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Commodore 286-16 / Memory

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First post, by Perro

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Hi. I have a Commodore 286-16 with 640kb of memory and I would like to expand it, but I don't know how to do it. The motherboard has 4 expansion slots and I have tried to put memory of various types in banks 1 and 2: 2x256, 2x512, 2x1m .. But the PC does not recognize them. Can anybody help me? By the way, how do you enter the bios? I only manage to enter by forcing an error, but I would like to know the key or key combinations to enter. Thank you.

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Reply 1 of 12, by Horun

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Early Pheonix bios. Try ctrl+alt+S. Most 286 you cannot run both DRAM and SIMMS unless there is a jumper to set the banks (they typically support 2 banks). Your DRAM is only one bank so maybe there is a jumper to allow using one set of SIMMS. Odd that the board does not have extra sockets and allow 1Mb of DRAM, most "Chips" boards do. Added: trying two at a time was a good idea, make sure they are true 9 chip simms 80Ns or faster (some bios do not like the 3 chip ones)

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

Reply 2 of 12, by Perro

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Good morning.

I have been doing tests, but I haven't obtained good results. I hope that with these photos, someone can help me.

I am still unable to enter bios with a key combination.

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Reply 3 of 12, by Jo22

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Horun wrote on 2020-04-04, 23:17:

Early Pheonix bios. Try ctrl+alt+S. Most 286 you cannot run both DRAM and SIMMS unless there is a jumper to set the banks (they typically support 2 banks). Your DRAM is only one bank so maybe there is a jumper to allow using one set of SIMMS. Odd that the board does not have extra sockets and allow 1Mb of DRAM, most "Chips" boards do. Added: trying two at a time was a good idea, make sure they are true 9 chip simms 80Ns or faster (some bios do not like the 3 chip ones)

Hm. I do have very little knowledge of DIL/DIP memory, I'm afraid, since most of my 286 PCs used proper SIMM/SIPP modules.
So I wonder: Would it help Perro to simply remove the DILs and use one or two pairs of 1MB SIMMs ?
From what I experienced in the past, most 286es can handle 4MB just fine.

Also, what about the ROM/Video shadow and "relocation" settings ?
Shouldn't they be turned off ? From what I remember "relocation" is the one with the missleading term.
With "relocation" enabled, memory is contingous (memory continues after 640KB); when disabled, it skips the 640KB-1MB area.

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Reply 4 of 12, by Perro

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Then what do I do?

Reply 5 of 12, by Perro

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after many tests, i have got 2m of extended. With that I am satisfied.

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Thank you.

Reply 6 of 12, by pentiumspeed

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The setup says to hit F2 key.

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 7 of 12, by pentiumspeed

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The setup says to hit F2 key.

Also please post pictures of memory modules that you could not use on this 286?

Cheers,

Great Northern aka Canada.

Reply 10 of 12, by Horun

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Try this attached file, took off an archive website, is the jumper setting including the W1-W6 Memory config...
sorry it is a bit blurry but should help along with the manual Perro linked.

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

Reply 11 of 12, by Miko

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Horun wrote on 2021-02-07, 00:49:

Try this attached file, took off an archive website, is the jumper setting including the W1-W6 Memory config...
sorry it is a bit blurry but should help along with the manual Perro linked.

Thank you! I could not find it. Now the only thing I’m missing is how to interpret two long bios beeps and three short beeps as this manual also miss this. Any idea if I shall interpret it as early Phoenix bios error beeps?

Reply 12 of 12, by Horun

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Yes it is a Phoenix BIOS and should be a v.4 bios so 2 long + 3 short is "CMOS write/read failure" with "02" on port 80 if you have a POST diagnostic card.
Do you have a battery attached to the motherboard ? Can you take a good picture of your 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

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