Msg: 5018 *Conference*
03-19-94 23:09:40
From: DONALD ZONGKER
To : ROBERT BENSON
Subj: REPLY TO MSG #5015 (BOOSTER PACK CONNECTION CABLE)
I had already taken the machine to the Radio Shack store when your response came through. I just have tried the obvious, although they didn't say what they did to get it working again. It was back in two days and cost $ 35.00. So much for impatience on my part. I haven't tried to reconnect the Booster Pack to the computer since I got it back because of the pin which is broken off the rectangular connector. I was afraid I'd damage something else and end up with another repair bill. Incidentally, it's pin 20 which is broken off, and that is at the other end of the connector from where it appears most of the cable wires go through. Does pin 20 do anything ? Am I risking anything by trying to connect the Booster Pack back to the computer without pin 20 in the connector ? Another question I have is why there's so little memory indicated as being in the machine when I just have dos100.co loaded. It was so long ago that I bought the machine that I don't remember how much memory it was supposed to have contained. I bought the Booster pack so soon after I bought the machine, that the memory in the machine seemed adequate for the small word processing files I was writing using Ultimum ROM II. Right now there are three chips in the machine which appear to be memory chips in sockets marked M3, M4 and M5. The chips have three rows of characters on them: first row is: JAPAN 8512, second row is: HM6264LP-15, third row of characters on each of the chips is UOO1255O (or it could be U0012550). At any rate, if these are the memory chips, I don't know how much base memory is in the machine. Can you tell by noting the characters on the chips, whether they are memory chips and if so, how much memory I am supposed to have ? I do know that I need to buy 8 more chips for the Booster Pack to bring it up to the maximum. Right now, I am uncertain about how to proceed because I don't want to do some damage to the machine by connecting the Booster pack, and I can't see buying more memory chips for the Booster pack unless I can safely connect the two. Incidentally, the chips in the Booster Pack are labelled with two lines of characters: first line is: SRM20256LC12 the second line is: F81E727. I assume these are 32K chips and are the type I would want to get to fill up the Booster Pack. So my questions are: how much memory do I have in the basic machine (or am I even looking at the right chips?) 2. Does pin 20 on the Booster Pack connector do anything ? 3. and can I safely plug the connector back into the computer and feel that nothing bad will happen to the machine ? Thanks for the help. Obviously I'm new at all of this internal workings stuff.