RAM not showing on Viper 1230/28 RTC

[motorollin]

I've got a Viper 1230/28 RTC which works in that the CPU is reported as a 68030/68882, but its 4MB RAM is not shown ("avail" reports 0 bytes of fast RAM).

Is there anything I need to do to make it see the RAM, or is the board borked?

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moto

[motorollin]

Update:

I put the RAM from the Viper on to my Blizzard and it worked, so it seems that the problem is either the Viper board itself or something I'm doing wrong.

--
moto

[motorollin]

Sorry I should have mentioned the jumpers. MEM0 and MEM1 are closed and all the other jumpers are open, which should be correct for a 4MB SIMM (which it definitely is).

--
moto

[motorollin]

Zac67 wrote:
Has that SIMM worked on that card before?

I have no idea. It was installed on the card when I got it recently in a box of Amiga stuff.

Zac67 wrote:
Have you tried another stick?

I don't have another one small enough. What would happen if I used a 16MB SIMM?

Zac67 wrote:
Is it possibly EDO and not compatible?

If it doesn't say on the RAM, is there any way to tell?

--
moto

[motorollin]

Zac67 wrote:

I don't have another one small enough. What would happen if I used a 16MB SIMM?

It might actually work (as 4 MB), but that depends on board layout and various detail. Can't really break anything so I'd try.

Ok, I'll try it the next time I am able to get the machine out.

Zac67 wrote:

Is it possibly EDO and not compatible?

If it doesn't say on the RAM, is there any way to tell?

FPMs usually have somewhat descriptive numbers... What do the chips say?[/quote]
There is a sticker with a part number "11D1320BA-70". I have found some web sites which reckon it's EDO and some which don't... so I don't know whether it's compatible or not.

--
moto

[motorollin]

Argus wrote:
You could try re-flashing the card.  I think the Viper is actually just a DKB Cobra

Are you sure? They have different entries on the BBOAH and look completely different.

Argus wrote:
so it won't recognize the memory on the card with OS3.1.  There's a flash chip on the card (a Xilink perhaps?) that needs the scsi flash update to make it compatible with OS3.1.

Any ideas where I can find the update? Will it fail if it's the wrong card, or would it break the card?

Argus wrote:
Otherwise, you could put 3.0 roms in your machine to make it see the memory and use the machine like that.

Not sure whether I've got any 3.0 ROMs anywhere. Would I be able to softkick 3.0, or would this not work if the OS can't see the RAM?

--
moto

[motorollin]

Zac67 wrote:
I guess that's the label on the SIMM itself (original IBM, probably EDO), possibly the chip code could provide better info.

Ok, the chips themselves are labelled "TP014400J2C-70". Had a quick Google and can't find anything meaningful - but then I don't really know what I'm looking for!

Zac67 wrote:
I guess I have at least a dozen 4 MB SIMMs dug up somewhere, mixed EDO/FPM. If you think it'd be worth the postage, I'll take a look.

Thanks! I'll try my 16MB SIMM and see what happens. If I still don't have any luck and it looks like the 4MB SIMM is incompatible then I might take you up on that.

Zac67 wrote:
BBoAH says it'll also take 8 MBs but probably only rare single sided ones?

I don't think a double-sided SIMM would fit.

--
moto

[motorollin]

Zac67 wrote:
Sorry, forgot to look for the RAMs a couple of times.

No problem!

Zac67 wrote:
If you're interested I could e.g. send you one of the 4 MB FPM ones and one of the 8 MB HP modules for testing. There are several of each type, so if you can use more than those, just tell me. PM your address and I'll check what the postage is. :-)

I'll let you know - thanks very much! I still need to try some of the other suggestions first, but I'll get back to you.

Cheers!

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moto