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IWETHEY Home / IWETHEY Board / Open Forum / Great googly moogly
Post #306,529
by drook
Picture of drook
3/31/09 9:48:17 PM
4/1/09 9:03:28 PM
Reply
New Great googly moogly
I never thing about Craigslist. Thanks for the pointer.


[update]

And I'm back with three brand-new sticks of 256MB for $10 each. The guy had a whole tray of them he found in his home office when he started packing to move. But ...

I installed them and they didn't work. System wouldn't even POST. Little research suggests I need to update the BIOS. Okay, let's see if I can find a floppy. Ah, there they are, now are they any good? Gosh, can't tell, the box doesn't see the floppy drive. Of course, why should anything work the first time.

So 15 minutes of research, nothing working. Laptop doesn't have a floppy drive. Wait! The old laptop from four jobs back, that has a floppy. And a bad battery. And the USB never worked. And I don't know if I can even get it online any more.

Okay, let's try booting from CD. Download the new BIOS, write to CD, reboot, and ... nothing. If you've done this before you know why. A CD with all the right system files is not the same as a bootable CD. So ... research how to make it bootable. Second disk, mount loopback, blah blah blah ... reboot, and ... can't select anything from the menu.

Because of course the DRDOS boot image I grabbed doesn't support USB, which is what my keyboard is using. [sigh] Into the closet, yup, got an old keyboard. Plug it in and ... new BIOS! Yay! And holy crap it's 7:45 and I haven't had dinner yet.

Will be swapping the memory out again shortly. Please-please-please-please-please-please-please-please-please let it work.


[update2]

Four beeps on POST, no video. Various docs report as either memory or timer issue.

I hate computers.
--

Drew
Expand Edited by drook April 1, 2009, 08:25:59 PM EDT
Expand Edited by drook April 1, 2009, 09:03:28 PM EDT
Expand All History
Post #306,591
by drook
Picture of drook
4/2/09 9:38:41 AM
Reply
New Oh well, just lost $30
Turns out the Tabor MP440BX had several revisions. Mine is the 4000444. The 4000569 (or maybe 4000560) revision supported faster CPUs and more memory. I can't find any documentation saying it should take more memory, but saw forum threads where people had that board and tried the memory and it worked. Mine does have a memory controller that can handle the 256MB sticks, but the board itself won't.

I suspect that the hardware might actually be able to handle it, but the latest available BIOS update is dated 11/30/1999. Once the newer boards were out, they stopped updating the BIOS.
--

Drew
Post #306,592
by Another Scott
4/2/09 10:05:16 AM
Reply
New :-(
I know what you mean about hating computers.

Will he take them back? Maybe throw in a pizza to sweeten the offer? ;-)

Cheers,
Scott.
Post #306,594
by drook
Picture of drook
4/2/09 10:14:41 AM
Reply
New With half a tray full of them he's still trying to sell?
I'm not sure how many were in that pack to start, but I'd guess he's still got at least ten more of them he's trying to unload. I'll just take it as a learning experience, and maybe list them on ebay myself, try to recover some of it.
--

Drew
     Anybody got spares in the closet? - (drook) - (33) - March 31, 2009, 11:13:48 AM EDT
         Probably have some . . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (17) - March 31, 2009, 11:16:25 AM EDT
             Groovy, danke -NT - (drook) - (16) - March 31, 2009, 11:20:47 AM EDT
                 Re: Groovy, danke - (Andrew Grygus) - (15) - March 31, 2009, 02:39:32 PM EDT
                     Neat - (drook) - March 31, 2009, 02:54:58 PM EDT
                     Wrong memory type?? - (scoenye) - (13) - March 31, 2009, 08:17:13 PM EDT
                         Well, that's easy to check. - (Andrew Grygus) - (6) - March 31, 2009, 09:05:37 PM EDT
                             Two notches -NT - (drook) - (5) - March 31, 2009, 09:16:50 PM EDT
                                 256s are pretty scarce in that format. - (Andrew Grygus) - (4) - March 31, 2009, 09:20:31 PM EDT
                                     Great timing - (drook) - (3) - March 31, 2009, 09:28:32 PM EDT
                                         A check of eBAY, PC133 256 . . . - (Andrew Grygus) - (2) - March 31, 2009, 09:37:37 PM EDT
                                             Don't know what I was searching for before - (drook) - (1) - March 31, 2009, 09:53:02 PM EDT
                                                 Oh, they'll be expensive through normal distribution . . . - (Andrew Grygus) - March 31, 2009, 10:14:52 PM EDT
                         If that's the case... - (Another Scott) - (5) - March 31, 2009, 09:10:40 PM EDT
                             It's already got 2 x 128 - (drook) - (4) - March 31, 2009, 09:23:08 PM EDT
                                 XFCE... dude -NT - (folkert) - (3) - March 31, 2009, 09:26:05 PM EDT
                                     Performance is a hardware issue - (drook) - (2) - March 31, 2009, 09:33:50 PM EDT
                                         You might want to bite the bullet. - (Another Scott) - (1) - March 31, 2009, 09:48:18 PM EDT
                                             Well damn - (drook) - March 31, 2009, 10:01:07 PM EDT
         What motherboard is it going in? -NT - (folkert) - (4) - March 31, 2009, 11:38:29 AM EDT
             Re: What motherboard is it going in? - (drook) - (3) - March 31, 2009, 11:56:00 AM EDT
                 Drookenstein? - (folkert) - (2) - March 31, 2009, 08:25:27 PM EDT
                     Yup, docs on the board say 256MB max -NT - (drook) - (1) - March 31, 2009, 09:05:31 PM EDT
                         Re: Yup, docs on the board say 256MB max - (folkert) - March 31, 2009, 09:20:32 PM EDT
         I'll check too, when I get home. -NT - (Another Scott) - March 31, 2009, 11:42:43 AM EDT
         I have one..think its pc 2100? - (beepster) - (1) - March 31, 2009, 12:43:34 PM EDT
             Thanks, looks like Andrew's got twins - (drook) - March 31, 2009, 02:55:35 PM EDT
         Re: Anybody got spares in the closet? - (lincoln) - (1) - March 31, 2009, 07:38:19 PM EDT
             See above, docs say 256MB max -NT - (drook) - March 31, 2009, 09:04:42 PM EDT
         Take a drive to Lorain? - (Another Scott) - (4) - March 31, 2009, 09:32:24 PM EDT
             Great googly moogly - (drook) - (3) - April 1, 2009, 09:03:28 PM EDT
                 Oh well, just lost $30 - (drook) - (2) - April 2, 2009, 09:38:41 AM EDT
                     :-( - (Another Scott) - (1) - April 2, 2009, 10:05:16 AM EDT
                         With half a tray full of them he's still trying to sell? - (drook) - April 2, 2009, 10:14:41 AM EDT

Black candle lit.
83 ms