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So, I bought some new RAM cards to upgrade my 1040STe to 4Mb, and after looking into a bunch of tutorials it looked like it was a plain and simple switch out, but when I opened mine up, the RAM was actually soldered in?! There was no SIMMS socket like I'd seen on other STe's.
Anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you get around it?
Are you sure it's not actually an STF instead of an STE ? According to this website, in french, STE should all have SIMM slots.
http://info-coach.fr/atari/hardware/memory-fr.htm
Yeah, I'm 99% certain. It has the STe badge, has the STe channel in maxymiser and runs protracker STe... It definitely has the holes that would allow for the mounting of the sockets but the ram cards are just soldered straight in to the main board.
I'm not an expert, but do you have a picture of the motherboard?
I don't have a photo of the whole motherboard but I took a photo of the ram, I'll have to upload it later when I'm back at my computer however. I ran sysinfo and it confirmed its an Ste with 1024kb of ram.
I've heard of it before that some of the first STE, did not have 30pin SIMMS modules.
Last edited by fedepede04 (May 14, 2016 11:35 pm)
I've heard rumours of that as well... I guess I might just have to leave it as is then
you could try ask this guy, he know a lot about the Atari's hardware, maybe he know what you can do.
Thanks man! I might have to chuck him an email then!
EDIT: found this thread which mentions that some of the earlier STe's were equipped with SIPPs ram, that was either soldered in or socketed. The socketed ones were easily exchanged with SIMMs ram, however the soldered ones are apparently quite difficult to remove as it's soldered in on both sides. Looks like I'll just have to stay at 1040 then...
Last edited by Panda Chan (May 17, 2016 2:19 am)
I can confirm that. I've seen a couple that passed across my bench as soldered ICs. I don't think they are more common, but knowing Atari, they are very late in production (trying to save money) as apposed to an early version. Most Atari products went through a period where they were trying to lay less metal (traces and connector) over less space. This was the next largest cost issue after custom components and board size.
Huh, interesting stuff! Makes sense but never really thought about it
Yes, early STes did have SIPPs as has already been confirmed.
The thing is though that SIPPs are alot easier to solder and replace than the actual RAM chips of earlier ST models. If you can find some larger SIPPs its definitely doable to upgrade
Ah okay! I'll keep an eye out for some them! Thanks for the advice!