🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <808434364snz@alcarg.demon.co.uk>
           Al@alcarg.demon.co.uk "Al Cargill" writes:

> 
>I am trying to put together a system based around an old 386DX40 
>motherboard. When it was pulled out a long time ago it was working 
>perfectly. However now it gets through the initial RAM check and then 
>as it is looking at the floppy drive it gives the following error 
>message
>
>        ON BOARD PARITY ERROR
>        ADDR (HEX) = (0000:0002)
>        SYSTEM HALTED
>
>        The motherboard has 64K cache and an AMI BIOS. Now I presume 
>the error message means that one (or more?) of the cache chips is 
>fritzed. I am right on this?

The main DRAM could be a candidate too !


> I would like to know if I am on the 
>right track before I start pulling out the chips as I am sure to make 
>a bodge job of that and so I would like to know that I have to do it 
>before I do!! 

Can you just turn the cache off in the BIOs and see if that fixes it ?


> I 
>have tried switching off the external cache in the BIOS but this 
>doesn't change what happens when it is switched on.

Could well be main RAm then. Try swapping simms and see if

 a) it goes away

or

 b) the reported failure address shifts.

Sometimes just reseating the simms fixes this sort of problem. Some simm
holders are a lot less reliable than the simms they hold !

-- 
John Beardmore     wookie@wookie.demon.co.uk
                   wookie@cix.compulink.co.uk

Windows '95:  95% the same old DOS and windows...