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I added more memoryto my ALR Powerflex, but it isn't counted when the machine boots. What's wrong?

I added a 486/25SX CPU upgrade to my Powerflex and now it locks up. What do I do?

Can my Powerflex support four megabyte SIMMs?

I just added a memory cardto my Powerflex and now my machine seems to run more slowly. What's wrong?

Can my Powerflex support an 850 megabyte or larger hard drive?

How far can I upgrade the processor on a Powerflex?

Q: I added more memory to my ALR Powerflex, but it isn't counted when the machine boots. What's wrong?

First make sure that you are adding two SIMM's at a time, and that they are in the sockets closest to the center of the motherboard.

Then you should boot the machine up to a C:> prompt and press the CTRL, ALT and ESC keys together to enter the BIOS setup program. Press PGDN twice to get to the "ROM/RAM Swap" screen. On that screen you will find a setting called "640K-1024K Relocation." Disable that and hit ESC to save and reboot the system.

The machine should count the memory and give you an invalid configuration error. Hit the <F2> key twice and then ESC again. The machine will go back into setup and then reboot. It will then count the memory this time without an error and you will be off and running.

Q: I added a 486/25SX CPU upgrade to my Powerflex and now it locks up. What do I do?

First, you should have also received an error message about the "CMOS Area containing the passwords" being corrupted.

Turn off the computer. You'll find the machine's CMOS battery underneath the area where your CD-ROM or 5¼" floppy drives would go. Next to the battery, you will find a pair of bare solder points labeled "J10." Find something metal that you can use to touch both solder points and hold there for maybe five seconds.

Restart the machine. You should still get that error message, but the machine will now allow you to go into set-up. Look around in the setup to check that all settings are correct then press ESC then F4 to reboot.

Q: Can my Powerflex support four megabyte SIMMs?

No. The Powerflex is only capable of recognizing 256 kilobyte or one megabyte modules. To take the machine beyond five megabytes (one on the motherboard plus four SIMMs) you will need to add a 16-bit memory board. ALR sells one for $103 (part number 12927810).

Q: I just added a memory card to my Powerflex and now my machine seems to run more slowly. What's wrong?

Nothing. When memory has to go through an expansion card and the ISA expansion bus, this is much slower than memory that is installed directly on the motherboard. Since Windows uses all memory equally, it doesn't make a distinction between the 5 MB on the system board and any on the memory card, therefore memory performance is only as fast as the slowest memory.

Q: Can my Powerflex support an 850 megabyte or larger hard drive?

The Powerflex's BIOS does not allow what is called "Logical Block Addressing," which is what allows newer machines to get around DOS's limit of 1024 cylinders. This means that, with the built-in IDE controller, the Powerflex has an absolute limit of 528 megabytes.

Does this mean a 540 megabyte drive will not work in a Powerflex? Well, a 540 megabyte drive probably has around 1048 cylinders. To allow a drive like this to work in the Powerflex, do the following:

1. Select a user definable drive type (48 and 49) in the CMOS setup.
2. For cylinders, enter 1024 instead of what the manufacturer's specifications tell you to enter.
3. Enter 16 for the heads and 63 for the sectors. Leave LZ and Precomp as zero.

Q: How far can I upgrade the processor on a Powerflex?

The fastest ALR upgrade for the Powerflex is a 486SX/25 CPU module. Adding an Intel Overdrive or other upgrade chip to this module does not significantly increase performance.