On 13 Sep 98 at 14:37, Michael Beechey wrote:

> Does anyone have experience with piggyback adaptors for SIMMs?

  They exist.  They're kind of expensive.  They introduce lots of
opportunity for corrosion and resistance to reduce system
reliability.


> I remember seeing something advertized, but can't remember if it
> was to adapt 72 pin to a 30 pin slot or vica versa.

  I don't know if they come in 30-to-30, but I've seen them in
72-to-30 and 30-to-72 configurations, and 72(multiple)-to-72.

> I need to find a way to increase memory in older mobos, those that
> only have 4 - 30 pin banks. The manual for my Packard B. 486sx
> states the configuration for the 4 banks is maximum 1 meg each to
> give a total of 6 meg, including the 2 onboard. At that time 1 meg
> was the biggest available. If I can adapt newer SIMMs, will the
> mobo accept them?

  Hard to know, but on the whole I'd bet against it.

  PB is *likely* (I don't know for certain) to have pared their
design down to only take 1MB SIMMs.  So putting 4MB in a slot --
whether with a 4MB SIMM, or an adapter holding 4 1MB SIMMs -- will
only be seen as, at most, 1MB.
  Now consider also that on a 486 (including SX), 4 30-pin slots make
a single bank (most good motherboards provide at least two RAM
banks...), and should be filled with more-or-less matching RAM.  So
to preserve your current 4 1MB SIMMs using extenders, you need four
extenders (two tall, two short, right- and left-handed pairs, and
hope your case has room for the tall ones...) and 12 more 1MB SIMMs.
  I'm pretty sure you could get 4 4MB SIMMs for less.  The place I
buy memory has a 15-day return policy on it, so if I discover that
I've bought something that won't work in my PC, I bring it back to
them.

> Michael Beechey, a Canuck in Sucre, Bolivia

David Gillett, a Canuck in Silicon Valley

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