PowerBook 165/180 RAM chips, how can I test them?

[croissantking]

Hi! Thanks so much for this thread -- it's super useful. I'm currently doing exactly the same thing with my PowerBook, including using the external screen to test. For this Kingston board, did you add any missing filter caps or the R2 resistor (and if so, what size?). I successfully brought my card to 6MB, but once I added 2 more MB I'm still getting only 6MB. I'm *pretty* sure my modules are good, since the machine still boots. Thx!

I’ve tried a few different configurations of those resistors and the one that seems to work best is with both of them removed. With R1 fitted but R2 empty, it limits it to 6MB on mine too. If you remove R1, you’ll get the full 10MB assuming you have all the chips populated.

I did try fitting 33R resistors to both pads but it causes my PowerBooks to not always start, or not always wake from sleep. I’d be interested to see what the factory configuration is for the 10MB module but I can’t find any pictures online. Edit: I’ve found some pics of similar modules and the ones above 6MB seem to not have these resistors fitted.

 

[croissantking]

Oh, and I did add in all the missing 100nF filter caps, yes.

 

[mmjs]

I’ve tried a few different configurations of those resistors and the one that seems to work best is with both of them removed. With R1 fitted but R2 empty, it limits it to 6MB on mine too. If you remove R1, you’ll get the full 10MB assuming you have all the chips populated.

I did try fitting 33R resistors to both pads but it causes my PowerBooks to not always start, or not always wake from sleep. I’d be interested to see what the factory configuration is for the 10MB module but I can’t find any pictures online. Edit: I’ve found some pics of similar modules and the ones above 6MB seem to not have these resistors fitted.

Oh thanks this is super helpful, going to try this today!

 

[mmjs]

Oh thanks this is super helpful, going to try this today!

This worked great, thanks again @croissantking !

I'm still waiting for 4 more 512K modules, so keeping the expansion at 8MB for now.

 

[croissantking]

Well done, and glad my earlier posts were useful!

 

[VMSZealot]

Did you know, by the way, that you can run 256 colour software on the built in screen of the PowerBook 180 (albeit in 16 shades of grey)? I used to have a 180 as my main computer back in the day, and I played many games on Wolfenstein on it like this. I'm curious to hear whether anyone else has worked out this hack - maybe I'm the only one…

All you need to do is plug in the dongle to connect an external monitor (the 180 doesn't have a standard monitor jack - it has something that looks like a big ass HDMI port) and set monitors to mirroring 256 colours. Job done - and more games can be played. And, given that the panel is active matrix, they can be played reasonably well too.

I sold my 180 on eBay some years back. But I may have the dongle somewhere still. I'll have a rummage.

 

[croissantking]

Did you know, by the way, that you can run 256 colour software on the built in screen of the PowerBook 180 (albeit in 16 shades of grey)? I used to have a 180 as my main computer back in the day, and I played many games on Wolfenstein on it like this. I'm curious to hear whether anyone else has worked out this hack - maybe I'm the only one…

All you need to do is plug in the dongle to connect an external monitor (the 180 doesn't have a standard monitor jack - it has something that looks like a big ass HDMI port) and set monitors to mirroring 256 colours. Job done - and more games can be played. And, given that the panel is active matrix, they can be played reasonably well too.

I sold my 180 on eBay some years back. But I may have the dongle somewhere still. I'll have a rummage.

This is pretty cool!

 

[croissantking]

I’ve tried a few different configurations of those resistors and the one that seems to work best is with both of them removed. With R1 fitted but R2 empty, it limits it to 6MB on mine too. If you remove R1, you’ll get the full 10MB assuming you have all the chips populated.

Having now read the dev note for these machines, I see that populating R1 – on the PB160/180 RAM cards which have this option – ties /FASTRAM (active low) to +5V and makes the machine think that it's using a card designed for a PB140/170. So when /FASTRAM is held high, the machine will add in an extra wait state because it expects slower 100ns RAM, and also limit expansion RAM to 6MB. That's what's going on here.