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Old ALR FLYER VL 486-33 Trouble (fwd)




Hello,

I'm trying to reuse an old 'ALR FLYER VL 486-33' to give it away to
someone who needs a computer but can't afford one.

The system is setup as follows:

486-33 processor
Phoenix BIOS 1.02.06m

Memory Bank A: (on board) 4 Meg (working OK)
Memory Bank B: 16Meg 72 Pin N-Parity FAST PAGE memory module
Memory Bank C: 16Meg 72 Pin N-Parity FAST PAGE memory module

The system boots and works fine without any memory in Bank C. But it is a
little slow for RedHat 6.1 so I would like to have the extra 16Meg.

Here is a summary of my tests so far:

Notes   Bank B  Bank C  Error Message 
1       4Meg    nil     none 
2       4Meg    4Meg    640K Base Memory, 11264K Extended, Memory failure at 80FFFE, 
                        read 0000 expecting 0024 
3       4Meg    4Meg    640K Base Memory, 07168K Extended, Memory failureat 8000F0, 
                        read FFFF expecting FF20
        
(I think that 1 of the 4Meg SIMMs is defective.  I think it's the one in
bank C on the 2nd try. It is NOT used for tests with the 16Meg SIMMS)
The tests below are done with the same 4Meg SIMM but with 2 16Meg SIMMS.
The tests that seem repeated are done by either swapping places of the
16Meg SIMMS or using the 4-16 Meg SIMMS in different combinations.
                        
4       16Meg   nil     none
5       16Meg   16Meg   640K Base Memory, 35840K Extended, Memory failure at 40FFFE, 
                        read 0000 expecting 0024
6       16Meg   16Meg   640K Base Memory, 35840K Extended, Memory failure at 40FFFE, 
                        read 0000 expecting 0034
7       16Meg   4Meg    640K Base Memory, 23552K Extended, Memory failure at 40FFFE, 
                        read 0000 expecting 0024
8       16Meg   4Meg    640K Base Memory, 23552K Extended, Memory failure at 40FFFE, 
                        read 0000 expecting 0034
9       4Meg    16Meg   640K Base Memory, 23552K Extended, Memory failure at 80FFFE, 
                        read 0000 expecting 0024
10      4Meg    16Meg   640K Base Memory, 23552K Extended, Memory failure at 80FFFE, 
                        read 0000 expecting 0024

As you can see the problem is not so much the SIMMS, since the memory
error stays the same even if they are swapped.  I'm not sure what the
problem is exactly.  Is it a BIOS problem?  (I don't think so since the
diagram on the inside of the case (the only reference I have for this
system) indicates that 2x16Meg + 4Meg on board = 36Meg.  So I would guess
that the designers anticipated this setup.

I would really appreciate any help you might be able to give me.  I hope
that the problem is solvable, because the prospect of running RedHat in
only 20Meg of RAM (in an everyday setting) seems a little too daunting and
slow.

Please email me a copy of your reply. I crossposted this message to a
couple of newsgroups to get a wider audience.  Thanks very much.

©1999 Michael J. Longval, MD
Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
[email protected]

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