Excessive ram usage and green tint on Q950

[Sir Foxx]

I posted this on macrumors, but im also going to xpost on this forum to try and get as many brains on the issue to try and figure this out--

About once a year, I will work on my q950 before something catastrophic happens, which usually demotivates me from fixing it for another year. The last time, I just got my q950 and addon cards (supermac graphics, 66mhz ppc pds card, "power pump" overclock card) working fully with a scsi2sd v5.0b, eliminating the need for an old mechanical drive. However, I accidentally scooted my chair too close to the computer (scsi2sd was still sitting on the floor next to the case) and I crunched the microsd card >.<

On to today, I decided to inspect the scsi2sd fully expecting to need to replace it. Luckily, I only crunched the tip of the sd card, and the rest of the adapter was fine. Moving onward, I installed os 7.5.3 using my floppy emu adapter, updated it to 7.5.5, got fetch working with my windows 10 machine, and was trying to mount an .img file. "Insufficient system resources". Huh, odd.... checked ram usage and it said:

"Total Memory: 65,536K; System Software 58,529K; Largest Unused Block: 6,900K.

What..? Why the heck is the system using 58mb of my 64mb of ram? Eh, I'll just fill the other 3 banks with 64mb each. 256mb should be waaaay plenty for the system.

Restarted the system. "System Software: 256,xxxK; Total Memory: 265,xxxK.

So, I tried going back to one bank of ram, tried swapping sticks, swapping banks, reset pram, nothin. I thought maybe my system install may be corrupted, so I booted into a Disk Tools system. Same issue.

Question 1: What would be causing the system to hog all but 4-6mb of ram despite the amount of ram in the system? Anything I can check?

Question 2: Everything on my screen is tinted green. I read that mac's sync on green, and most new-ish monitors dont like that. Is there an adapter I can use to correct this?



 

 

[Bolle]

1) enable 32bit addressing in the memory control panel.

2) not sure if the Q950 onboard video is sync on green. Might be a different problem in your case.

What kind of adapter and monitor are you using in the first place?

 

[cheesestraws]

Question 1: What would be causing the system to hog all but 4-6mb of ram despite the amount of ram in the system? Anything I can check?

Go into the 'Memory' control panel and make sure 32 bit addressing is enabled.

Is there an adapter I can use to correct this?

The adapter I use has DIP switches that let me switch sync mode, so yes, they exist.  I'd tell you what mine is, but it has no brand nor identifying marks of any kind.

(Even though the instruction leaflet says that for custom wires you should 'contact us now!', it doesn't even give a company name to contact, let alone an address.  I fear this strategy may not have worked well for them).

 

[Sir Foxx]

1) enable 32bit addressing in the memory control panel.

2) not sure if the Q950 onboard video is sync on green. Might be a different problem in your case.

What kind of adapter and monitor are you using in the first place?

Go into the 'Memory' control panel and make sure 32 bit addressing is enabled.

The adapter I use has DIP switches that let me switch sync mode, so yes, they exist.  I'd tell you what mine is, but it has no brand nor identifying marks of any kind.

(Even though the instruction leaflet says that for custom wires you should 'contact us now!', it doesn't even give a company name to contact, let alone an address.  I fear this strategy may not have worked well for them).

Huh. I saw that control panel and looked in it and saw 32bit was disabled. I didn't know what it was specifically for so I left it disabled. I will check it tonight and report back!

I have a home made adapter and a generic vga to apple's vga adapter. Both have the same issue. About 10 years ago when I got the computer, I was using 4:3 dell monitors that worked fine, buuuuuut since then I have had to replace the main board, and am now using a 16:9 dell monitor. I may look for the dip switch adapter, or a 4:3 monitor and see what happens. 

 

[cheesestraws]

Huh. I saw that control panel and looked in it and saw 32bit was disabled. I didn't know what it was specifically for so I left it disabled. I will check it tonight and report back!

That would be it, then.  That setting affects how big memory addresses are.  If they are only 24 bits in size, then there just aren't enough addresses to address all that RAM.  If you turn it on, you should find the rest of your RAM becomes usable.

I may look for the dip switch adapter

Mine is a 10 DIP switch one that I got from blindly searching eBay years ago.  The aspect ratio of the screen isn't going to change much, but different screens will support different sync mechanisms, so ... another adapter is likely to be easier than another screen, though