what kind of modem for P200 MMX

[dreyfus]

hi, can anyone tell me if I can put a pci modem in a P200 MMX, this is the only description I have of this PC,given me over the phone,its for an elderly friend of my mothers Also what kind of RAM does it use and could I put a 128mb stick sdram in. I have only been computing 3 years and have no experience of older machines. Does the P200 stand for pentium, also anyone know where I could dwnld a manual for it.
any info would make things easier for me. Thanks for any help.

[Steve]

P200 MMX stands for a Pentium processor, 200mhz, with multi media capability. It's an older computer. Chances are it will use ISA devices not PCI. But depending on the computer it may have 1 or more PCI slots.

You REALLY need more info than what you have before you can make ANY recommendations. ;)

[mjc]

Well, I can tell you that putting any kind of software (winmodem) in it will be asking for trouble.

I would recomend a hardware modem, preferrably an ISA one (which will end up being a used one, most likely). An external would work, but probably not a good choice in this situation.

[Paleo Pete]

The P200MMX part has already been explained. The board should have both ISA and PCI slots, most MMX capable boards I've seen usually have about 3 of each. They can use either 72 pin SIMM memory, or sometimes 168 pin DIMM (SDRAM), that depends on the specific board.

Another thing to consider is that many of the MMX capable boards also used the Intel i430xx chipset, which would only cache 64MB of memory, so that's all you can use in it.

ISA modem would be my recommendation, and if you watch the system requirements closely you might find a few PCI versions that will work. The only ISA modems I know of at the moment are from wholesalers, and not avbailable to the general public, resellers only. An external modem would work fine, but will be expensive.

A motherboard manual would be really helpful, that would give you an idea of the hardware considerations...

[dreyfus]

many thanks for the replys, will be popping in to look at the PC tommorrow, hopefully if I install SANDRA it will give me the parts info etc, so it looks like I'll be shopping for a PCi hardware modem pictures a lot clearer now, but will post again to you good folks if I get stuck. cheers :)

[dreyfus]

hi, I have brought this box home now, it is a Cyrix 686, TX pro mthbrd 512 cache, it has 4 simms and 2 dimms slots, one of the dimms slots had 32mmb in so I took it out and tried to put in a 128mb stick, now I have a big prob the 128mb stick will not go in neither will the original 32mb stick, I have tried and tried for over 3 hours but the ram will just not snap in, I have everything lined up ok and have done this before, I am afraid of damaging the mthrbrd, now I am stuck, are there any tips out there for doing this. Thanks for your time.

[Budfred]

If you are putting the 32 back in the same slot as before, it should go in and this means that something is not lined up properly or the holders on the ends are blocking it. Make sure the notches on the bottom of the RAM line up with the bumps on the slots. Make sure the holders on the ends are open. Make sure that the RAM is turned around the right way. There is a good chance that some of the RAM slots are for EDO RAM, I would check that out in whatever manual you can find before messing around with it much more.

Budfred