_Dude,_ that RAM Check device would be a complete godsend, I've gotta get one of those someday. Especially with those SIMM adapters. I've got so many bags and boxes of untested memory modules that I have no idea about, argh. I hope you can track down the adapters -- or some hero sends them to you!
Hey LGR.. How you doin'? As we say here in NJ.. I have a few of those PS2 to USB adapters from way back.. Would you be interested? Or maybe Adrian if he sees this? Let me know.. (^_-)/
Indeed! At first I wasn't so sure but then when I tried to get a Pentium board running with SDRAM, it kept having issues. Turned out all that SDRAM was simply bad! I know I have similar issues with other RAM I have too.
@LGR & @Adrian, have you tried to contact them on memorytesters.com/ramcheck/rcsimm.htm for the adapter? Because "The RAMCHECK SIMM Adapter is available now and works with any RAMCHECK"
@@radekvamowski8092 Innoventions went under during COVID, the only place to get adapters for their products is currently eBay unless a third party seller purchased up their inventory. From their website: "Innoventions, Inc. has closed its business operations permanently as of May 5, 2020 due to COVID-19. We are sorry for any inconvenience." innoventions.com/ I'd tinkered with one of the older SIMMCheck units, and it did OK with 30 pin SIMM's (timing values it came back with were pretty loose), but in order to utilize the separate/external 72-pin module tester you needed a separate, external power supply that was near impossible to find.
Congratulations 🎉 for 100K Subs!! And thanks for mention my channel. ☺️. This Intel chip removing tool is really helpful indeed. Great video as always. Greez from Austria 🇦🇹
386 breakout board: A0 and A1 isnt used externally since they select which byte to address, but that is handled internally since the data bus is 4 bytes wide.
to expand on this - if anyone is wondering "well how does it do unaligned reads, then?" the answer is that it does two aligned reads, and then shuffles bytes around as necessary. you can now imagine why a lot of newer and/or more compact architectures straight-up forbid unaligned reads.
@@ravegirlcyan And also why malloc implementations align all allocations to usually at least the largest data type the CPU will handle natively, and why structure members, stack frame elements and other data types are aligned to size of the underlying primitive data type by default, to avoid crossing these boundaries whenever possible.
The 68000 is similar in that they omit the A0 address pin. It has UDS_N and LDS_N (Upper and Lower data strobe) output pins to denote which byte should get written to RAM (or mem-mapped IO). Of course, that isn't usually required for reads, but if you have an IO chip with only an 8-bit wide bus, then you can just check LDS_N for valid writes.
Early x86 CPUs used a von Nuemann architecture. The 386 was around the era when they morphed across into using a modified Harvard architecture where accesses go through caches. The CPU accesses external memory 32bits at a time but internally it can access 8 and 16bits from the caches.
Oh that RAMCHECK unit is super useful! After I had those 30-pin SIMM boards and chips sent to you for the Let's Make Some Memories project, I ordered some 72-pin SIMMs from a local eBay vendor, and they came with a nice test print-out. It said RAMCHECK on it, so I googled that and discovered these testers existed. I immediately jumped on eBay and searched for RAMCHECK, and ended up paying way too much to import a unit from the US! It only came with the default DIMM module adapter, so that wasn't that wasn't that useful. I did some more searching and found a 72-pin adapter from an eBay vendor in Germany, but I ordered it at the height of the pandemic, and the vendor sent me a message saying he couldn't actually send it since there weren't any flights from Europe to Australia, so I had to cancel the order. I can still find it in my watch list, although for some reason it doesn't show up in a search (listed as model RC72SIMM-ADA, maybe it's restricted to eBay Germany). In any case it's just the 72-pin model, not the combo 30- and 72-pin model. I ended up ordering the older SIMMCHECK model from another US eBay vendor, which came with both the built-in 30-pin socket and also the 72-pin expansion module. It's not as good as the RAMCHECK, as I believe the PC interface is only used for updating the firmware, and can't be used to automate testing and get a report on the results. Hopefully you can get a hold of the 30- and 72-pin adapter module. Although it should just be a passive adapter, so really all you'd need to design your own is the pinout of the expansion connectors. SIMM sockets are pretty commonly available on eBay. EDIT: Looks like someone else in the comments has reported that the company is basically shut down permanently, which is a real shame. Anyway, if you do manage to get a hold of an adapter module, it would be good to reverse engineer it so we could make our own!
I remember in college we folks in the Computer Science department spent a day opening up every VT terminal we had in our student lab to disconnect that *damned* speaker because some students were turning on the annoying key click feature.
Also new bad parts bin or tub bad Ram modules. Actually I turned my first bad Ram module I ever troubleshooted and found was bad into a keychain. And then I was at a computer place and realize they actually made these from Bad Ram modules. Don't know if they were just recycled from various sources or was that made in-house from Ram modules that I did not make the cut. Don't know if there was anything to indicate on them they were bad I just saw the little cookie jar thing with them in it. It was a retail product itself just thought I'd mention anyone else seen these? They should make a little PC board ruler that looks like a stick of RAM. Also wondering if they have a connector of some sort that would be numerous pins but would look basically like a ram module or something like that! That would have holes for zip ties to attach cabling. Might be an effective way to terminate large numbers of conductors to a board. Wish there's a way to do that with card Edge as well. Essentially a card Edge connector that would just be a piece of PC board with card Edge and sorrow holes instead of a full card. Sometimes I've seen both connectors used s interconnects between boards. So theoretically one could actually have a connector that mates with one of those sockets to do the same when numerous conductors are required besides the board connector could be a standard connector differently available
Adrian, Adam here! Glad you enjoyed the candy! I voided the warranty on that Unitek keyboard to clean it internally. It's a beast on the inside too.:). Well built.
When cooking sugar the temperature at which you cook it to determines the finished texture. The names derive from dripping a sample into cold water and feeling the results. After syrups is softball to hardball which includes taffy’s and caramels and then the crack stages like brittles and toffees to outright hard coatings.
There is always going to be a following for people posting these long-format deep dive videos. I watch them to relax even though essentially all of the hardware he tinkers on are outside of my typical interest due to being older than I am. Watching troubleshooting vids and soldering vids are always satisfying.
Address 0/1 on the CPU breakout are missing because those two lines address the byte, but the bus is 4 bytes wide, so a read will select the correct byte internal to the CPU and a write will either have 4x byte enable / write enable signals to select which byte(s) to write, or the bus doesn't support byte mode at all and the CPU will do a read-modify-write.
That NE2000 NIC brings me back! The first NIC I ever setup in my own 486 PC was a 16 bit NE2000 NIC with only a coax connector on it. My best friend lived next door and we had a 10 mbit coax network setup between the houses. It worked great for early LAN gaming in the Doom & Duke3D days! We used to buy BNC terminators by the dozen cause they seemed to fail constantly! We all kept NICs with BNC connectors on them in our PCs until 1999 when we started getting cable modems and moved on to regular 10/100 ethernet.
Adrian, fantastic video as always. @14:18, this is called a 386 breakout board. @34:17 - Its called "I am not A Candy Maker" Toffee is made from granulated sugar that has been melted down and heated to the "Hard Crack" stage which is above 295 degrees F. Concentration of sugar after this temp has been reached is 99% (Other stages have lower concentrations of sugar)
I remember seeing the ram check all the time at "computer show" events where you could buy 486 era parts straight from a China importers. The booths buying/selling ram would test 30/72 pin ram right in front of you... What I would give to go back in time and go to one of these shows in the 90's as a kid with my father. Fond memories!! I think they were called tri-state computer show and sales or something.
That must have been such a fantastic experience to have for a burgeoning techie back in the day. By the time I got into it, such things were no longer being held, since it was the late '90's, early '00's.
4:00 Oooh, nice. That's a VT 100/101/102 terminal keyboard from what I can tell. That's the very first computer I had ever programmed on (DEC had a version that ran CP/M locally). They had a computer bus that visited my Jr High school in the 80s, in Massachusetts.
Yes, a little-known feature of those terminals was an extra slot to add a small computer board. The terminals themselves used an 8085; I wonder if it was also possible to just add more RAM and I/O on a board?
I also found your channel by watching the lcd tv repair video and have been hooked ever since! I was a ti99 collector in the early 2000s when things were affordable on ebay
Adrian, yes, you are correct! These are Intel Slot1 termination adapter for dual slot1 P!! and P!!! CPUs. You need to validate with your motherboard manual in which slot to put the CPU and in which to put the terminator, turning a dual slot1 motherboard into a single CPU. Wow! You're killing it lately! I know you said you're busier, but I'll take what you can give us!
The RAMCHECK, god I wish I'd had one of them back when I built & repaired computers, the time spent testing RAM on motherboards trying to diagnose the troubles they gave was such a time-waster, and this thing, wow, I could have saved so much time in my job!!!
I found some Ramcheck 72-pins SIMM adapters for you Adrian, but the seller apparantly only ships to Europe (it's a German seller). I could order one for you if you'd like and send it to you 👍 They're not really cheap though... You might also be able to use one of Rammy's 30 pin to 72 pin adapters and be able to test the boatload of 30-pin simms he owns with it on the Ramcheck ;-) Rammy is gradualy becoming sort of a hoarder, but I guess it takes one to know one 🤣
Hey congrats on the 100K subs! Your videos are awesome and you are a great story teller, thank you for your talent and for taking the time to produce them!
@15:59 That's not a PLCC, PLCC stands for "Plastic Leadless Chip Carrier" -- note the Leadless part. Those are PGA (Pin Grid Array) chips, though I believe some 386 did come in PLCC as well.
For memory modules which act flaky and sometimes work, while other times not, check the module for tarnished contacts. The copper plating on old memory modules gets tarnished over time and can lead to a bad connection between the module and the memory slot. Sometimes inserting and removing it a few times will scratch the oxide off, but the best way is to just use contact cleaner or Deoxit Gold. This can happen to motherboard slots too, so if you have a flaky board that complains about memory, or certain addin slots are flaky, hose them down with contact cleaner as well. I've had many, MANY memory modules test bad, for it to only be tarnished contacts, or a tarnished memory slot.
NE2000 cards are fun; the short version is the NE1000 and 2000 cards were basically made by Novell (and NE is "Novell Ethernet") built around a National Semiconductors part. Novell made the cards very cheap and they're basically why Ethernet beat Token Ring in many ways. The only real difference in software between NE1000 and 2000 is the 1000 uses byte mode data transfer while the 2000 uses word based data transfer, primarily dealing with how the ISA bus can do data mode transfers. Still need to watch the rest but thanks for the shoutout!
Wow that keyboard brings back memories. Used VT100s & 340s connected to Vaxes in mid to late 80s (along with several Pericom graphics (Tektronix-compatible) terminals). Very sturdy (tank-like) beasties :-)
Consider this post a late thank you for the trashpick TV video, it helped me when trying to fix my old Samsung a couple months ago, when I accidentally fried the processor board and had issues with the first replacement. Seriously wish service manuals were more freely given, for all the talk of making parts/repairs easier I never hear about this.
Dude, every single video you do is interesting. I hear your voice, and the catchy intro...that's it, I have to watch all the way through, like it , and comment. Keep doing what you do, I appreciate it.
When I worked for the geeksquad in like 07-08 we had either the same or similar ram tester with the same adapters. I don't know how many actual PCs they fix now a days, but at some point they actually fixed stuff.
Yeah, remember the TV video. I think my first Adrian video was taking apart LED light bulbs from Dollar Tree. That RAM Check tester is an awesome add to your tool kit. Now you need to get the adaptors and a tester for DIP chips.
I had a keyboard like that that was part of a DEC VT100 terminal. The terminal went bad and I tossed it. I regret doing that as it was probably just a bad capacitor in the power supply.
We used to have a memory tester when I worked at Frys. It could do 30, 72 and 144 pin modules. The 144 side could test Fast Page, EDO and SDRAM all on the same socket.
I STRONGLY RECOMMEND using a rubber eraser on the RAM pins and other expansion card pins if they seem to be giving any trouble. I have fixed so many that way.
...and don't use your breath to blow off the eraser shavings! Back in the day I fixed a couple of misbehaving Macs (don't touch them and they spontaneously crash) by eraser-ing the RAM contacts.
That feeling of a newly cleaned ball mouse is soooo good. It is just night and day. As roving "computer guy" to my friends they always wonder what magic I performed on their mice.
I remember spending nearly $30 back in the late 90's to purchase my first optical mouse because I kept getting annoyed at the dead zones that my traditional ball mouse had in it's mechanism.
I don't even have a need for that ram tester and I still want one. That's got to be invaluable if you have the right adapters. Turtles are pretty common in the US. I see them regularly, often they'll sell them individually (or two in a packet) at grocery checkouts. Toffee differs from caramel in that toffee includes butter and almond in addition to caramelized sugar.
Back in the 90's we installed a number of those ne2000 cards they had anti virus built-in to the roms. The card would scan files sent and received through the network. The problem was updating the AV signatures they quickly were out of date.
I'd bet that the modules at 27:20 and 28:20 are both 66MHz and being misdetected/ran at 100Mhz/83Mhz. Can you force the tester to 66Mhz for those 2 modules?
I'd recommend cleaning the pins on anything that's tested in a ZIF socket. I have had a bunch of stuff test bad until I cleaned it with a solvent or IPA in a similar tester
Don't be too hasty to throw away your bad ram. You may be able to scavenge good chips to replace bad ones, especially if you have a ram test machine and can tell which ones are bad. If not yourself, someone else might be willing to do the work
If you can run Memtest86+ on the module, you can figure out which chip is bad because Memtest will tell you which memory address is bad. Since the memory map is linear and the memory module pinout is known, you can just calculate which memory chip on the module the bad address resides in and replace it.
Especially if he can get his hands on a better hot air resoldering station with a more diffuse tip. Pulling surface mount RAM chips becomes comparatively trivial then.
38:10 I know what you mean. The keyboards I use tend to have 3 or 4 key rollover, and that's fine. I have a rather expensive wireless keyboard that only has 2 key rollover, which kind of sucks for a gaming keyboard, but the main issue I have with it is typing words like "robERT" or sTREam" where the ERT section doesn't let you press all 3 at the same time, so the words come out as "rober" and "stram". I put that keyboard away and went back to using my old one after only 2 weeks.
Some RAM have a few swapped data lines, some have a few/less pins. GVP memory for the Amiga accelerators comes to mind. Some of the ones with data lines failure might be special ram for printers etc.
Doesn't that only work on new computers that use UEFI? I know my pre-UEFI computer refuses to run it no matter what I do-and anything newer probably only supports DDR3 or higher.
My first DOS based PC was an Epson 386sx-16mhz. It came with a staggering 2mb of ram, and 40mb hard drive, running windows 3.1. If I remember right, my parents paid upwards of 3k for the machine, printer, and monitor!
We used to see vendors using some variety of those RAM checkers at the computer shows. Usually it was to verify for their in-house warranty. If a RAM stick went bad, they would replace it at the next show if you brought it in.
Oh my goodness, hearing you say Almonte like that is so funny! It's just two syllables -- Al Mont. You've been living in the US for too long! :D I live in Toronto but grew up in London, Ontario and Ottawa as well.
Oh yeah, I have pets, so I need to keep a cover on the couch at all times, and I always have a spot cleaner tool to clean furniture or rugs (It supports carpet as well, but my house is all hard wood).
The Intel breakout board was probably for one of their In Circuit Debugger systems for embedded code development. A cheaper option would be a logic analyser coupled with a disassembler....
I spent many hours typing on VT100 keyboards in college and I can't say that the height was an issue. However when you moved up in the pecking order enough to rate one of the new VT220 terminals with LK201 keyboard that was a big deal.
I haven’t seen CPU bus terminators in 23 years! And yes these were for SMP systems. One was on the board. We did a lot of work with SMP in the mid to late 90s. Pentiums were notoriously useless at SMP. So we ran a lot of MIPS still. And I lost one of those terminators and thought: “these distances are so small it wouldn’t matter”. Well that Windows system hung at the rarest moments. The reflections would probably signal wrong data on the data- or address bus and it was all over. When I found not again on our massive messy workbench, it ran “stable” (as stable as NT 4.0) would.
Bet you could construct your own ramcheck interface adapters from sockets and connectors etc.lying around in your shop junk.. just check the connections on the adapters you have for reference.. Job done..!!
A quick tip for the goo in the couch: try icing it down with ice spray and then scrape it away. This works surprisingly good with sticky stuff in fabric like e.g. chewing gum...
Acetone works wonders for cleaning both dot matrix printer platens (the roller) and mice balls. It softens the outer layer, which as it ages hardens and become slippery. The only issue i see with using a scotchbrite on the ball is that you are removing material, which will wear the ball out after a time. Acetone probably will too, but i never noticed much material loss (by looking at the cleaning rag after). So Acetone may be a better bet for cleaning mice balls. Just a thought.
I used to use one of those Ramcheckers , great when it was new but after a few years the connectors all got worn and it would fail good modules. Try finding a module that passes and then gently wobble the module.
I still buy the AT style keyboards. Made by one of the factories that made them for the original IBM PC-AT. All mechanical, and they can be ordered with USB. Never had a key failure, the only issues i have ever had were the USB connectivity getting flakey. Which i have not bothered to diagnose yet. I suspect perhaps a bad connection internally. But for fans of the PC-AT "clicky" keyboard, google "Unicomp". It's nice to have a quality keyboard that can actually take some physical abuse.
The Adresslines 0 and 1 are missing because of the 32 bit data access. If a byte or word wants to be accessed there are 4 additional lines responsible to allow access single bytes or words .
_Dude,_ that RAM Check device would be a complete godsend, I've gotta get one of those someday. Especially with those SIMM adapters. I've got so many bags and boxes of untested memory modules that I have no idea about, argh.
I hope you can track down the adapters -- or some hero sends them to you!
Hey LGR.. How you doin'? As we say here in NJ.. I have a few of those PS2 to USB adapters from way back.. Would you be interested? Or maybe Adrian if he sees this? Let me know.. (^_-)/
Maybe Santa will bring you one for....CHRISTMUUUUUUSSSSS
Indeed! At first I wasn't so sure but then when I tried to get a Pentium board running with SDRAM, it kept having issues. Turned out all that SDRAM was simply bad! I know I have similar issues with other RAM I have too.
@LGR & @Adrian, have you tried to contact them on memorytesters.com/ramcheck/rcsimm.htm for the adapter?
Because "The RAMCHECK SIMM Adapter is available now and works with any RAMCHECK"
@@radekvamowski8092 Innoventions went under during COVID, the only place to get adapters for their products is currently eBay unless a third party seller purchased up their inventory. From their website: "Innoventions, Inc. has closed its business operations permanently as of May 5, 2020 due to COVID-19. We are sorry for any inconvenience." innoventions.com/
I'd tinkered with one of the older SIMMCheck units, and it did OK with 30 pin SIMM's (timing values it came back with were pretty loose), but in order to utilize the separate/external 72-pin module tester you needed a separate, external power supply that was near impossible to find.
Congratulations 🎉 for 100K Subs!! And thanks for mention my channel. ☺️. This Intel chip removing tool is really helpful indeed. Great video as always. Greez from Austria 🇦🇹
386 breakout board: A0 and A1 isnt used externally since they select which byte to address, but that is handled internally since the data bus is 4 bytes wide.
to expand on this - if anyone is wondering "well how does it do unaligned reads, then?" the answer is that it does two aligned reads, and then shuffles bytes around as necessary. you can now imagine why a lot of newer and/or more compact architectures straight-up forbid unaligned reads.
@@ravegirlcyan And also why malloc implementations align all allocations to usually at least the largest data type the CPU will handle natively, and why structure members, stack frame elements and other data types are aligned to size of the underlying primitive data type by default, to avoid crossing these boundaries whenever possible.
Of course thanks! That makes total sense when I just think about it!!
The 68000 is similar in that they omit the A0 address pin.
It has UDS_N and LDS_N (Upper and Lower data strobe) output pins to denote which byte should get written to RAM (or mem-mapped IO).
Of course, that isn't usually required for reads, but if you have an IO chip with only an 8-bit wide bus, then you can just check LDS_N for valid writes.
Early x86 CPUs used a von Nuemann architecture. The 386 was around the era when they morphed across into using a modified Harvard architecture where accesses go through caches. The CPU accesses external memory 32bits at a time but internally it can access 8 and 16bits from the caches.
From 2000 until 2005 I worked in a computer store doing builds and repairs. The sound of that RAM tester brought back a lot of memories!
Same! It was super handy to have, but ours didn’t do DDR, so it was only good for Pentium III and older platforms.
Oh that RAMCHECK unit is super useful!
After I had those 30-pin SIMM boards and chips sent to you for the Let's Make Some Memories project, I ordered some 72-pin SIMMs from a local eBay vendor, and they came with a nice test print-out. It said RAMCHECK on it, so I googled that and discovered these testers existed. I immediately jumped on eBay and searched for RAMCHECK, and ended up paying way too much to import a unit from the US! It only came with the default DIMM module adapter, so that wasn't that wasn't that useful. I did some more searching and found a 72-pin adapter from an eBay vendor in Germany, but I ordered it at the height of the pandemic, and the vendor sent me a message saying he couldn't actually send it since there weren't any flights from Europe to Australia, so I had to cancel the order. I can still find it in my watch list, although for some reason it doesn't show up in a search (listed as model RC72SIMM-ADA, maybe it's restricted to eBay Germany). In any case it's just the 72-pin model, not the combo 30- and 72-pin model.
I ended up ordering the older SIMMCHECK model from another US eBay vendor, which came with both the built-in 30-pin socket and also the 72-pin expansion module. It's not as good as the RAMCHECK, as I believe the PC interface is only used for updating the firmware, and can't be used to automate testing and get a report on the results.
Hopefully you can get a hold of the 30- and 72-pin adapter module. Although it should just be a passive adapter, so really all you'd need to design your own is the pinout of the expansion connectors. SIMM sockets are pretty commonly available on eBay. EDIT: Looks like someone else in the comments has reported that the company is basically shut down permanently, which is a real shame. Anyway, if you do manage to get a hold of an adapter module, it would be good to reverse engineer it so we could make our own!
You could use the 386-breakout card to measure trace damage on mainboard with leaked batteries.
I remember in college we folks in the Computer Science department spent a day opening up every VT terminal we had in our student lab to disconnect that *damned* speaker because some students were turning on the annoying key click feature.
Cut to Adrian in a tub full of RAM sticks, laughing manically. "I shall have ALL the RAM!"
Also new bad parts bin or tub bad Ram modules.
Actually I turned my first bad Ram module I ever troubleshooted and found was bad into a keychain.
And then I was at a computer place and realize they actually made these from Bad Ram modules.
Don't know if they were just recycled from various sources or was that made in-house from Ram modules that I did not make the cut.
Don't know if there was anything to indicate on them they were bad I just saw the little cookie jar thing with them in it.
It was a retail product itself just thought I'd mention anyone else seen these?
They should make a little PC board ruler that looks like a stick of RAM.
Also wondering if they have a connector of some sort that would be numerous pins but would look basically like a ram module or something like that!
That would have holes for zip ties to attach cabling.
Might be an effective way to terminate large numbers of conductors to a board.
Wish there's a way to do that with card Edge as well.
Essentially a card Edge connector that would just be a piece of PC board with card Edge and sorrow holes instead of a full card.
Sometimes I've seen both connectors used s interconnects between boards.
So theoretically one could actually have a connector that mates with one of those sockets to do the same when numerous conductors are required besides the board connector could be a standard connector differently available
Muhahahaha...Execute the insurrection!
@@fadate7292 umm..maybe not!
you are becoming my fave retro repairathon channel.... :D
Adrian, Adam here! Glad you enjoyed the candy! I voided the warranty on that Unitek keyboard to clean it internally. It's a beast on the inside too.:). Well built.
When cooking sugar the temperature at which you cook it to determines the finished texture. The names derive from dripping a sample into cold water and feeling the results. After syrups is softball to hardball which includes taffy’s and caramels and then the crack stages like brittles and toffees to outright hard coatings.
Video is 25 minutes old and it already has over 2,000 views.
100k subscribers! You deserve it! Love the channel.
I'm guessing those were Patreon patron views, but still, that he has that many taking advantage of early access is awesome! Well deserved.
@@WRL64 As a patron myself, I can confirm that it's totally worth it.
There is always going to be a following for people posting these long-format deep dive videos. I watch them to relax even though essentially all of the hardware he tinkers on are outside of my typical interest due to being older than I am. Watching troubleshooting vids and soldering vids are always satisfying.
34:00 - In' the US, there are about s6-8 pieces sparsely-populating a brown plastic tray in that same-sized box!
Address 0/1 on the CPU breakout are missing because those two lines address the byte, but the bus is 4 bytes wide, so a read will select the correct byte internal to the CPU and a write will either have 4x byte enable / write enable signals to select which byte(s) to write, or the bus doesn't support byte mode at all and the CPU will do a read-modify-write.
I watch this channel from over a year, and don't remember Adrian so happy from receiving something :) Nice thing in this times :)
That ram check device is one of the reasons to watch these vids. I love that thing. Sure could have used it in one of my old jobs.
VT-102: as a VAX/VMS administrator in the past this brings fonds memories!
Personally just nightmares here :)
That NE2000 NIC brings me back! The first NIC I ever setup in my own 486 PC was a 16 bit NE2000 NIC with only a coax connector on it. My best friend lived next door and we had a 10 mbit coax network setup between the houses. It worked great for early LAN gaming in the Doom & Duke3D days! We used to buy BNC terminators by the dozen cause they seemed to fail constantly! We all kept NICs with BNC connectors on them in our PCs until 1999 when we started getting cable modems and moved on to regular 10/100 ethernet.
Oooh! Now we can send more RAM to allow you to use your spiffy new tester! ;)
Hell yes! He has to replace all the faulty modules he just found!
FEED RAMMY! FEED RAMMY! ;-)
30:45 - I recognized those Turtles (from the striped package) the instant you opened the box!
congratulations on the 100K subs!
turtles have been around for years, at least here in MN where i live. i remember loving them as a kid 30 years ago
Adrian, fantastic video as always. @14:18, this is called a 386 breakout board. @34:17 - Its called "I am not A Candy Maker" Toffee is made from granulated sugar that has been melted down and heated to the "Hard Crack" stage which is above 295 degrees F. Concentration of sugar after this temp has been reached is 99% (Other stages have lower concentrations of sugar)
Sold those turtles as a cub scout, never could find them as an adult.
Good to know. :)
I remember seeing the ram check all the time at "computer show" events where you could buy 486 era parts straight from a China importers. The booths buying/selling ram would test 30/72 pin ram right in front of you...
What I would give to go back in time and go to one of these shows in the 90's as a kid with my father. Fond memories!!
I think they were called tri-state computer show and sales or something.
Tristate? Like active high, active low, and high-impedance?
That must have been such a fantastic experience to have for a burgeoning techie back in the day. By the time I got into it, such things were no longer being held, since it was the late '90's, early '00's.
4:00 Oooh, nice. That's a VT 100/101/102 terminal keyboard from what I can tell. That's the very first computer I had ever programmed on (DEC had a version that ran CP/M locally). They had a computer bus that visited my Jr High school in the 80s, in Massachusetts.
Yes, a little-known feature of those terminals was an extra slot to add a small computer board. The terminals themselves used an 8085; I wonder if it was also possible to just add more RAM and I/O on a board?
I also found your channel by watching the lcd tv repair video and have been hooked ever since! I was a ti99 collector in the early 2000s when things were affordable on ebay
Adrian, yes, you are correct! These are Intel Slot1 termination adapter for dual slot1 P!! and P!!! CPUs. You need to validate with your motherboard manual in which slot to put the CPU and in which to put the terminator, turning a dual slot1 motherboard into a single CPU. Wow! You're killing it lately! I know you said you're busier, but I'll take what you can give us!
The RAMCHECK, god I wish I'd had one of them back when I built & repaired computers, the time spent testing RAM on motherboards trying to diagnose the troubles they gave was such a time-waster, and this thing, wow, I could have saved so much time in my job!!!
33:12 - I don't believe that s was a special 'ruggedized' version. They were ALL built that way! I recall a WEIGHT on the bottom half to add mass! :)
Might want to contact the company about the simm connector for the memory tester. They are local to me too.
that stack of Atari 8bits beside him though.. want to see more of that!
Congrats for 100K!!!! Thank you for all of these great videos you make! Hope to see you again soon!
I found some Ramcheck 72-pins SIMM adapters for you Adrian, but the seller apparantly only ships to Europe (it's a German seller). I could order one for you if you'd like and send it to you 👍 They're not really cheap though...
You might also be able to use one of Rammy's 30 pin to 72 pin adapters and be able to test the boatload of 30-pin simms he owns with it on the Ramcheck ;-)
Rammy is gradualy becoming sort of a hoarder, but I guess it takes one to know one 🤣
Hey congrats on the 100K subs! Your videos are awesome and you are a great story teller, thank you for your talent and for taking the time to produce them!
That RAMCheck thing is awesome.
@15:59 That's not a PLCC, PLCC stands for "Plastic Leadless Chip Carrier" -- note the Leadless part. Those are PGA (Pin Grid Array) chips, though I believe some 386 did come in PLCC as well.
as a Canadian who has lived in Asia for 20 years now (im 41), the macintosh toffee and turtles were a real nostalgia trip!
As an American who visits Canada only rarely, I always buy a bunch of Macintosh Toffee and Coffee Crisp when I'm there :)
DEC VT100 keyboard.... my all time favourite terminal! Pity it's just the keyboard. But even that is truly a thing of wonder.
For memory modules which act flaky and sometimes work, while other times not, check the module for tarnished contacts. The copper plating on old memory modules gets tarnished over time and can lead to a bad connection between the module and the memory slot. Sometimes inserting and removing it a few times will scratch the oxide off, but the best way is to just use contact cleaner or Deoxit Gold. This can happen to motherboard slots too, so if you have a flaky board that complains about memory, or certain addin slots are flaky, hose them down with contact cleaner as well.
I've had many, MANY memory modules test bad, for it to only be tarnished contacts, or a tarnished memory slot.
That RAMCHECK RAM tester was pretty cool. That's a sweet score.
Fingers crossed that someone sends you the 30/72 pin adapter for your memory tester
Digital Equipment Corporation rather than 'Digital Electronics Corporation '. Enjoying your content. Thanks!
It seems that a RAM Testing Montage Video with some cool background music is in your near future 🙂🤷♂️
I would watch the CRAP out of that!
♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀♂♀
I'd gladly watch a full video just of Adrian trying out *ALL* his RAM in that RAMCHECK!
With Rammy just occasionally changing placement in the background.
NE2000 cards are fun; the short version is the NE1000 and 2000 cards were basically made by Novell (and NE is "Novell Ethernet") built around a National Semiconductors part. Novell made the cards very cheap and they're basically why Ethernet beat Token Ring in many ways. The only real difference in software between NE1000 and 2000 is the 1000 uses byte mode data transfer while the 2000 uses word based data transfer, primarily dealing with how the ISA bus can do data mode transfers.
Still need to watch the rest but thanks for the shoutout!
Wow that keyboard brings back memories. Used VT100s & 340s connected to Vaxes in mid to late 80s (along with several Pericom graphics (Tektronix-compatible) terminals). Very sturdy (tank-like) beasties :-)
Consider this post a late thank you for the trashpick TV video, it helped me when trying to fix my old Samsung a couple months ago, when I accidentally fried the processor board and had issues with the first replacement.
Seriously wish service manuals were more freely given, for all the talk of making parts/repairs easier I never hear about this.
Dude, every single video you do is interesting. I hear your voice, and the catchy intro...that's it, I have to watch all the way through, like it , and comment. Keep doing what you do, I appreciate it.
When I worked for the geeksquad in like 07-08 we had either the same or similar ram tester with the same adapters. I don't know how many actual PCs they fix now a days, but at some point they actually fixed stuff.
One of the best mail calls yet.
Yeah, remember the TV video. I think my first Adrian video was taking apart LED light bulbs from Dollar Tree. That RAM Check tester is an awesome add to your tool kit. Now you need to get the adaptors and a tester for DIP chips.
I had a keyboard like that that was part of a DEC VT100 terminal. The terminal went bad and I tossed it. I regret doing that as it was probably just a bad capacitor in the power supply.
We used to have a memory tester when I worked at Frys. It could do 30, 72 and 144 pin modules. The 144 side could test Fast Page, EDO and SDRAM all on the same socket.
I STRONGLY RECOMMEND using a rubber eraser on the RAM pins and other expansion card pins if they seem to be giving any trouble. I have fixed so many that way.
...and don't use your breath to blow off the eraser shavings! Back in the day I fixed a couple of misbehaving Macs (don't touch them and they spontaneously crash) by eraser-ing the RAM contacts.
Hi Adrian that terminal keyboard type with the vt-100 was in use at my junior high in 83-84. I used it for a class.
That feeling of a newly cleaned ball mouse is soooo good. It is just night and day. As roving "computer guy" to my friends they always wonder what magic I performed on their mice.
Clean balls always feel good.
I remember spending nearly $30 back in the late 90's to purchase my first optical mouse because I kept getting annoyed at the dead zones that my traditional ball mouse had in it's mechanism.
I don't even have a need for that ram tester and I still want one. That's got to be invaluable if you have the right adapters.
Turtles are pretty common in the US. I see them regularly, often they'll sell them individually (or two in a packet) at grocery checkouts.
Toffee differs from caramel in that toffee includes butter and almond in addition to caramelized sugar.
Back in the 90's we installed a number of those ne2000 cards they had anti virus built-in to the roms. The card would scan files sent and received through the network. The problem was updating the AV signatures they quickly were out of date.
13:30 you just about gave me a heart attack! I looked at YOUR time and not the actual time here. Thought I was late for my appointment!
Nice RAM Check. And congrats on 100K subs.
I'd bet that the modules at 27:20 and 28:20 are both 66MHz and being misdetected/ran at 100Mhz/83Mhz. Can you force the tester to 66Mhz for those 2 modules?
I have major ramtester envy now. Been looking for one of those Innovention units for a while..... nice to see it in action
I remember seeing the ram tester at memory stalls in computer fairs.
I'd recommend cleaning the pins on anything that's tested in a ZIF socket. I have had a bunch of stuff test bad until I cleaned it with a solvent or IPA in a similar tester
Don't be too hasty to throw away your bad ram. You may be able to scavenge good chips to replace bad ones, especially if you have a ram test machine and can tell which ones are bad. If not yourself, someone else might be willing to do the work
yes, please don't throw out the bad ones .. often it is only one chip
Yeah, keep the SIMMs in particular, they are not too difficult to repair, as they have few chips with large footprints.
If you can run Memtest86+ on the module, you can figure out which chip is bad because Memtest will tell you which memory address is bad. Since the memory map is linear and the memory module pinout is known, you can just calculate which memory chip on the module the bad address resides in and replace it.
Especially if he can get his hands on a better hot air resoldering station with a more diffuse tip. Pulling surface mount RAM chips becomes comparatively trivial then.
@@sorphin I use Memtest 2.01 all the time on 486 machines and it works fine.
100K here! Well deserved! 💪🏼😊
That memory checker should be something so common. I can't begin to count how many time that would've been useful.
38:10 I know what you mean. The keyboards I use tend to have 3 or 4 key rollover, and that's fine. I have a rather expensive wireless keyboard that only has 2 key rollover, which kind of sucks for a gaming keyboard, but the main issue I have with it is typing words like "robERT" or sTREam" where the ERT section doesn't let you press all 3 at the same time, so the words come out as "rober" and "stram".
I put that keyboard away and went back to using my old one after only 2 weeks.
Congrats on the 100K!!!!!! Huzzah!
Some RAM have a few swapped data lines, some have a few/less pins. GVP memory for the Amiga accelerators comes to mind. Some of the ones with data lines failure might be special ram for printers etc.
Adrian, I really think you should confirm the results of the RAM checker with Memtest86.
Doesn't that only work on new computers that use UEFI? I know my pre-UEFI computer refuses to run it no matter what I do-and anything newer probably only supports DDR3 or higher.
@@stevethepocket I've used it back to 486. It's on the office PXE image here
@@rtechlab6254 Hmm. Must just not be possible to get the older version anymore, then.
@@stevethepocket pretty sure the version on my car key usb key is the latest and is fine. I'll have to check
My first DOS based PC was an Epson 386sx-16mhz. It came with a staggering 2mb of ram, and 40mb hard drive, running windows 3.1. If I remember right, my parents paid upwards of 3k for the machine, printer, and monitor!
We used to see vendors using some variety of those RAM checkers at the computer shows. Usually it was to verify for their in-house warranty. If a RAM stick went bad, they would replace it at the next show if you brought it in.
Oh my goodness, hearing you say Almonte like that is so funny! It's just two syllables -- Al Mont. You've been living in the US for too long! :D
I live in Toronto but grew up in London, Ontario and Ottawa as well.
100.000 subs!!!
Congratulations Adrian
A subscriber from Spain
Oh yeah, I have pets, so I need to keep a cover on the couch at all times, and I always have a spot cleaner tool to clean furniture or rugs (It supports carpet as well, but my house is all hard wood).
keep up the great work Adrian 🕹 ♥
the 30/72 adapter is still in production from innoventions part no. INN 8668 2 A
The Intel breakout board was probably for one of their In Circuit Debugger systems for embedded code development. A cheaper option would be a logic analyser coupled with a disassembler....
PLCC or Plastic Leadless Chip Carrier is a surface mount package. PGA or Pin Grid Array is what you were thinking of.
I spent many hours typing on VT100 keyboards in college and I can't say that the height was an issue. However when you moved up in the pecking order enough to rate one of the new VT220 terminals with LK201 keyboard that was a big deal.
used that ram tester in my past... saved a ton of time.
11mins ago, heck yeah. Also 6th comment. 4 of which are from Patrons, so, technically the second.
Love your vids, Adrian!
I haven’t seen CPU bus terminators in 23 years!
And yes these were for SMP systems. One was on the board. We did a lot of work with SMP in the mid to late 90s. Pentiums were notoriously useless at SMP. So we ran a lot of MIPS still. And I lost one of those terminators and thought: “these distances are so small it wouldn’t matter”. Well that Windows system hung at the rarest moments. The reflections would probably signal wrong data on the data- or address bus and it was all over.
When I found not again on our massive messy workbench, it ran “stable” (as stable as NT 4.0) would.
Took a digging about: There are standalone Simcheck units on ebay if you can't find the module. (maybe contact the manufacturer? they're still around)
Bet you could construct your own ramcheck interface adapters from sockets and connectors etc.lying around in your shop junk.. just check the connections on the adapters you have for reference.. Job done..!!
And thanks for showing an address @30:00 from the campus. (not sure if it should've been, anyway) great video!
A quick tip for the goo in the couch: try icing it down with ice spray and then scrape it away. This works surprisingly good with sticky stuff in fabric like e.g. chewing gum...
And a gas duster can upside down works great as as easier to find version of freeze spray.
Acetone works wonders for cleaning both dot matrix printer platens (the roller) and mice balls. It softens the outer layer, which as it ages hardens and become slippery. The only issue i see with using a scotchbrite on the ball is that you are removing material, which will wear the ball out after a time. Acetone probably will too, but i never noticed much material loss (by looking at the cleaning rag after). So Acetone may be a better bet for cleaning mice balls. Just a thought.
Great video! Please do a video restoring those keyboards!
Would love to see you retrobright that XT board, remove the Cherry MX Blacks and install some Speed Heavy Burnt Oranges for an amazing tactile feel!
IIRC, back in the day the toffee used to come with a small metal hammer that you would use to break it in to pieces.
I used to use one of those Ramcheckers , great when it was new but after a few years the connectors all got worn and it would fail good modules.
Try finding a module that passes and then gently wobble the module.
I still buy the AT style keyboards. Made by one of the factories that made them for the original IBM PC-AT. All mechanical, and they can be ordered with USB. Never had a key failure, the only issues i have ever had were the USB connectivity getting flakey. Which i have not bothered to diagnose yet. I suspect perhaps a bad connection internally.
But for fans of the PC-AT "clicky" keyboard, google "Unicomp". It's nice to have a quality keyboard that can actually take some physical abuse.
never been to Canada, but we get Turtles here in CO, one of my faves.
Keyboard is clean for coming from Arizona.
Congratulations on the 100k subs Adrian! 🎉Last time I was this early you had about 15k! Keep it up, love your channel! :)
That's not a PLCC socket, that's a PGA socket. PLCC are those plastic square sockets (like Fat Agnus on the Amiga).
Tom Servo: Amiga! Heh-heh, now there's a relic for you!
The 'ol Pin Grid Array
A bit more informative to say that PLCC chips only have leads along the _edge_ of the chip, and the leads curl around the case instead of being pins.
I would have loved to see Adrian put that 386 breakout board in a mainboard and probe around a little bit for fun.
The Adresslines 0 and 1 are missing because of the 32 bit data access. If a byte or word wants to be accessed there are 4 additional lines responsible to allow access single bytes or words .