My board has 2mb sicked in the board, and no simm or sipp sockets, but 2mb seems rather small, maybe it's not but I want a fluid 3.1 experience to launch dos games from. What's the best way to increase my memory.
The memory and board
Also I've got empty ic sockets above the ram, are those cache. I haven't been able to identity the board yet. It's a 386SX-16 with a vlsi chipset
Hmm I cannot read the CPU or main crystal, your pictures are very 1990's 🤣. Those empty sockets could be cache but the VLSI 82c200 series chipset was also used on some 286 and had very limited support. If that a 16Mhz 386sx is not worth wasting money on imho, it will not perform any better than a 286-16 under most conditions. Just my opinion and no do not recognize the board.
Hate posting a reply and then have to edit it because it made no sense 😁 First computer was an IBM 3270 workstation with CGA monitor. Stuff: https://archive.org/details/@horun
I would avoid playing games from within Windows 3.1
Especially on a low end 386SX. The performance hit from windows and being in v86 mode rather than real mode is pretty significant on low end hardware.
Alright well I can launch from dos, but I still need 3.1 for networking
Get an ISA memory expansion board.
candle_86 wrote on 2020-06-27, 06:13:Alright well I can launch from dos, but I still need 3.1 for networking
There are Dos networking tools available.
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...😉
Can you show us the POST screen of your BIOS ? This may help identify your board 😀
Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative
And Memory with ISA RAM Card
Bocaram AT for example
https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
https://www.retroianer.de - german retro computer board
Are you certain this board can’t accept 4mb in dip ram?
Anyway, a fluid 3.1 experience probably needs a 486.
"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium
cyclone3d wrote on 2020-06-27, 06:38:Get an ISA memory expansion board.
how much slower would that be compared to onboard memory?
Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-06-27, 13:38:Are you certain this board can’t accept 4mb in dip ram?
Anyway, a fluid 3.1 experience probably needs a 486.
No I'm not but I have no idea what to search for to find it either, I've tried 4mb x 1bit 18pin dipp and found nothing, I've only been able to find 4mb x 4bit 24 pin dipp
I think something like Samsung KM41C1000 is what you want. 1Mx1 page mode DRAM.
Your board appears to already have 36 pieces of 1Mx1 DRAM though. That should be 4MB (with parity), so either some of your memory is configured as EMS or you have a bad IC.
BTW, what is the "P" on the AMI chips? Is that the OEM insignia?
"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium
Anonymous Coward wrote on 2020-06-27, 15:56:I think something like Samsung KM41C1000 is what you want. 1Mx1 page mode DRAM.
Your board appears to already have 36 pieces of 1Mx1 DRAM though. That should be 4MB (with parity), so either some of your memory is configured as EMS or you have a bad IC.
BTW, what is the "P" on the AMI chips? Is that the OEM insignia?
Hmm bad dram I hadn't thought of that, 4mb is where I want it to be, now I'm gonna have to go testing it 🤣
AMI bios screen is DVLX-1223-040990-K8, seems to be a biostar board if im reading it right but can't find it on TH99
I'm now the proud owner of a Chroma memory tester. If you need help tracking down a bad DIP memory IC I can help
I tried messing with the rsel jumpers, rsel0 sees 2048, rsel1 gets me 1743mb, and rsrl2 limits it to 512kb. Any combination my max is still 2048, if rsel0, and 2 are selected it's 512kb and rsel 1 turned in with anything is a black screen. Dunno if that helps at all
candle_86 wrote on 2020-06-27, 06:13:Alright well I can launch from dos, but I still need 3.1 for networking
There are Dos networking tools available.
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...😉
mrau wrote on 2020-06-27, 13:50:cyclone3d wrote on 2020-06-27, 06:38:Get an ISA memory expansion board.
how much slower would that be compared to onboard memory?
I wont be much on such an old slow mobo. I have one for a 286/12 set up.
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...😉
Make sure the 4 chips for parity is correct 1MB x 1 bit, Not 256K x 1bit.
If 4 chips are 4 bits per chip, remove these four.
Cheers,
Great Northern aka Canada.
