _has_ to be a CF issue.
anyone seen this behaviour before ?
I think there used to be a stand alone util that allowed the CF to be set as fixed or removeable ..
I can't remember what it was called ..but sadly I can't find a utility to do this ..
does anyone know the name of that utill ..and where I might obtain it ?
rgds
VS

I may have found th DOS utility I need ..
Too late to test it now ..
maybe tomorrow.
ATCFWCHG.COM apparently.

Time to give up on the Transcend ..and obtain another brand I think ..
I thried ATCFWCHG and an app called BOOTIT ..
Same result ..
I suspect this CF might be either faulty or has protection built in that discourages or disables it' bootability ?
Is that a word ..
??

Just paid over the odds imo for a used Sandisk ultra II 4gb CF ..
I'll report back when it arrives and is tested.