[ale] RAM and Harddrives

[Jon Reagan]

It appears that I do have a PATA drive, as it has the same sockets (plugs?)
as in all the pictures from wikipedia and Google, and differs from the SATA
connections.  I also noticed that the RAM can go all the way to 128 MB, so
currently, I have half of what I could have.  I'll do some testing with
various harddrives.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Jon

2008/4/27 Michael H. Warfield <mhw at wittsend.com>:

>
> 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/
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> all
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