I have a 486 baby AT motherboard with a 33 MHZ Bus and a 486 DX-2 66 chip with 33 Mhz Bus Speed. It keeps crashing and I think it's because of the old ram I'm trying to use. The motherboard is supposed to support both EDO and FPM, but which kind do I want for my 486? Does it matter what the refresh rate of my ram is?
And don't ask me to look at my manual, because I don't have one, and don't ask me to look for a manual online, because I've been doing that for the past 8 months.
What RAM do I want?
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McFly
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Guest
Oh yeah, slower is safer anyway. If you have a choice between 60 ns and 70 ns, and you're not sure, choose 70 ns and it should be about 99% ready to work properly.
Fast Page RAM typically runs at 70 ns while EDO RAM can do 60 ns. SDRAM can go at about 12 ns, 10 ns, 8 ns, 6 ns, and maybe faster. 30-pin RAM might go at about 100 ns.
Essentially, to be safe, set the RAM timing to the highest possible number. If you are a stunt man, go ahead and try lower numbers to speed your computer up. If you set it too fast, it should crash/lock-up, and then you should be able to reboot, go into the BIOS setup, and set a slower setting. Of course you could do trial-and-error if you have the patience.
Fast Page RAM typically runs at 70 ns while EDO RAM can do 60 ns. SDRAM can go at about 12 ns, 10 ns, 8 ns, 6 ns, and maybe faster. 30-pin RAM might go at about 100 ns.
Essentially, to be safe, set the RAM timing to the highest possible number. If you are a stunt man, go ahead and try lower numbers to speed your computer up. If you set it too fast, it should crash/lock-up, and then you should be able to reboot, go into the BIOS setup, and set a slower setting. Of course you could do trial-and-error if you have the patience.
When they give a speed rating on the chip, that is the max speed it will operate at - they aren't saying it is designed to run at 70ns for example. Much like you can use PC133 SDRAM in a PC100 system. I'd say go for 60ns just to be sure.
EDO is faster than FPM, but only if it is supported by your motherboard (http://www.oempcworld.com/support/What_ ... Memory.htm). If in doubt, use FPM. Do a memtest if you are concerned about the memory being good.
You can get 60ns FPM btw.
EDO is faster than FPM, but only if it is supported by your motherboard (http://www.oempcworld.com/support/What_ ... Memory.htm). If in doubt, use FPM. Do a memtest if you are concerned about the memory being good.
You can get 60ns FPM btw.