Now, opinionated as I am, you just have to live with that, even 8 Gb of ram is to me ridiculous, but the other way. It is way too much. It is way more than needed to
type a letter. But Windows demands a lot and is running a lot of stuff in the background just for the fun of it.
I have been nosing around here and there, and it seems that the normal memory chips were 41256 chips in DIP package and they were typically 150 nano second memory.
A 256 chip is a "page" mode DRAM memory.
But my PCW 256 motherboard did not come with 41256 chips. I have no idea why. It was intended for the American market, the board does not come with the typical UK
connecting possibilities in the back, but has two Centronics connectors, one 36 pin, and one is 50 pin. And the motherboard is different where those connectors are
located.
The memory chips on my motherboard is TMS4257-15NL. This is not "page mode" memory, but "nibble mode" memory. I am not going to explain the difference here, but it can
googled for those who are interested. I have seen several motherboards for sale online, and some have had TMS4257-15NL memory. So, therefor I assume that my board is not
a case where the memory had failed and someone put new memory in. Anyway, it worked fine.
I have also seen online that people say it is difficult to mix different types of memory. Even the IBM PC and clones has been known for being "difficult" in that regard.
What can be said about different typs of memory is that if the original memory has a certain speed, like 150 nano seconds, then you need at least that, or a faster memory.
The TMS4257-15NL is very hard to come buy. Some list it, but does not have it in stock. Typical price is $5.00 a chip. But, what does that help if you can not get it.
I even got a price from someone who really had it in stock, and they wanted quite a bit over $300.00 for 24 chips. Another place had it too, but I did not get a price from
them, but they had a $1000.00 minimum order. So, I gave that up. The TMS4257-12NL is a little easier to get, but I never tried them. TMS is a Texas Instrument chip.
Anyway, I found 20 pcs. of 41256 150 nano sec., and thought since I get 20, I have enough to replace the TMS 4257 chips too if need be. But, first I wanted to just add 8 chips
to see if it worked. I am just done with that, and changed the DIP swithch setting on the motherboard to tell it has twice as much memory as before. Put it back together, and
the computer started right up and report the new memory too. Not a single glitch during booting. I have not used it any, but tried both CP/M and Locoscript 2.
New chips can not be mounted right away. The "legs" on new chips is not vertical, they spread a bit, and will not fit in the sockets. There is a trick to this for those
who are not familiar with IC's, but the trick is to lay the chip down on the side, and then press the black capsule down and so it is vertical or even a tad over
vertical. When you lift it up again you will see that the legs have gone a little back because of the tension in the metal, and is supposed to be in 90 degree angle to the
black capsule. If everything is fine, then turn the capsule around and do the same with the other legs.
Now you can press them down in the sockets, but be sure you have all the legs down in their holes so none of them get bent, because then you have to pry the chip out of
the socket and fix it. And it is also a risk that it will bend again next time because the metal get fatigued.
An important thing working with boards and IC's is that you need to ground yourself. You can buy a band that goes around your wrist for that, and with a wire to something ground in
your house, and remember to ground the board too at the same place so both you and the board has the same voltage. If you can not get a band for your arm you can wind a non-insulated
copper wire around your wrist, but very losely so it does not feel uncomfortable.
