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[0123456]

had a memory upgrade performed on a tester board the other day using memory salvaged from another mobo (bought in - not self removed). xbmc reports that it has 128 mb of ram, the memcheck.xbe reports the following:

Tested Memory 131072
Memeory Blocks OK 54938
Memory Blocks Error 0
Blocks not able to allocate 76134
Number of CRC errors 0

the soldering is perfect, no errors there - why is the not able to allocate 64mb? also it doesn't say there are any block errors or crc errors?

is this normal?

im waiting for a batch of brand new ram chips (which is what will be used for all customer installs). a seller had a set of chips removed from a mobo that were cheap so i picked em up and had them fitted to this mobo - could the chips have been damaged when they were removed? should i burn the memcheck.xbe to a disk so it boots automatically instead of running it through evox?

also - what apps (apart from linux) should i use to test the new capabilities of the upgrade (mame titles would be good).

This post has been edited by 0123456: May 21 2004, 04:36 PM

[~CaneZ~]

if i remember correctly the video card uses some of the ram to so that wont be counted for since it being used. also mame will run much faster now. also n64 emus will run faster too.

[A@ron]

76134 / 1024 = 74.34 MB > 64 MB

I would guess that the ram is most likely fine, try running MAMEoX with a rom like Mars Matrix (which only works with 128 MB boards). Some people don't like using removed RAM, personally since I have a SMT reworking station and the chips are subjected to temperatures below their stress temperature on the data sheets of 302 F I've had no problems. Where you get into chip failure is when people use tools not intended for doing SMT work for removing the chips (for example at one time people used ovens!) that can lead to damage and chip failure.

A@ron

[0123456]

thanks for the swift responses. i'll get it tested with mars matrix - the chips were installed using surface mounting equipment, we think that removal was performed using the "hot wire behind the chip and pull" method.

once the brand new chips arrive we will have something to compare the test run too. its just that the memcheck figures not tallying that was annoying.

[A@ron]

GAH! Why do people always try to cut corners when they don't have the proper equipment. If they got damaged it would have been during removal but test it with that specific rom and if that runs should be all good to go. You also can max the settings on Surreal 64 and run any rom there and show the debug information.

A@ron