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Apple Lisa Sun Remarketing 2mb Expansion - What RAM Do I need?
Posted by: jraust on 2015-09-01 19:58:28
Hello, I have a Sun Remarketing 2mb expansion card for my Apple Lisa 2/10. It has been giving me a ram error. I removed the currently installed RAM. I just need to know what RAM should I replace it with. It looks like it just has 8 slots for 256k of RAM for a total of 2mb. Will any 256k RAM work?

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Posted by: Unknown_K on 2015-09-01 20:45:09
What RAM error are you getting? I know little about the Lisa but all the Mac RAM I seen is 8 chip (no parity) and those SIMMs are 9 chip parity.

Is there more then one RAM card in there (I think 2MB is the max supported).

Posted by: jraust on 2015-09-01 20:58:12
Well, my expansion card was not fully populated like the one in the photo. It was missing two sticks of RAM. So, I could still have another RAM card installed. But, I tried it alone too. Everytime, the Apple Lisa would fail its RAM test. If anyone knows what RAM I need to install that would be great.

Posted by: lisa2 on 2015-09-02 07:52:51
Normally, you would only have 3 of the 4 banks populated for 1.5 Meg (banks 1-3).  This card plus and apple 512K card = 2MB total the system max.  If you the use the SUN card fully populated, you must not have another memory card in the system or you will get an error.

You must use 9 Bit (PC Parity type) SIMMs.  Lisa is not a Mac, and Mac style 8 bit SIMMs will not work.

Rick

Posted by: jraust on 2015-09-02 08:45:27
Rick, is there any common RAM, for example, something I could easily purchase on eBay that would work. I'm having a very hard time finding any 128k RAM with 9 chips. Thank you for your help.

Posted by: oldappleguy on 2015-09-02 11:28:35
[No message]
Posted by: lisa2 on 2015-09-02 12:25:10
You need 256Kx9 RAM - 30 Pin SIMMS (not 128Kb as in your last post).  Best to have the 9 Chip versions (256Kx1 bit), but the 3 Chip versions should also work ( 2 256Kb x 4 bit & 1 256Kb x 1 bit).  8 chip or 2 chip versions will not work.  I am sorry but I don't of a good source for them, they were commonly used in late 1980's 286 & 386 PC clones.

Also, you will notice  jumpers to unable the banks on the SUN board, make sure they are set correctly.

HTH,

Rick

Posted by: uniserver on 2015-09-02 12:43:47
lol oldappleguy... he sold like a semi truck load of lisa's to VintageMicros guy... he makes a killing on his lisa stuffs.

Posted by: rsolberg on 2015-09-02 14:16:00
Might these be compatible? I did a quick eBay search for 30-pin parity SIMM and got a few results. This seller has eight pairs available.

Edit: link! http://goo.gl/HTWVPE

Posted by: lisa2 on 2015-09-02 14:48:48
Might these be compatible? I did a quick eBay search for 30-pin parity SIMM and got a few results. This seller has eight pairs available.

Edit: link! http://goo.gl/HTWVPE
I don't see any reason why those would not work, but for full disclosure, I have never tried the 3 chip variant's in any of my SUN boards, YMMV.

Rick

Posted by: jraust on 2015-09-02 18:24:35
Thank you all for your help! You answered my question and then some. I will try and buy those from that link. Hopefully, they will work.

Posted by: jraust on 2015-09-16 17:41:28
I purchased the RAM rsolberg suggested and it works fine. Just wanted to let everyone know.

Posted by: rsolberg on 2015-09-16 18:13:15
Thanks for posting your results! Glad to hear it's working. Hopefully this will help others locate RAM for those cards.

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