Apollo 1230 RAM woes

[Sidewinder]

I've had this little Apollo 1230 accelerator sitting around the house for some time now and I finally decided to try it out.  Well, it works...sort of.  The new 68030 processor is detected and the machine speed is faster, but the memory expansion doesn't seem to be working.  Well, I guess it does work...but only sometimes (like on Tuesdays).  :-)  The thing is that the card came with a 4MB 72pin 70ns SIMM that never worked for me.  So, I found an old 8MB SIMM and tried that, and it was detected and worked, but not well.  I had a huge number of memory errors and the machine crashed at unpredictable times.  A memory test found hundreds of addresses that were defective.  So I decided to swap the SIMM with another of the same type, 8MB 72pin 70ns.  Well this new memory was not detected at all.  So I switched back, and now the working (but defective)  SIMM is not being recognized.  I just don't get it.  It's all crazy and I can't tell if I have a defective Apollo board or if its something with the memory I'm using.  Does the Apollo accept 70ns memory or does it only work with 60ns?  Any ideas?

From what I've heard, most Apollo cards are very picky on SIMMs, so it could very well be that using a different brand (and of course 60 ns) would solve your problems. Btw, what model of the Apollo 1230 do you have?

[lorddef]

I think Apollo boards prefer fast page simms, I heard that they don't like edo although I used an Apollo 030 LC turbo board with edo and all was fine.

[Sidewinder]

Well, I ordered a brand new 16MB 60ns EDO RAM SIMM and installed that.  It actually worked!  But only once, naturally.  :-(  Now, whenever I have the Apollo card installed, the A1200 won't even boot (black screen).  The hard drive light flashes once quickly and then...nothing.  With or without the SIMM it's the same story.  I'm wondering if the processor died or something.  Unfortunately I don't know what version of the Apollo 1230 I have.  It doesn't have any markings that I can tell and I bought it already installed without any RAM.

[Quixote]

:-? Have you tried all of the simple things, such as cleaning the contacts where the board connects, and so on?

[Sidewinder]

Well, I'm not sure what to tell you guys, but today I plugged in the Apollo card again and it works like a charm.  Thanks for the help, but I think my 'miggy is possessed.  I'll call the local priest and see what he says about it.  ;-)

[Agafaster]

Sidewinder was heard mumbling...

I'll call the local priest and see what he says about it.

ok, but get him to hold off with the holy water !

you can tell what kind it is if you go to this page on the amiga-hardware site.

I've had both the Apollo 1230Lite (25MHz + FPU) which would only take up to 8MB (had trouble with EDO/FP, ended up with FP mode RAM) and the Apollo 1230 Mk III (40 MHz) which is well flaky. I eventually had to go back to the Lite, as NONE of the SIMMs I had (a 4MB EDO i got with the Lite, and an 8MB FPmode I got from Gasteiner, plus two 16 MB SIMMs I got off a mate (which worked for a bit, but not both at the same time, a la your problems)) would function in a manner satisfactory.
I think the probs might have stemmed -
a) from using an overclocked 68030-33
b) trying to use the bloody thing in a desktop 1200, with the weedy desktop PSU
c) the MkIII had a really bad edge connector so I couldnt use it upright in me Z4 tower. D'oh !

I can recommend the use of either trichloro-ethane spray, or if you prefer to not use such caustic stuff, some isopropyl alcohol spray and a tooth brush on all connectors (edge, SIMM, etc) and LET IT DRY BEFORE YOU TURN IT ON!!!  :-o  :-D