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Does anyone have any information on this ISA memory board (Boca Research)?

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First post, by Shponglefan

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I acquired this memory board configured for 2 MB of RAM. Note, I have added an extra 2MB in the picture below (4MB pictured). I have also confirmed that those extra RAM chips all work by testing all pictured chips in the Bank 0 and Bank 1 rows.

I just need what jumper setting I need to enable to access the additional 2MB of RAM.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any information on this particular board and how to configure it. It uses a Boca Research chip, but all the Boca Research boards I've looked up all have different layouts and more jumpers and switches than this particular board.

This board only has two jumpers (J1 & J2) and no switches.

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  • Boca memory board 2.jpg
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Last edited by Shponglefan on 2022-12-26, 23:33. Edited 4 times in total.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 2 of 7, by Shponglefan

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Disruptor wrote on 2022-12-26, 23:15:

Something must be wrong because it already has 4 MB populated.

Yes, I populated that extra RAM (I have also confirmed that it all works by trying all chips in the bank 0 and bank 1 rows). Unfortunately I am not able to get it working past 2MB and I don't know what jumper settings I might need to configure to make it work with that.

That's why I want to see if there is any documentation on the required jumper settings.

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 3 of 7, by Ozzuneoj

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EDIT: Whoops! The link I posted had exactly what you're looking for and I didn't notice it at first. This post:
Re: ISA XMS/EMS Memory Extension / Expansion cards: Now Running without Driver / Documentation :-)

You need to configure it with software, which is available in that post. The jumpers are there to allow for multiple cards in the same system

I found the same board in this thread and you can just barely see where the jumpers are... and it looks to be the same as yours, so I'm thinking maybe the jumpers aren't the problem.
https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/lot … 1-monitor.4519/

Also found some posts of similar (but not Boca) cards here, and at least one was configured via software.
ISA XMS/EMS Memory Extension / Expansion cards: Now Running without Driver / Documentation :-)

Maybe yours needs some kind of program to change the settings? Couldn't hurt to at least try programs for other similar cards, just in case they are compatible.

I have found lots of results for "8 meg at ram" , but nothing as clear as a list of jumper settings.

Last edited by Ozzuneoj on 2022-12-27, 00:06. Edited 3 times in total.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 5 of 7, by Shponglefan

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Ozzuneoj wrote on 2022-12-26, 23:59:

EDIT: Whoops! The link I posted had exactly what you're looking for and I didn't notice it at first. This post:
Re: ISA XMS/EMS Memory Extension / Expansion cards: Now Running without Driver / Documentation :-)

You need to configure it with software, which is available in that post. The jumpers are there to allow for multiple cards in the same system

This did the trick, thank you!

I hadn't thought that it might be a software configuration issue (outside of BIOS setup). But running that install program from that post did detect and configure the full 4MB.

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  • 4MB memory.jpg
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    4MB memory.jpg
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    Fair use/fair dealing exception

Pentium 4 Multi-OS Build
486 DX4-100 with 6 sound cards
486 DX-33 with 5 sound cards

Reply 6 of 7, by Ozzuneoj

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Shponglefan wrote on 2022-12-27, 00:47:
Ozzuneoj wrote on 2022-12-26, 23:59:

EDIT: Whoops! The link I posted had exactly what you're looking for and I didn't notice it at first. This post:
Re: ISA XMS/EMS Memory Extension / Expansion cards: Now Running without Driver / Documentation :-)

You need to configure it with software, which is available in that post. The jumpers are there to allow for multiple cards in the same system

This did the trick, thank you!

I hadn't thought that it might be a software configuration issue (outside of BIOS setup). But running that install program from that post did detect and configure the full 4MB.

Awesome! Glad I could help. 😀

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 7 of 7, by Horun

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maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-12-27, 00:04:

http://filedump.glitchwrks.com/mirrors/ftp.bocaresearch.com/

Nice ! specifically: http://filedump.glitchwrks.com/mirrors/ftp.bo … d/File_area_20/ Memory Boards.
I grabbed them all and will add to Vogons library later... thanks

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

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