VOGONS


First post, by retro games 100

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Rank l33t
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l33t

Thanks to the awesome people on this forum, I've been advised to get a PLCC puller, in order to safely extract a SOJ RAM chip, from a graphics card, so that I can upgrade the RAM on a GUS MAX card.

The graphics card, with its RAM, both onboard, and SOJ-based, alongside a PLCC puller:

card and plcc-50pc.JPG
Filename
card and plcc-50pc.JPG
File size
1.23 MiB
Views
442 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

The graphics card's RAM:

RAM-50pc.JPG
Filename
RAM-50pc.JPG
File size
983.45 KiB
Views
442 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

The SOJ socket, on the GUS MAX:

SOJ socket 50pc.JPG
Filename
SOJ socket 50pc.JPG
File size
290.95 KiB
Views
442 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

I will perform the operation soon..

Reply 1 of 3, by JayCeeBee64

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Retired

That's a worthwhile upgrade that will allow you to get the most out of the GUS MAX 😎

Back in May 1996 I upgraded my GUS ACE from 512k to 1mb. When I received the package in the mail, a small piece of paper was included with instructions on how to install the SOJ ram; these were very useful to me at the time since I had never done this before.

Dino7IOh.jpg

The upgrade went smoothly and without issues; most games, applications and utilities configured for the GUS recognized the extra ram and used it (a few had to be reconfigured). Sound quality improved overall (MIDI and tracker music in particular), and the "not enough sample ram" error message almost vanished. I was very happy GUS owner then, and still am today.

Ooohh, the pain......

Reply 3 of 3, by retro games 100

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Rank l33t
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l33t

Everything went OK. I removed the chip OK:

plcc-resized.JPG
Filename
plcc-resized.JPG
File size
1.12 MiB
Views
340 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Here's another one I did, pushed in to the once empty SOJ socket on the GUS. It's now 1MB:

soj socket-resized.JPG
Filename
soj socket-resized.JPG
File size
681.96 KiB
Views
340 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

Pin 1 on the chip is marked with a little circle. It needs to match up with the bevelled edge on the socket.
I've drawn a box indicating the little circle on the chip, and the bevelled edge on the socket:

soj socket-resized-bevel.JPG
Filename
soj socket-resized-bevel.JPG
File size
683.43 KiB
Views
340 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception