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PXI-8186 maximum RAM?

My PXI-8186 has only 256MB of RAM and runs pretty slowly.  The manual says NI will sell you up to a 1GB SO-DIMM.  Does anybody know if 1GB is the maximum or can I put in a 2GB?

 

-Warren

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Hi Warren,

 

I searched all of our internal knowledgebase articles and manuals, and everything I found said that 1GB is the maximum amount of RAM for the PXI-8186. We say this because this is the most RAM we have tested and verified to work with the controller. It is possible that you could install and use 2GB RAM in the controller, but this is not something we officially support and have not tested it. Worst case scenario, you could buy a 2GB stick of RAM and try it - if your controller doesn't boot than you know the 1GB is a hardware limit. Of course this is not officially supported so if something goes wrong we will not be able to help you, but assuming you properly install the correct type of RAM you shouldn't run into problems.

 

Let me know if you have any more questions!

Micah M.
National Instruments
NIC AE Specialist - Test
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Micah-

 

Thanks for checking into this for me!  I do have a 2GB stick that I will try soon.  I am about to upgrade to a SSD as I've killed two HDs already and will try the 2GB stick when I make that upgrade.  I will post my findings at that time.

 

Thanks again!

 

-Warren

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No problem, Warren. We look forward to hearing how it goes!

Micah M.
National Instruments
NIC AE Specialist - Test
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Warren,

 

Do you have the final test results for 2GB memory upgrade of PXI 8186?

I would like to know the results.

 

Thanks

 

Jeremy

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And how this wors with SSD, as well? Thanks

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Hello Sir,

 

Current i am using 1 GB RAM for my PXI 8186 controller. My controller is running very slow during operation of lab view porgrams. I want to increase the RAM from 1GB to 2GB, but i am not able to found the appropriate RAM which adjust with the same configuration.

Can you please tell me which will be aplicable for expanding RAM to 2GB, beacuse i have only one slot for RAM.

 

Regards,

Shrikant

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Hello Shrikant,

 

This thread was started over a year ago — I imagine that the gentlemen who were discussing this issue are no longer monitoring it.  🙂

 

As micah m mentioned earlier in this thread, the PXI 8186 controllers were only tested and shipped with a maximum of 1 GB of memory.  Any other configuration would be considered "use outside of specification."

 

That being said, if you look at figure 1-1 on page 1-3 of NI PXI-8186/8187 User Manual and Specifications , you will see that those controllers use PC-2100 SO-DIMM DDR SDRAM.

 

I would recommend "cleaning up" the OS that is installed on it, and looking at ways to make your program more lean in lieu of adding additional memory.

While we're on the topic, what is it that the program is doing that is requiring so much memory?

Matthew H.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
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