[Info-vax] memory in ALPHAstation 500/500

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

Since my ALPHAstation 500/500 (configured as a satellite) doesn't boot
and someone suggested swapping memory cards (within the box, with each
other), I've opened it up.  It has 8 memory slots, all with a card. 
They are alternately large and small (in physical size) cards.  I assume
these correspond to different amounts of memory, and that identical
cards in every other slot are required.  Since the machine has 288 MB,
it is very probably 256+32, i.e. 4*64 and 4*8. 

What other machines use the same memory?  If the problem is bad memory,
and swapping the cards doesn't help, maybe I can pull some cards out of
another machine.  I have an ALPHAstation 255/233 with an
exploded-capacitor motherboard with 64 MB memory, very probably 8*8 
(half DEC and half third-party memory, but same memory-size cards).  
Would these be usable in the ALPHAstation 500/500.

With PCI cards, disks etc one can usually just hook it up and see if it 
works (being careful to avoid mixing HVD SCSI with other types).  With 
memory, is there any danger in trying something out and seeing if SHOW 
MEMORY at the console recognizes it?  Or can one damage the cards in 
this way?  If the console recognizes it, will VMS?

Is there a chart somewhere of which ALPHAs use which memory, or at least 
which ALPHAs use the same memory?  (For VAX, I have a circular cardboard 
wheel-within-wheel thing, like a sky chart, where one can see which VAX 
uses what memory.)