What is this part?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TVeblen
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T

TVeblen

Hi all. Whilst dump-picking one fine rainy day I picked up a Dell Dimension
8100 puter, intact except for the hard drive. Took it home, cleaned it up,
plugged it in. No video. Loose wire on molex on the GeForce FX5200. Little
solder, everything works. Cleared the BIOS, stuck an old HDD in, it's good
to go!

It has a module on the main board I've never seen before. Between the
Processor and the AGP slot there is a slot that looks like 1/2 of an ISA
slot with a tall, thin card. Looks like memory. There is little info on the
card. Googled the numbers on the card, E169497, and it looks like it is
server memory. I don't see anything in BIOS that pertains to this. What is
this for? What does it do? Would it have any negative effect on a home
computer that I would be giving to one of the techno-phobes in my family?

Main Board: Dell part number, starts with MX (I will be looking that up)
Phoenix BIOS v1.10 Rev A02
P4 1.30 GHZ 478 pin 100MHz Bus speed
256MB RDram
Sond Blaster Live
Samsung DVD ROM
LG High speed CD-RW

TIA
 
TVeblen said:
Hi all. Whilst dump-picking one fine rainy day I picked up a Dell
Dimension 8100 puter, intact except for the hard drive. Took it home,
cleaned it up, plugged it in. No video. Loose wire on molex on the GeForce
FX5200. Little solder, everything works. Cleared the BIOS, stuck an old
HDD in, it's good to go!

It has a module on the main board I've never seen before. Between the
Processor and the AGP slot there is a slot that looks like 1/2 of an ISA
slot with a tall, thin card. Looks like memory. There is little info on
the card. Googled the numbers on the card, E169497, and it looks like it
is server memory. I don't see anything in BIOS that pertains to this.
What is this for? What does it do? Would it have any negative effect on a
home computer that I would be giving to one of the techno-phobes in my
family?

Main Board: Dell part number, starts with MX (I will be looking that up)
Phoenix BIOS v1.10 Rev A02
P4 1.30 GHZ 478 pin 100MHz Bus speed
256MB RDram
Sond Blaster Live
Samsung DVD ROM
LG High speed CD-RW

TIA
Click to expand...

Considering the age of the board, you might be looking at a CNR or AMR slot.
If so, then the slot, and the card in it, are USELESS. They are usually
used for cheap modems (dial-up) or cheap network cards. But, you generally
can't find something to fit in the slot unless it ships WITH the motherboard
at the time that the computer is first built. So the net effect to the end
user is that this slot steals space on the mainboard that could have been
used to add another (USEFUL) expansion slot, such as a PCI slot.

I suspect that it wouldn't have any effect at all on the users of the
computer, even if they are techno-phobes. But before you give it to
somebody, you should try powering the computer completely down, removing the
card from the slot and then powering up the computer to see what happens.
My prediction . . . NOTHING will happen. That is, the computer will power
up and run OK without the card installed, and you won't be able to tell that
the card is "missing".

But if the board has a modem (phone) line or LAN line connector on it, see
if removing the mystery card affects that. That is, test the connector to
see if it works, before and after removing the card. -Dave
 
Dave said:
Considering the age of the board, you might be looking at a CNR or AMR
slot. If so, then the slot, and the card in it, are USELESS. They are
usually used for cheap modems (dial-up) or cheap network cards. But, you
generally can't find something to fit in the slot unless it ships WITH the
motherboard at the time that the computer is first built. So the net
effect to the end user is that this slot steals space on the mainboard
that could have been used to add another (USEFUL) expansion slot, such as
a PCI slot.

I suspect that it wouldn't have any effect at all on the users of the
computer, even if they are techno-phobes. But before you give it to
somebody, you should try powering the computer completely down, removing
the card from the slot and then powering up the computer to see what
happens. My prediction . . . NOTHING will happen. That is, the computer
will power up and run OK without the card installed, and you won't be able
to tell that the card is "missing".

But if the board has a modem (phone) line or LAN line connector on it, see
if removing the mystery card affects that. That is, test the connector to
see if it works, before and after removing the card. -Dave
Click to expand...
This board has on-board NIC. So maybe this memory is for that function.
Still can't find the info on the motherboard to get specs or a schematic.
Plenty of for sale stuff. No info. Can't tell for sure which 800 series
chipset is on the board. Dell operation manual for the 8100 says 850, Dell's
chipset driver for the actual unit is 810. Who made the boards for Dell?
MSI?
 
Dave "contributed" in alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt:
Considering the age of the board, you might be looking at a CNR or AMR
slot. If so, then the slot, and the card in it, are USELESS. They are
usually used for cheap modems (dial-up) or cheap network cards. But,
you generally can't find something to fit in the slot unless it ships
WITH the motherboard at the time that the computer is first built. So
the net effect to the end user is that this slot steals space on the
mainboard that could have been used to add another (USEFUL) expansion
slot, such as a PCI slot.

I suspect that it wouldn't have any effect at all on the users of the
computer, even if they are techno-phobes. But before you give it to
somebody, you should try powering the computer completely down,
removing the card from the slot and then powering up the computer to
see what happens. My prediction . . . NOTHING will happen. That is,
the computer will power up and run OK without the card installed, and
you won't be able to tell that the card is "missing".

But if the board has a modem (phone) line or LAN line connector on it,
see if removing the mystery card affects that. That is, test the
connector to see if it works, before and after removing the card.
-Dave
Click to expand...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!! You couldn't get a clue during the clue mating
season in a field full of horny clues if you smeared your body with clue
musk and did the clue mating dance, you clueless ****.
 
Bob Knowlden said:
According to Dell's support pages:

http://support.dell.com/support/edo...chovu.htm#system_board_connectors_and_sockets

the slot is a "VRM connector". VRM usually means Voltage Regulator Module.
VRMs are usually soldered onto the board, but this one may be an
exception.

It may be an OK system for a technophobe. Its main drawback (applies more
to those who aren't technophobes) is that it uses RDRAM memory.
Click to expand...

Yes. I can certainly see why so many people say bad things about these
Dells. What a circle jerk I got going on here. The Dell drivers listed under
my "service tag" are wrong, you can't (easily) find the manufacturer or
model number. Not going to be as easy as I envisioned. And it seems that the
devices connected to the system are encoded in BIOS or something. They keep
showing up even when they are removed from the system.
 
Dell BIOS's have tons of hidden crap.

TVeblen said:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dsleest/techovu.htm#system_boa
rd_connectors_and_sockets

Yes. I can certainly see why so many people say bad things about these
Dells. What a circle jerk I got going on here. The Dell drivers listed under
my "service tag" are wrong, you can't (easily) find the manufacturer or
model number. Not going to be as easy as I envisioned. And it seems that the
devices connected to the system are encoded in BIOS or something. They keep
showing up even when they are removed from the system.
Click to expand...
 
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