So what's possible to do with this computer ?

[Elia1995]

Those look like standard 72-pinn SIMMs to me.

For comparison:


All the info and other photos are in this post: http://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=55170&start=80#p607084

[FFXIhealer]

Well shit. Looks like that computer manufacturer gave everyone a great big-ol' "fuck you" to people looking to upgrade. That's some Apple-level shit right there.

[Koltoroc]

funny that you mention Apple. I looked on ebay if they have 64 pin simms, and they do. Guess what they are sold for? Apple.

[probnot]

Not sure if you've already gone through this, but it a quick google search yielded:

http://www.memoryx.com/astbr48me.html (says max 16MB, installed in pairs, which would mean 30-pin?)

Also, from an old ad from a 1994 magazine:



This link seems to support the above info about 16MB max, installed in pairs.

http://stason.org/TULARC/pc/motherboard ... 86-25.html

EDIT: Damn, I missed an entire second page of comments again. Yeah, that photo definitely makes it look proprietary

[cyclone3d]

funny that you mention Apple. I looked on ebay if they have 64 pin simms, and they do. Guess what they are sold for? Apple.

And I bet they would work perfectly fine in that Gateway.

Printers are another thing that annoy the crap out of me when it comes to RAM upgrades.... Oooohhh, let's key the RAM differently than regular DDR2 so you have to buy the proprietray stuff at a markup of about 500% over normal DDR2.

Good thing that the 3rd party mfgs make RAM for said printers.

And some printers use 140 pin instead of 144 pin DDR2 DIMMs. Stupid crap like this makes me want to punch somebody in the throat.

[DeafPK]

It's an AST BRAVO 486/25

This is the only photo I have it for now, I'll take a good picture of it later:

OK, that's a bit different from the LP 4/25 that I once had. Thanks for the pic anyway.

I do remember my LP had standard 72-pin simms, the only proprietary upgrade was the cache module (which I didn't have).

[Elia1995]

I haven't formatted yet.
I got 2.043 KB free in extended XMS and loaded high everything, now I can run Monster Bash with sound blaster, pretty much the biggest news.
I still can't get the extra MB free, although nothing is using it (and is being detected correctly, so RAM's good).
I need 2,7 MB for Jazz Jackrabbit and 3,7 for DOOM.
Probably I'll never get to run DOOM, but Jazz Jackrabbit MIGHT be possible....

[derSammler]

Did you try commenting out EMM386? DOOM should work just fine then.

[Elia1995]

If I REM EMM386 I only get up to 640kb, HIMEM.SYS and EMM386 do not work together for some reason on Dr. DOS, if I enable only HIMEM.SYS, I still get only up to 2,043 KB.

[Kubik]

I'd recommend to test regular MS-DOS. I am positively sure Doom worked on 4MB, even Hexen or Heretic did - there was an error message, but with some command line parameters, those games worked as well.
Did you check BIOS setup? Some systems had HW support for EMS, and it might be enabled by default.

[derSammler]

If I REM EMM386 I only get up to 640kb

I thought you would understand memory by now as it was explained to you already. Try starting DOOM with only HIMEM loaded. DOOM has it's own memory manager.

[Elia1995]

With only HIMEM.SYS loaded and nothing else, Doom still doesn't start, it still says that there isn't enough memory.

[brostenen]

Just for the kicks... Try loading these following things in config.sys (after himem.sys) and then go for a memmaker.

Dos=high,umb
And then add emm386 with "ram highscan" in the end.

This should give other results.

[Elia1995]

I tried to format it and install MS-DOS 6.22, but the installation freezes

[Kubik]

I tried to format it and install MS-DOS 6.22, but the installation freezes

Hmm, strange. Try to remove all unnecessary cards, go to setup, and disable cache and shadowing, or pretty much everything you can

[brostenen]

I tried to format it and install MS-DOS 6.22, but the installation freezes

When exactly does the installation freeze? What is on the screen when it does that?

[Elia1995]

It freezes after the first blue screen, when I press Enter to continue the installation.
It shows weird ASCII symbols in the bottom grey bar and it freezes.
The floppies do work, I tried them in a virtual machine with an USB floppy drive and it installs just fine.

[brostenen]

It freezes after the first blue screen, when I press Enter to continue the installation.
It shows weird ASCII symbols in the bottom grey bar and it freezes.
The floppies do work, I tried them in a virtual machine with an USB floppy drive and it installs just fine.

Does it freeze as well, when you chose language setup? I have seen that before.
If that is the case, then it is eighter the memory or the harddrive/controller.
Well... At least on those machines that I had that exact problem with.

Try selecting a different language, just to test this theory out.

[Elia1995]

The setup automatically starts in Italian, it freezes when I press Enter at the first blue screen after "Starting MS-DOS"

[brostenen]

The setup automatically starts in Italian, it freezes when I press Enter at the first blue screen after "Starting MS-DOS"

It could be the Ram. I just think you should check the harddrive and controller first. Something about this reminds me of a storage issue. If you run the dos setup disk and instead of letting it enter the installation program, then what does it do if you try starting fdisk?

Does it freeze as well?