How can you determine how much ram is in a Soundblaster 32/AWE32 slot? \ VOGONS

How can you determine how much ram is in a Soundblaster 32/AWE32 slot?

Topic actions

First post, by Thraka

Posted on 2015-10-01, 01:04

Thraka Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 232
Joined: 2003-10-29, 12:16

I have a bunch of small ram sticks I found in a baggie hidden in my garage and I wanted to put them in my SB 32. I put one in but I cannot seem to find a way to determine the size of it. the DIAGNOSE utility doesn't seem to tell me. Any ideas?

**Edit fixing title

Last edited by Thraka on 2015-10-01, 23:31. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 1 of 5, by xjas

Posted on 2015-10-01, 01:27

xjas Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 2564
Joined: 2015-09-07, 02:29

Look for the part number on one of the chips and google it. Or post it here.

If you want to know how much RAM the AWE *sees* start up Impulse Tracker using the AWE driver (IT /s6) and it will display the amount of free mem. Note that this is not necessarily the amount that is physically installed (if there's a problem.)

I presume you're using an AWE32 / SB32 with 30-pin SIMM slots? I think SIMMs on those had to be installed in matched pairs.

twitch.tv/oldskooljay - playing the obscure, forgotten & weird - most Tuesdays & Thursdays @ 6:30 PM PDT. Bonus streams elsewhen!

Reply 2 of 5, by RacoonRider

Posted on 2015-10-01, 03:46

RacoonRider Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1868
Joined: 2012-03-20, 15:36
Location: Siberia

xjas wrote:

I presume you're using an AWE32 / SB32 with 30-pin SIMM slots? I think SIMMs on those had to be installed in matched pairs.

In matched pairs and of specific sizes only: 1Mb, 4Mb, 16Mb.

And if you have a true AWE32, there must be a jumper disabling onboard DRAM and enabling external DRAM.

Reply 3 of 5, by Thraka

Posted on 2015-10-01, 23:45

Thraka Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 232
Joined: 2003-10-29, 12:16

Thanks for the replies. Yeah it is a SB32, not 16 whoops.

Where in IT would I see the amount of free ram? I'm only seeing the EMS amount

Reply 4 of 5, by boxpressed

Posted on 2015-10-02, 00:59

boxpressed Offline

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1438
Joined: 2014-05-20, 18:29
Location: Wisconsin, USA

If you set the jumper to external RAM, Diagnose should report the amount of memory as it is testing it. Also, the Windows AWE32 config utility reports memory size too.

Reply 5 of 5, by Thraka

Posted on 2015-10-02, 01:18

Thraka Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 232
Joined: 2003-10-29, 12:16

This one is PNP so no jumper for that. However, swapping out the mem for something different did trigger diagnose to detect it. I must have had a bad chip. Thanks all 😀 And thanks for Impulse Tracker, cool toy!

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware