[ale] RAM and Harddrives

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Sun, 2008-04-27 at 06:52 -0400, Jon Reagan wrote:
> Thanks, everyone.  The memory (RAM) apparently has 4 chips, but I
> noticed I had only half the RAM when I removed just one.  

> Is there any place I can look to see the maximum harddrive size that I
> could get?  (in BIOS, etc.)

	Having been down this road several times...  Yes...  But it's not easy.
Write down the make and model of your motherboard and then note the make
and version of your BIOS when it boots up.  Get everything, even if it
means rebooting several times (my average is 3 to 4 reboots to get every
string of numbers).  I suppose you might also find it by doing a string
search through memory but I've never tried it.

	If the BIOS predates about 2000, your probably going to have trouble
much above 20G.  IIRC, 20G will work and 80G will not (at least with the
older motherboards I tried).  Do a google search on that motherboard and
look up the latest BIOS available for it.  Look through the revisions
for any changes relating to drive size and compare your revision to that
revision change.  If you predate that revision change, you'll have to
reflash your BIOS.  If you postdate that revision change you may still
want to reflash your BIOS but you probably don't have to.

	This article has more information on hard drive and BIOS limitations:

http://www.dewassoc.com/kbase/hard_drives/resolving_drive_barriers.htm

	The symptoms you will experience, if you have an older BIOS (and I've
had this happen with Phoenix, AMD, and Award BIOS's) is that the BIOS
will hang when it's testing the IDE drives.  So you have to upgrade that
BIOS before connecting the large hard drive or you will not boot at all.

> Thanks,

	Mike

> Jon
> 
> On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 6:39 AM, William Bagwell <rb211 at tds.net>
> wrote:
>         On Saturday 26 April 2008, JK wrote:
>         > James Sumners wrote:
>         
>         > > 2) RAM for that thing is going to be pricey. If memory
>         serves, it will
>         > > be 72 pin SIMMs[1]. And you might have to install them in
>         pairs. So
>         > > you wouldn't be able to install just one 128MB chip. You
>         would have to
>         > > install two 128MB chips at the same time. I never had a
>         PPro so I
>         > > can't say that for certain.
>         > >
>         > > [1] --
>         http://crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=8F6080A28C0EB3BE
>         >
>         > eBay might be worth a shot, as well.  Though you may have to
>         buy five
>         > sticks to get two working ones.
>         
>         
>         Or possibly computer shows. Another problem the OP may
>         encounter, RAM back
>         then was in diffrent densities. Had an old P1 200 that maxed
>         out at 128MB,
>         yet I was never able to get it to see more than half of that.
>         Tried various
>         combinations through the years and never succeeded. In most
>         cases, other old
>         computers could see the full size so it was not like I was
>         being sold
>         mis-labled stuff.
>         
>         Poor old thing died about a year ago at about 11 years old!
>         RIP <sniff>
>         --
>         William
>         
>         
>         
>         
>         
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> 
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-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
   NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!

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