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From: tmkk@uiuc.edu (K. Khan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Memory Too FAST?!?!?!
Message-ID: <1991Jun25.155231.8306@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 25 Jun 91 15:52:31 GMT
Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
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I have been trying to upgrade a Dell system 200 for a friend. She bought
the machine used, and has no owners manual or other documentation. So, I
called Dell's customer service number and found out that I could install
up to 4 1M SIMMs into the slots on the motherboard. My friend went out
and purchased 4 1Mb 70ns SIMMs (the original 256K SIMMs were 120ns, but
the place she ordered from did not have anything slower than the 70ns
chips). The chips arrived, we plugged them in, and NOTHING. The machine
does not recognize them. Another call to Dell confirmed that the system
200 does accept 1Mb SIMMs and that there are no DIP switches or jumpers
which need to be changed. He suggested that the 70ns chips were, and
this is a quote, "too fast." This sharply contradicts my understanding
of RAM accesss times - it's like saying a car with a top speed of 200 MPH
is "too fast" to be driven on a highway with a speed limit of 55 MPH.
The speed rating on a RAM chip represents the FASTEST rate at which the
data can be accessed; slower access rates are also OK, you just can't
access any faster than the rated speed without problems. Isn't that
right?

So, tell me the truth: is it possible for a RAM chip to be too fast for
a particular machine, or was this Dell technician merely an intense
bonehead?

Oh, and if you can help with the original problem of getting 4 1Mb SIMMs
to work in a Dell system 200, I'd appreciate that too! ;-)