Ready 7022 - Upgrades

[aparadissis]

I just unearthed my first purchased computer a NEC Ready 7022. I upgraded the CPU to 100 MHz, the RAM to 128 Mb, and replaced the system battery, and put a PCI NIC in it; and she boots! I figured for a almost 30 year old computer, I would max it out. It's currently running Win98SE, but I see from the web I can upgrade the cache module and video DRAM. I am having tons of issues finding what those options are. Any ideas? I'll try to find a image of one that is referenced elsewhere.


Thanks!

 

[GiGaBiTe]

If this is your motherboard: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/bcm-fm540

You're looking for a COAST module (Cache On A Stick) for the CPU cache. There were two common variants, a 256k and a 512k module. I have seen mention of a 1 MB module, but never have seen one in the wild. The 512k module will make the machine perform a bit better than the 256k module. Also be warned, there were other "cache on a stick" solutions for 486 motherboards, which are NOT compatible and may damage your motherboard. UMC and PCChips were most common.

This module is probably what you need. https://www.ebay.com/itm/275297390648

The 512k modules are harder to come by. I don't see any active listings from a brief ebay search.

As for the video memory, you just need SOJ-40 DRAM ICs. If you look up the memory chips next to the open sockets, just buy some of those and put them in the sockets. They're the same chip, just soldered to the board. Since those chips came in different capacities, I couldn't tell you what you have without seeing a part number. I did a quick search on ebay and found a bunch of listings for them. Make sure you buy the correct capacity chip. If you get the wrong capacity, you may have strange behavior from the video chip, like screen corruption on boot.

SOJ-40 DRAM for sale | eBay

Get the best deals for SOJ-40 DRAM at eBay.com. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items!

www.ebay.com

That board apparently takes up to a Pentium 133. It's probably also possible to use an interposer, like an Evergreen Spectra 400 and get up to an AMD K6/2 400 in it, albeit with a 66 MHz bus speed. It will perform worse than on a native 100 MHz FSB, but still much better than a Pentium 100/133.

 

[aparadissis]

If this is your motherboard: https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/bcm-fm540

You're looking for a COAST module (Cache On A Stick) for the CPU cache. There were two common variants, a 256k and a 512k module. I have seen mention of a 1 MB module, but never have seen one in the wild. The 512k module will make the machine perform a bit better than the 256k module. Also be warned, there were other "cache on a stick" solutions for 486 motherboards, which are NOT compatible and may damage your motherboard. UMC and PCChips were most common.

This module is probably what you need. https://www.ebay.com/itm/275297390648

The 512k modules are harder to come by. I don't see any active listings from a brief ebay search.

As for the video memory, you just need SOJ-40 DRAM ICs. If you look up the memory chips next to the open sockets, just buy some of those and put them in the sockets. They're the same chip, just soldered to the board. Since those chips came in different capacities, I couldn't tell you what you have without seeing a part number. I did a quick search on ebay and found a bunch of listings for them. Make sure you buy the correct capacity chip. If you get the wrong capacity, you may have strange behavior from the video chip, like screen corruption on boot.

SOJ-40 DRAM for sale | eBay

Get the best deals for SOJ-40 DRAM at eBay.com. We have a great online selection at the lowest prices with Fast & Free shipping on many items!

www.ebay.com

That board apparently takes up to a Pentium 133. It's probably also possible to use an interposer, like an Evergreen Spectra 400 and get up to an AMD K6/2 400 in it, albeit with a 66 MHz bus speed. It will perform worse than on a native 100 MHz FSB, but still much better than a Pentium 100/133.

GiGaBiTe, you are amazing. I dug for weeks to get as far as I did. Thanks! I will go hunting

 

[aparadissis]

Ok, purchases made and upgrades finished. The NEC is finished with the exception of a 98SE 32 bit browser. Here are the pics of the slots and chips I purchased. The cache on stick is a HP 5063-8783 SMART 256KB 160 Pin DIMM SRAM. I followed GiGaBiTe's link for the SOJ chips (bought 2). Big shout out to GiGaBiTe!

 

[aparadissis]

Here is the before and after cache on stick upgrade:

 

[GiGaBiTe]

Good that it works. You should see a 10-15% performance boost with it. I also assume the video memory was installed in the second screenshot. Since there's no display corruption, it probably works, though you'd need to go into Windows and try a higher resolution.

If the video chip supports it, you should be able to do 8 bit color at 1280x1024 with 2M of video memory installed.

 

[aparadissis]

Good that it works. You should see a 10-15% performance boost with it. I also assume the video memory was installed in the second screenshot. Since there's no display corruption, it probably works, though you'd need to go into Windows and try a higher resolution.

If the video chip supports it, you should be able to do 8 bit color at 1280x1024 with 2M of video memory installed.

I did get prompted to increase the resolution when I was installing the USB mgmt software from Adaptec. So it now can do 1024x768 which was locked out before the upgrade. Totally working as designed!