Memory on board

Discussion in 'QM2000 series of products' started by markd, Dec 20, 2007.

  1. markd

    markd New Member

    On the board there's a standard PC100 memory card.
    Does anyone know what capacity this needs to be (minimum)
    and will the card recognise it if I change if for a higher capacity memory and where (if anywhere) should I notice any performance improvements ?

    Note: I think I need to change this anyway as I've been getting card memory errors. :(
  2. markd

    markd New Member

  3. Pangolin

    Pangolin Staff Member

    Yes, the memory link that you found should be helpful. However, you should note that almost any speed SDRAM DIMM will work in the QM2000. PC-66 memory will work, as well as PC-100 and the newer PC-133. The speed of the memory is not really as important as the "sided-ness".

    Regarding performance, you won't really get higher or lower performance from having more or less memory. The memory only dictates the number of frames that you can have loaded at any one time.

    With 512MB, it is conceivable that you can have as many as 60,000 frames loaded. However, there are not too many people that need to have that many frames loaded at any one time, therefore the 256MB memory that we included with the QM2000 should be sufficient for most people.

    Best regards,

    William Benner
  4. aly

    aly Well-Known Member


    Some time ago I had problems with QM cards installed inside a PC. There were 5 cards. In the field, few hours before show, the system become unstable. There was no obvious reason for the crashes. The debugging window popped out with almost random messages. Some about FIFO buffer, then wrong commands, etc. I was not able to locate the faulting card through the software, but had to pull out one by one, restarting the system and waiting for the error to come back (or not)...

    This way the faulting card was located and removed. The system was then stable. After some tests I found that memory was causing trouble. Had the DIMM installed into an old PC and run memory-testing software. Yes, one chip on the module has failed.

    At this moment am upgrading one of the cards with memory and my bad experiences are coming back to my mind...
    Now I have some questions / ideas for you. In LD, in Help-About dialog there is some (too short) info about boards.

    1. If you have a large system with different cards and QMnet boxes (eventually rented some parts), you simply do not know which card has the smallest amount of memory. The LD software tells only for the first board (scanner 1). If the first board has 512 MB, and 4. board has only 64MB, the LD thinks that all cards have 512MB installed. I do not want to imagine what my happen if you try to load a laarge show.
    It would be great to see how big module has a particular card installed in a complete system (without manually testing one-by-one).

    2. Is it possible to add a routine for memory-testing? Like writing special frames to the whole memory, reading them back and checking the integrity? I see this to be a very simple procedure to program and a useful tool to (remotely) find a faulty board. The button can be near the Defragment button. Now I have to test every single DIMM inside a PC and then install it on a QM board.
    Yes, I know that you recommend buying tested module from Pangolin, but lots of geeks out there (including me) are trying to upgrade the system with components already on the stock and without disturbing mr. Bill...

    Best regards,
  5. aly

    aly Well-Known Member

    One more thing .. Now I have a single QM board with 64MB RAM (for test). When loading Europe show (83MB .LDS file) the software does not warn you before loading frames. It just loads, until memory is full. One IF sentence in the begining would be so cool :cool:
  6. aly

    aly Well-Known Member

    p.s. It is a pitty that it is not possible to edit last posts.

    I have found that errorneus memory module. In the first part the frames are ok, but the last frames look like this:



    Those images are for warning to other users - if you see something like this, then replace memory on the QM2000 board!

    Best regards,
  7. Pangolin

    Pangolin Staff Member

    LD itself does not know, or care, how much memory is on the boards.

    Also, in our help file, we tell people that all boards *should* have the same amount of memory.

    It may be possible for people to use boards with differing amount of memory creatively. I consider this to be an advanced topic and advanced use, but it can be done, and Greg Makhov from LSDI as well as Harry de Boar at DTL do just that.

    So rather than us stopping the program from running and saying "sorry, you can't do that guys", we allow the program to run. BUT, in the help file we do tell people that, for best operation and for ordinary users, you *should* have the same amount of memory in all boards.

    If you have LivePRO and open the About box, LivePRO itself will tell you a bit more information about each board, including the amount of memory installed on each board.

    Right. Each QM2000 board already has such a memory test. It happens when you first turn on the computer.

    In your case, it could be that there is no memory problem detected when the QM2000 is first turned on, but then it develops once it gets warm inside the computer.

    I've never seen a problem like that, BUT, I would also add one more thing to what you wrote. Replace the memory *WITH MEMORY FROM PANGOLIN*. Only memory from Pangolin is guaranteed to work on the QM2000 board. Sure, it is possible to use other memory, and it will work, but we only guarantee the operation of the board when you are using our memory.

    Hehe. Unfortunately it's not as easy as you wrote... at least we don't think so. But maybe you are some kind of super programmer and you can show us how it's done ;).

    Nevertheless, we are always looking for talented people to join the Pangolin team. If it is really so easy to make things work as you say, then we would love to have you work for us, either full time, or as a consultant. We currently employ people all over the world.

    Please write to us privately using our contact form at:

    Best regards,

    William Benner