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Motherboard not detecting L2 Cache

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First post, by Yuuker

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Picked up a Compaq Presario 7170. Came with a p90, 20 megs and no cache.
I'd like to try to add some cache as i see there appears to be sockets for it, but i can't for the life of me figure out how to get the system to actually detect them.

Didn't appear to be any jumpers for them on either side of the board. Iv taken out the cards and checked multiple times.

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Top of the case has a jumper list but non seem to be for cache. Only the bus speed, onboard ESS, and CMOS.
Bios has nothing for it either.

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I only have 128k of cache on hand, so out of curiosity i put them in and ran the computer anyway to see if it'd auto-detect them to no avail.
I put one chip in every other slot. I don't think their were incorrect, they didn't feel warm, nor did anything nasty happen. These chips where fresh out of a working 486 board and worked previously.

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Anyone got any experience with these?

Reply 1 of 12, by Caluser2000

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Compaq were pretty good with documentation. Have a look on the interweb for a service manual.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 2 of 12, by Yuuker

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Caluser2000 wrote:

Compaq were pretty good with documentation. Have a look on the interweb for a service manual.

I found a site with a bunch of Compaq manuals but it seems they uploaded the wrong one for the 7170 😠 Non of them looked like service manuals anyway, just lists of parts to order.

There doesn't seem to be much on this computer on the net. Not even a few Ebay listing i found had any manual.

Unless im just bad at googling 😵

Reply 3 of 12, by Tiido

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Did you also fill the TAG RAM socket ? The tiny photo only shows 8 sockets but there's a 9th one somewhere too that must be filled.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 4 of 12, by Caluser2000

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Looks like you can have 256k of cache ram.

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 5 of 12, by Yuuker

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Tiido wrote:

Did you also fill the TAG RAM socket ? The tiny photo only shows 8 sockets but there's a 9th one somewhere too that must be filled.

Aha yes, i found a 9nth slot. Didn't seem to make a difference however, cachchk still reported no l2 cache.

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Caluser2000 wrote:

Looks like you can have 256k of cache ram.

Im trying for 128k as thats all i got for now. These previously came as a 256k set but a few ended up dead.
It should be 4 on the cache slots and 1 in the tag-socket right? Orientation looks to be correct, maybe their in the wrong order?

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Reply 6 of 12, by Tiido

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I think the chips need to be in every other socket

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 7 of 12, by Yuuker

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Tiido wrote:

I think the chips need to be in every other socket

Just tried it to no avail 😢
Both cachchk at ctcm7 refuse to acknowledge its presence.

Did a re-scan of the bios and still found no settings for it?. How much performance am i loosing out by not having cache in a p90 anyway?

Reply 8 of 12, by ShovelKnight

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I know that you have to install SIMMs in pairs because of Pentium’s 64-bit bus, maybe it’s the same story with cache and every socket has to be populated in order for it to work?

Reply 9 of 12, by Yuuker

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ShovelKnight wrote:

I know that you have to install SIMMs in pairs because of Pentium’s 64-bit bus, maybe it’s the same story with cache and every socket has to be populated in order for it to work?

I think iv tried that before, might have been without the TAG ram though.

Do Pentiums even support 128k? If the motherboard lists 256k that should including cache amounts under right?

Reply 10 of 12, by Tiido

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"pentium", that's the cruciual info I have managed to miss... Pentiums have 64bit databus which means all the cache sockets must be filled (each chip is 8 bits).

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

Reply 11 of 12, by Yuuker

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Tiido wrote:

"pentium", that's the cruciual info I have managed to miss... Pentiums have 64bit databus which means all the cache sockets must be filled (each chip is 8 bits).

Ahh, Looks like i gotta go shopping for a new set of 256k then.

Now regarding the TAG ram. Anything i need to look out for to identify that from regular cache? Or is it the same type of chip?
Hopefully i haven't been damaging anything playing around with less then full cache sockets 😲

Reply 12 of 12, by Tiido

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TAG RAM is probably normal 32K x 8 chip like the other chips so you'll need 9x same type chips. If there was damage you'd know it already.

T-04YBSC, a new YMF71x based sound card & Official VOGONS thread about it
Newly made 4MB 60ns 30pin SIMMs ~
mida sa loed ? nagunii aru ei saa 😜

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