Kingston KTA-PB500/32 RAM

[douglasgb]

I recently bought a 24MB RAM card for my PB540c made by 'Advantage Memory' that has a few capacitors as well as zero-ohm resistors (jumpers) that I assume let the computer detect the size of the card. There was also a 32MB card for sale and I compared its pictures and noticed it had all of its jumpers in the same configuration as the 24MB card. Though that seems to contradict my assumption of what the jumpers are for, I thought it might be possible to populate the last four spots and upgrade my 24MB to 32MB.

 

[douglasgb]

I found some inexpensive 8MB 72pin SIMMs that used the same chips (KM48C2100A) as the PB500 module. I was able to desolder the chips from the SIMM and add them to the 24MB card. I left the jumpers as-is since they already matched the pictures of the 32MB card. I crossed my fingers and installed the card and the computer successfully recognized it as a 32MB card, so my PB540c is now maxed at 36MB!

Why did I entitle this thread with a Kingston part number? Because the card I removed from my PB540c is a KTA-PB500/16 and could have the same thing done to it. However, it does have several configuration jumpers (on both sides) and I know from comparing an 8MB card with the 16MB card that they really are different. So I am looking for good pictures of both the front and the back of a 32B version of the KTA-PB500.

 

[douglasgb]

Update: I've successfully upgraded an 8MB Kingston card to 16MB by adding chips and changing the jumpers. Here's the front of an original 16MB card; to make the 8MB match it just needed R15 and R17 jumpers, U13, U14, and U15 caps (which I transplanted from the 72 pin SIMM), and the four RAM chips.

 

[Byrd]

Nicely done, your research paid off!  Hopefully others can do similar work now it's documented.  I have a 128MB PowerBook 3400c module that refused to work in a Kanga; similarly removing a resistor which appeared to adjust the CAS settings made it work fine - it's been in the same machine for years.

 

[cheesestraws]

This is really good information, thanks for posting it

 

[alectrona6400]

Update: I've successfully upgraded an 8MB Kingston card to 16MB by adding chips and changing the jumpers. Here's the front of an original 16MB card; to make the 8MB match it just needed R15 and R17 jumpers, U13, U14, and U15 caps (which I transplanted from the 72 pin SIMM), and the four RAM chips.

View attachment 28805

your research did indeed pay off, thank you so much. 20mb in the 520!! pulled ram chips from a dead 5300cs board i had sitting in scrap and soldered them on to the kingston card

 

[croissantking]

your research did indeed pay off, thank you so much. 20mb in the 520!! pulled ram chips from a dead 5300cs board i had sitting in scrap and soldered them on to the kingston card
View attachment 81019View attachment 81018

Congrats!

 

[alectrona6400]

guess what. i found a working 32mb 168pin DIMM in my 6400 that i'm replacing with 2 64MB DIMMs soon and they use the same type of chip packaging. and the same amount of chips. i'll get back when i finish up the mod; already managed to get half of the chips and the other capacitors populated.

 

[alectrona6400]

bingo.