Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!fox!portal!cup.portal.com!Henry_Burdett_Messenger
From: Henry_Burdett_Messenger@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: 520 ST upgrade to 2.5 Meg
Message-ID: <25743@cup.portal.com>
Date: 9 Jan 90 04:27:22 GMT
References: <31728@pbhya.PacBell.COM>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 68


> I am not too familiar with the innards
> of my machine, and after talking with some dealers I am even more confused.

        I don't blame you; they don't understand them, and they have
        an unbelievable ability to pass on their confusion to others.
 
> 1)  Can the ease of upgrading the memory be dependent on which version of
>     TOS I am running, or are these entirely separate issues?

        They are totally separate issues.

        However, TOS V1.4 is more _convenient_ to use with large memory
        machines, because it does not insist on clearing all free memory
        at image activation time. There are patches that alter this
        behavior on older versions of TOS.
 
> 2)  One dealer says it will take three weeks, another says it takes an
>     hour (and his cost is better too.)  However, after 6 weeks the chips
>     are not in yet.  Other dealers confirm that the chips are hard to
>     get.  There is no dealer in the S.F. Bay Area that can do the work
>     *now*, mainly because the chips are not available.  Is this normal?

        Ah, so you want the _dealer_ to do it for you. Not an unreasonable
        attitude.

        "The chips are hard to get"? You _must_ be joking. I live in the
        SF Bay Area, and I just upgraded my machine (1040STf) to 2.5 
        megabytes. I bought a Z-RAM 3D from San Jose Computer, and 
        1 megabit low-power CMOS DRAMs from Fry's Electronics in 
        Sunnyvale. Both were easy to get (one afternoon) and install
        (took me about a day). 
 
> 3)  One dealer said that in  January there will be a board that will
>     accept plug-in memory chips.  Is this really true?  Will it really
>     be in January (1990)?

        Come now. See above.
 
> 4)  Where can I get the chips, assuming I will have to get them myself,
>     and dealers don't have them?
 
        Fry's advertised price, 1 Mb/80 nS DRAMs: $8.99 each.

> 5)  What sorts of things can go wrong during this procedure, and how can
>     I test it afterwards?  (I assume by reading & writing to the highest
>     memory location???)  I am conversant in assembler if the answer to
>     this requires such.

        Well, unfortunately many things can go wrong.

        The expansion board I used came with two diagnostic programs: one
        a simple tester, and the other is an exerciser. 

        It also came with a LOT of troubleshooting information, including
        scope, multimeter and logic probe tests. 

        Oh, I forgot to mention: the documentation says the company will 
        do the whole schmear for you for $30, and return your ST to you
        in 72 hours. And they're in southern California, not too far away.
  
> Guy Ridley

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Henry B. Messenger                     | Suspended in Ethernet
henry_burdett_messenger@cup.portal.com |
Opinions expressed are my own; I have no connection to the above companies
except as a satisfied customer