Problems installed AST Rampage 286 memory expansion

[dongfeng]

I am trying to install an AST Rampage 286 memory board in my IBM XT/286 (5162). The card has 2MB installed memory, and the PC has 640kB

I've set the DIP switches as per the defaults on Total Hardware 99 (see above link) and set it for 2MB conventional memory at base 0218h, but the following memory error appears:

02048 KB OK

260000 FFFE 201-Memory Error
164-Memory Size Error-(Run SETUP)

(RESUME = "F1" KEY)

Running the IBM 286 setup disk I have set 2048kB in the expansion memory options on the 5162, but it still comes up as memory error.

Any ideas? I've tried changing the base address but no joy...

 

[Druid6900]

Well, I believe the memory count should be 2688, 640 base and 2048 on top of that.

Your add-in memory seems to be sitting in the same spot as your base memory, so, you have to tell it to start at 641 which, as I would read it, would be;

SW1/1 = on
SW1/2 = off
SW1/3 = on
SW1/4 = on

 

[paul]

To not add any conventional memory.
SW2: 1 through 4 and 6 should be ON
SW2: 5 and 7 OFF

SW1: 1 through 4 should be off for 2048 KB of RAM allocated as "Conventional or Expanded."

Your BIOS setting should be for 640 + 2048 KB.

This info is from the docs for the AST Advantage Premium which compared with a printout I have for the AST Rampage 286 seems to be the same.


Druid6900, 641 KB !! huh? After the 1 MB boundary, yes?

 

[wrljet]

To not add any conventional memory.
SW2: 1 through 4 and 6 should be ON
SW2: 5 and 7 OFF

SW1: 1 through 4 should be off for 2048 KB of RAM allocated as "Conventional or Expanded."

Your BIOS setting should be for 640 + 2048 KB.

This info is from the docs for the AST Advantage Premium which compared with a printout I have for the AST Rampage 286 seems to be the same.

Any chance you have a scan of the switch settings page?

The settings you listed above got my board working, too,
but I have 512k on the motherboard, not 640k, so I have a hole.

Thanks, hope all is well,
Bill

 

[wrljet]

OK, based on your settings and how they acted in my system, I figured out that swtich controls the number of the 128k bank where the card should start, inverted depending on how you look at the switches. So I'm all set.

Bill

 

[wrljet]

Glad it's working - it's been a few weeks now

Settings are available on the 'net, but if needed PM me your email address I'll send you what I found for that board.

-Paul

I'm not the original poster. I just got my board in the mail Sat.

Bill

 

[dongfeng]

Glad it's working - it's been a few weeks now

Settings are available on the 'net, but if needed PM me your email address I'll send you what I found for that board.

-Paul

I'd be very interested in the copies of the switch settings for both the AST Advantage Premium and AST Rampage 286 boards. I have both!

 

[Radioman]

Device driver needed

Device driver needed

Hi all
This seems to be a nice forum for old computer DIY nerds

My 14 years old son is inspiring me to look trough my old stuff when he is fiddling with an old Tranfor 286. I also have Rampage 286 card, fully loaded with the large amount of 2 mb memory

I also would like to find a documentation on how to set the switches. F.e. switch 2 needs some information to understand the settings paul tells us.

But most of all I need a driver, *.sys file? Also the settings in config sys.

I hope this is the right place if any, to ask it.
Thanks

 

[Radioman]

To many parameters

To many parameters

Thanks to Paul I have got a remm.sys and some info.

Sorry for some noob questions, but please read on

Actually there is a lot of info. It's not very easy to interpret it all. Not for me anyway
I have never been a really guru in the memory management business. I remember the later qemm software made it pretty easy but this card and and a documentation for the plus card set me on test.

We use a 16 bit VGA graphics card (Tseng Labs ET4000ax ) for the 286 Tranfor computer.
From the documentation at different places I have gathered that I should try with DEVICE=REMM.SYS /M=7F /X=A000-C7FF /S=C800 /N

Now, as of the terminology on switch settings,which sometimes differs in the same document:
Is an open switch the same as "OFF"? And then the closed must be "ON"?
It's about the "Dual Page mode enabled" or disabled. What should I choose?
Same with parity checking. What to choose?

The motherboard is allready equipped with 1024kb ram. How should I setup the switches then?

It would be great fun to have this card working I thought that this DOS stuff was over for me. But you never know. My son maybe "choosed me as his father" because I have gathered and saved all the stuff that he is just drooling over now.
When he get a computer working and the screen tells him that the bios is 10 years older then him he get a tear in his eye of the wonder :D

Yes he is beginning to be the new generations collector :mrgreen:

Hope you can give a tip on the settings.

 

[wrljet]

I found that the online doc for those switch settings to be useless,
although a prior post in this thread gave me a clue that helped figure it out.

The SW2 positions 1-7 control the start address of the memory.
In 128k hunks. So you set the switches to be the number of 128k blocks
on the motherboard, in binary, and ones-complemented.

Examples:

My motherboard has 512k.
So the number of 128k hunks = 4, which is 100 binary, so I
set my switches 1-7 are set to 1111 011

A 640k motherboard has five 128k hunks, which is 101 binary,
flipped is 010. Thus the switches are set to 1111 010

So I'd guess if you have 1024k on the motherboard, and you
want the AST card to start after that, you have 8 hunks of 128k.
8 is 1000 binary. Flipped, the seven switches would be 1110111.

Of course this is guess.

SW1 controls the amount of RAM on the AST board.
That part is explains by the various online docs.

http://artofhacking.com/th99/i/A-B/52501.htm

Bill

 

[Radioman]

I found that the online doc for those switch settings to be useless,
although a prior post in this thread gave me a clue that helped figure it out.

The SW2 positions 1-7 control the start address of the memory.
In 128k hunks. So you set the switches to be the number of 128k blocks
on the motherboard, in binary, and ones-complemented.

Examples:

My motherboard has 512k.
So the number of 128k hunks = 4, which is 100 binary, so I
set my switches 1-7 are set to 1111 011

A 640k motherboard has five 128k hunks, which is 101 binary,
flipped is 010. Thus the switches are set to 1111 010

So I'd guess if you have 1024k on the motherboard, and you
want the AST card to start after that, you have 8 hunks of 128k.
8 is 1000 binary. Flipped, the seven switches would be 1110111.
Bill

Thank you. That was something totally different. I will try it.

Of course this is guess.

What ! A guess? But you did get your card to work with the settings for starting after 512kb?

I have another problem, I think. I get an error on my remm.sys. REMM.SYS not found or unreadable. error on line 1 in config.sys (or similar) I tried version 4.41.
Which version is the best to try?
I have found version 3.5, 4.2, 4.27, 4.41 and 4.5.
I saw somewhere that 4.3 should do but that version I can't find on the net .

 

[wrljet]

Thank you. That was something totally different. I will try it.

What ! A guess? But you did get your card to work with the settings for starting after 512kb?

Yes, the memory works perfectly.

I have another problem, I think. I get an error on my remm.sys. REMM.SYS not found or unreadable. error on line 1 in config.sys (or similar) I tried version 4.41.
Which version is the best to try?
I have found version 3.5, 4.2, 4.27, 4.41 and 4.5.
I saw somewhere that 4.3 should do but that version I can't find on the net .

Not found means just that, the path to your driver or its name are incorrect in CONFIG.SYS. Not sure what all possible errors result in "not readable".

In CONFIG.SYS you'll want a line like:

DEVICE=C:\AST\REMM.SYS​

Where you replace C:\AST with the directory where you put
the driver, and replace REMM.SYS with the actual name of your driver.

Note, you only need that driver if you want/need EMS memory for
your programs. Extended memory users don't need it.

Bill

 

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe the final version of REMM.SYS is 4.7. I was having problems with some of the earlier 4.x versions. In general if you don't need LIM 4.0 compatibility, I think AST recommends the 3.x drivers.