Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!pacbell.com!tandem!netcom!rcb
From: rcb@netcom.UUCP (Roy Bixler)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: Re: JRI SIMM board?
Message-ID: <14764@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 14 Oct 90 18:45:43 GMT
References: <1990Oct13.145427.18471@kodak.kodak.com> <1990Oct13.145829.18783@kodak.kodak.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: Netcom- The Bay Area's Public Access Unix System {408 241-9760 guest}
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In article <1990Oct13.145829.18783@kodak.kodak.com> nelson@cygnus.Kodak.COM (Bruce D. Nelson) writes:
>Have any of you atari-st netters had experience with the JRI SIMM board
>for memory expansion on a 1040 (or 520). I've heard about its exisitence,
>but have seen no ads or reviews of it.
>
There was some discussion about it a few months ago on the net.  The fact that
the JRI board takes SIMM's and that the discussion was positive made me 'take
the plunge' and try to expand my 1040 ST's memory to 4 Meg.  What I encountered
was a nightmarish cycle of 'my computer doesn't work' and 'take it back to the
store'.

Since some people out there are probably saying "I've had no problems with
this", let me describe the problems I had.  First, I would turn the computer
on and, after a few minutes of use, the objects on the screen wouldn't line
up as they used to.  This makes it especially hard to read text!  The
technician at San Jose Computer told me that the memory chips were overheating
and 'fixed' it by removing the RF shielding.  The original problem went
away, but then any data I tried to write to my hard disk was scrambled.  After
talking to John Russell himself, it was found that the DMA chip was of IMP
origin (i.e. bad stuff).  To conclude this cycle and my patience, the DMA
chips were replaced and there was still a problem (forgot what it was, but
different than the two previous ones).  I finally achieved 4 Megs. of memory by
purchasing an STe.

The technician might have aggravated the problem by not being scientific in
isolating the problem, but that is a moot point now.  If I were a hardware
person, I would have investigated this more thoroughly.  Since I'm not and
I don't have the time, the only conclusion I can draw from this experience
is you should be aware of the origin of your DMA chips and ventilation can
be a problem.

>--
>Bruce Nelson                            | Phone: (716) 726-7890
>Rochester Distributed Computer Services | Internet: nelson@cygnus.kodak.COM
>Eastman Kodak Company                   |
>Rochester, NY 14653-5219                | Standard disclaimers apply

Roy Bixler
netcom!rcb@apple.com