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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

769.0. "Spirit Technology 1.5M Ram for A500" by OASIS2::BERNARD (Have Gun - Will Travel) Sun Oct 04 1987 03:02


                          Spirit Technology

                     Inboard A500 RAM Expansion


                       Product Comments by

                         John D. Bernard
                        37 Candice Street
                       Clinton, Ma   01510
                         (617) 365-6215

   The following comments pertain to the Spirit Technology model IN-500-15
INBOARD 500 MEMORY CARD. 

   This memory expansion board is intended for the A500.  It is a 1.5meg
expansion ram board intended to be installed inside the A500 case.  The
methodology for installation is to remove the 68000 chip, reinsert the chip
into the expansion ram board, and then insert this board into the 68000
chip socket.

  I picked this board up this saturday, 3-oct-87.  The board comes nicely
packaged in an anti-static poly bag and comes complete with a disk which
contains all installation instructions.

  The A500 disassembly was quite straight forward.  Removal of the 68000
will present no problems as long as you are adequately grounded.  Installation
of the 68000 chip into the epansion ram board was, again, quite straight
forward. 

  At this time, the first dificulty was encountered.  There are several
components on the A500 motherboard which stand too tall to allow the add-on
board to plug into the chip socket.  This was solved by bending over the
offending components (a resistor) and resoldering a filter capacitor so that
it would lay flat.

  The board would now physically plug in, but was quite unstable.  The plug
used allowed the board to unseat several times before I applied enough
pressure to seat it thoroughly.  There is a jumper (chip clip) that has to 
be connected to the GARY chip.  This was done and initial power applied
to run the tests as the instructions stated.  The system came up in an
error state (flashing green screen).  After troubleshooting, the force needed
to keep the board seated was enough to disturb another chip on the mother-
board.  After reseating everything, power was again applied.  The board passed
all the tests supplied so I booted the system and took a look at the memory
seen by the system.  I normally have approximately 800-900K free memory ( I
have 1 meg internal).  The memory reported was 1658496 free.  This seems
to indicate approximately 2 meg free memory.  The board is supposed to bring
the system to 2.5 meg internal ram.

  On reassembling the system, the fcc shield has to be bent, again as per
instructions, to clear the board.  Not major surgery.  The problem that 
terminated the use of this product in its present form was the fact that
the board is physically too long to allow the fcc shield to be put back on
without pressing on the board.  This pressure unseated the board from the
chip socket it plugs into.  In addition, the bend then interferes with the
keyboard, not allowing it to seat fully into the case.  This in turn puts
pressure on the case top so that it does not seat properly and must be
forced, causing it to bulge.  

  The only reason I even went this far was to give the product every
chance as well as to document what the problems were.  I spent over 3
hours evaluating and trying different approaches after following the
instructions to the letter.  The amount of butchering which would have
had to be done to POSSIBLY make this board fit acceptably was in itself
unacceptable.  The option, by the way, was $469.00.  For this amount,
I expect to plug and play.

  The board itself is laid out very well and is of high quality.  Perhaps
the A500 the manufacturer used to develop the board had slightly different
dimensions than production model A500's.

  I am dissappointed but not upset.  The very fact that options are coming
out for the A500 this quickly is quite encouraging.  I am enclosing this
text with the returned board to the Software Shop.  I expect Moe will not
give me any hassle since I think I'll invest in an external hard disk/mem
expansion instead of this particular board.


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