Re: GS memory problem

[Jim Pendarvis <jpendarv@patriot.net>]

Thanks David for your informative response.

The memory card is Apple. The error # is 308.

I've tried reseating the chips, but that didn't help. 2 banks are TI, 1 
bank is Oki, and the other is a mix of TI and Oki. I don't know if that 
would matter.

Would someone please send me a copy of the memory test program
"MemoryTest.CL" that David mentions below?

thanks, jim

On Thu, 13 Jun 2002, David Empson wrote:

> Jim Pendarvis <jpendarv@patriot.net> wrote:
> 
> > I picked up a Rom 1 GS this weekend. The memory card is fully populated.
> > The control panel recognizes the memory. Running the built-in system test
> > ends with "system good".
> 
> Unfortunately, the built in test doesn't test the memory expansion card,
> only the motherboard RAM.  You will need a separate memory test program
> to do it properly.
> 
> What brand is the memory expansion card?  Apple never supplied any
> memory testing software for their 1MB card, but most third party cards
> included test software which were able to show the location of the fault
> on a picture of the card.
> 
> > But I can't run GS-OS. Sometimes it just beeps and hangs. Other times I
> > get an error message (#307?) about trashed memory. A few times I've ended
> > up in the monitor. 
> > 
> > I suspect a memory problem.
> 
> Me too.  System error 0308 is one of the classic symptoms of a faulty
> chip on your memory expansion card (or some other fault on the card).
> 
> It could  be a memory corrupting bug in your system software or an
> application, but this isn't very likely.
> 
> The other classic symptoms of memory corruption are system errors 0681
> and 0682.
> 
> Error 0307 ("unsuccessful firmware task") is pretty unlikely to occur,
> so I assume you misquoted the number and it was actually 0308 ("damaged
> heartbeat queue").
> 
> > How can I tell for sure? and how would I identify the problem chip(s)?
> 
> A memory tester run for a while should reveal a fault.  The only program
> I can suggest off the top of my head is "MemoryTest.CL", which is
> supplied with AppleWorks GS.  I seem to recall it being very reliable at
> finding faults.
> 
> It can pinpoint a fault to a bank number (and might indicate which bit
> within the byte is faulty - I don't recall).
> 
> Once you have the bank number, you need to identify which physical row
> on the card is affected, and which chip within the row.  The best way to
> handle this is to get the information from someone else who has the same
> card and knows how it is laid out.  If necessary, you can locate the
> faulty chip with systematic swapping and rearrangement (assuming there
> is only one faulty chip).
> 
> It might be as simple as a poor connection between one chip and its
> socket - try removing and reinserting all of the RAM chips (observing
> the usual antistatic precautions, of course).
> 
> -- 
> David Empson
> dempson@actrix.gen.nz
>