HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: syzygy@rhps.UUCP (Eric Swanson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: are EISA & local bus mutually exclusive?
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 92 14:57:37 PDT
Organization: CrissySoft Incorporated

eputnam@vax1.umkc.edu writes:

> In article <1992Oct1.133232.12115@microware.com>, adam@microware.com (Adam Go
> > chyang@engin.umich.edu (Chung Hsiung Yang) writes:
> > 
> >>In article <91131@netnews.upenn.edu> sergei@upenn5.hep.upenn.edu (Sergei Bo
> >>>
> >>>  I would be interested to hear from people why they want EISA 
> >>> *AND* Local Bus? Besides the point that the thing is cool.
> >>>
> >>> Practically speaking, if HD and video are on the LB (well, I 
> >>> know about eithernet) why would you put a printer in the EISA?
> >>> ISA too slow for it? 
> >>> 
> >>>  So, WHY??
> > 
> > 
> 
> I've been thinking about the EISA/LB question for a while now...  It would
> seem to me that the advantage to local bus is the high direct throughput.
> What components have the capability to withstand the maximum throughput?  
> All I can think of (on a simple PC no LANS and such) is the video.
> The relative advantage to EISA is the wider path and bus-mastering.  Since
> even the best hard drives can't keep up with a local bus, the EISA could be
> used to control the drive and take some of the load off of the CPU thus
> speeding things up more than a local bus.  I wouldn't think that video would
> benefit from bus-mastering as much as it benefits from the high speed 
> interface of local bus.  Hence a local bus video/EISA hard drive would be
> the best system possible.
   


    I bought a local bus machine, and I think it's a big hoax.  I send the
local bus graphics card and ordered a Diamond Speedstar 24, which is about
twice as fast in DOS (graphics or text) and about half as fast in Windows.  The
problem I see with local bus video, and the reason that local bus video isn't
as fast as the CPU (as many vendors claim) is the speed of the video MEMORY.
It's the old wait state problem all over again.  System memory runs at, say,
70ns and is connected directly to the CPU.  In effect, connected to a "Local
Bus."  However, if you're running at 33 MHz (without a cache) you certainly
don't get 33 MHz performance.  The same goes for local bus video.  The DRAMs
run at 70-100ns (the DRAMS on my local bus card were 100ns.  Can you believe
it?) which is going to force 3 wait states.  On a 33 MHz machine, a cycle
happens every 30.30 ns.  So after 30 ns, we have one wait.  60.6, two waits.
90.9, three wait states.  So a video write can only happen once every 120ns
because of the clock speed of the CPU.  You'll NEVER get "Video speed at the
CPU clock rate" without 25ns DRAMS or so on your video card.  It has been my
experience that these local bus cards have VERY poorly written drivers.  Mine
came with a Sierra 32k DAC but only had drivers for 640x480x32000, not
800x600x32000 (1 MB card, too!).  My speedstar has both.  The 640x480x256
driver, according to Winbench, was *slower* than the 1024x768x256 *by far*.  A
difference noticeably to the naked, unstopwatched, eye.  
    Buy local bus with care!
         
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: rantapaa@s6.math.umn.edu (Erik E. Rantapaa)
Subject: Re: My Gateway 200 66Mhz is coming soon - mine came!
Organization: University of Minnesota
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 17:06:55 GMT

ajb8886@ritvax.isc.rit.edu writes:

>The Western Digital Caviar and the WD Pirhana (212MB) are among the fastest
>IDE drives I've tested.  Average data transfer rate by CoreTest was 1.4 MB/sec
>vs the typical IDE drive's 800K/sec.  

>The higher data transfer rate is due in part to the higher spindle speed (ie.
>4200 RPM vs. 3600 RPM, unless I'm mistaken), and the higher >real<
>sector-per-track density (which has nothing at all to do with the "translated"
>number of sectors that show up in CMOS configuration for IDE drives based on
>zone-bit-recording.)

So, what's this thing Gateway calls RIDE?  Does it really improve disk
performance or is it just marketing hype?  Benchmarks I've seen in recent
trade magazines don't show that Gateway's systems have appreciable faster
disks than other comparable systems. Indeed, Gateway's disk performance seems
to be mostly middle-of-the-pack.



--
"El Salvador is a democracy so it's not surprising that there are many
voices to be heard here. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans... I
have heard a single voice.
       -- Vice President Dan Quayle"

Erik Rantapaa    rantapaa@math.umn.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: sja@world.std.com (Stuart J Adams)
Subject: How good is MAG MX17F ?????
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 19:32:25 GMT


The subject says it all. I'm considering buying a MAG MX17F and want to
know if anyone has had good/bad experiences with it.

Thanks,
Stuart Adams
sja@world.std.com

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: craigb@boole.syd.ips.oz.au (Craig Bevins)
Subject: Maxtor 7213AT drive jumpers
Originator: craigb@boole.syd.ips.oz.au
Reply-To: craigb@ips.oz.au (Craig Bevins)
Organization: IPS Radio and Space Services.  Sydney, Australia.
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 12:20:06 GMT

I have a Maxtor 7213AT IDE drive without documentation.  Is there anybody
who can let me know the functions of the various jumpers on the drive?
Email replies would be appreciated, as I am not a regular subscriber to
this group.

Thanks,
Craig

	craigb@ips.oz.au		uunet!ips.oz.au!craigb
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: ahoekstr@cs.utwente.nl (Andre Hoekstra)
Subject: Re: Case of the missing pixels
Organization: University of Twente, Dept. of Computer Science
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 16:21:51 GMT

In article <1992Oct1.130006.19684@europa.asd.contel.com> markt@rocky.gte.com (Mark Tsombakos) writes:
>
>Hi again, all.
>
>I became so relieved when I read an article about missing pixels on a number
>of NEC monitors.  I recently noticed my monitor is missing >6 or so pixels
>in various locations.  I thought it was my eyes for a while, then I blamed
>the problem on dust (I was in denial!).  I gather this is a common thing?
>I've only had the monitor for < 1 year, so it's still covered by the 
>warranty.
>
Yep. I've seen a brand spanking new NEC 3D missing one pixel (all three
colors). Dunno why, however.....

>Thanks again for your valuable insight.  Email comments/flames to
>
>markt@rocky.gte.com
>
Andre Hoekstra
From: redmond+@cs.cmu.edu (Redmond English)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Memory Parity Error under Windows 3.1
Date: 8 Oct 92 22:18:10 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.BvtpyF.9Ar.1
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

Hello,

  A friend of mine is having some trouble running windows 3.1
on his 386DX PC.  Apparently it repeatedly gives Memory
Parity Errors.  I suggested that he try increasing the number
of memory wait states, and he told me that that made it worse!

  A call to MicroSoft produced the suggestion: "You must have
some borderline RAM - replace it." - are they serious?

  Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

                      Thanks in advance,

                             Red/.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: hb@vpnet.chi.il.us (hank barta)
Subject: HELP: AMI bios doesn't see 2nd 4 Mbytes of RAM
Organization: Vpnet Public Access
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 03:13:43 GMT

I have just added 4 Mbytes of RAM to a '386 AT clone which
uses an AMI bios dated 1989 and the C&T chipset. The RAM seems
to be enabled by the BIOS (bank 0,1, that is of 1Mx1 chips)
but the system just recognizes the first 4 Mbytes. My motherboard
documentation discribes no jumpers to enable RAM, so I thought
the system would just test for available RAM. HA! guess again!.

Thanks for any light you can shed on this.

hank

hb@vpnet.chi.il.us
barta@pswin.chi.il.us (still running w/ 4 Mbytes of RAM :-(
From: mosbrook@beach.csulb.edu (Brent Mosbrook)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Microtek Phone #/BBS?
Date: 15 Oct 92 02:55:34 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Cal State Long Beach


I just got a Microtek MS-300A scanner, and need to get drivers/docs for it
does anyone have phone #'s for microtek?  
any info on the vintage of this scanner?


-- 
+--------------------------------------+
|  Brent Mosbrook    KC6MWK            |
|         mosbrook@beach.csulb.edu     |
+--------------------------------------+
From: goyal@utdallas.edu (Mohit K. Goyal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: ATI Graphics Ultra Plus
Date: 9 Oct 92 00:13:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: utdallas.1992Oct9.001348.29555
Organization: Univ. of Texas at Dallas

Does anyone have a # for ATI?


Is the Ultra + out yet?

I have seen an ad for it in the newest PC Magazine.

CDW prices it at $300.  Not that bad. (the Ultra Pro is $500)

Anyways, I am unclear on the specs for the Plus.

What are its max colors with 2megs are 800X600 and 1024X768?
What are the various refresh rates for the various resolution/max. color
combinations?

Are OS/2 2.0 drivers included?

If anyone has any answers, please reply.  Thanks.
From: yen1366@cucs18.cs.cuhk.hk (Yen Chui Tin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Cyrix 486DLC with 87DLC?
Keywords: Cyrix 486
Date: 14 Oct 92 05:01:41 GMT
Article-I.D.: cucs5.1992Oct14.050141.17518
Organization: Faculty of Engineering, The Chinese U. of Hong Kong


   I've seen a motherboard using Cyrix 486DLC CPU. It's said
to have coprocessor. But I can only see a small, about 1.5cm
x 1.5cm, chip marked as Cyrix 87DLC. Is it really a coprocessor?
Anyone know it's performace?

Regards,
CT Yen.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: yjkim@stein.u.washington.edu (Yong Kim)
Subject: Any experience with Gateway 2000 Telepath?
Organization: University of Washington
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 21:46:18 GMT

	
I wonder how many of you have ever used Gateway2000 Telepath.
Are they really a good bargain?  I appreciate your sharing
your good/bad experience.  Thanks in advance.

yjkim@stein.u.washington.edu
-- 
Yong J. Kim  yjkim@milton.u.washington.edu
Department of Management Science
School of Business Administration
University of Washington
From: BrianK@cup.portal.com (Brian - Kilgore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Floppy Drivers
Date: Wed,  7 Oct 92 20:12:31 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: usa

I am looking for information on how to access the floppy drives hardware
registers and (if possible) example code.  I have a 486 EISA, with an
AMI BIOS and Datatech Enterpries Multi I/O card (if this helps).

I would prefer the device driver be for AT&T Unix, but a BSD or MSDOS
driver would also be of great help.

What I want to do:
    I have a CORE International floppy tape drive I would like to use
under unix and am willing to write a devide driver for.  But I have
never acessed a PCs hardware diretly and have no clue as to where to
find this information.  Any help would be appreciated.

(Also the CORE tape docs say the physical interface for an AT is
34 pin/QIC-107).

                               Thanks
                               Brian Kilgore
                               briank@cup.portal.com
From: edwong@acs.nntp-read.bu.edu (Edward Wong)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: GRAVIS JOYSTICK, looking for.... (please help)
Date: 15 Oct 92 15:01:45 GMT
Organization: Boston University Information Technology Boston, MA USA
In-reply-to: exuptr@exu.ericsson.se's message of 14 Oct 92 19:54:18 GMT

go to a Electronic Boutique, or some Toys 'R us, they should carry some.
--
8)
  _               _     | user's name:  Edward Wong
 |_ |\ \   / /\  |_) |\ | ARPA:     edwong@acs.bu.edu	
 |_ |/  \^/ /==\ | \ |/ | UUCP:     acs.bu.edu!edwong
From: ericl@cbmvax.commodore.com (Eric Law - Staff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Occidental LocalBus PC (Young Turk)
Summary: what am I missing
Keywords: vesa
Date: 7 Oct 92 13:43:57 GMT
Followup-To: ericl@commodore.com
Organization: Commodore

I just talked with Occidental about their 486/SX 25Mhz PC.

Configuration is:

    486SX/25 CPU
    0 cache expandable to 128 or 256K
    VLSI Chipset
    Pheonix Flash-BIOS
    Overdrive Socket, upgradable to DX2/66 and above
    Custom Motherboard (made in same plant as Zeos motherboards)
    4Meg RAM expandable to 32
    170Meg drive (conner)
    CTX 14" 72Hz monitor
    localbus video VESA standard on motherboard ( NCR Chipset > 10 Winmarks )
                                                (can disable with switch)
    1 localbus slot available
    2 teac floppies
    etc...

    As you can see, parts seem to be somewhat common brandnames
    (cept the motherboard of course, which is their own)

Comparing to some other vendors out there (who carry same/similar brandname
parts), this machine's price beats similar config'd ISA machines with the
SpeedStar 24X for a video card.

I know that, should I have a problem, there is the risk of having
the company fold before my warrantee is up.  In which case I'm stuck.
But if the video fails or if a localbus card comes along that I'd rather
have, I can just flip a switch and drop it in.

I know that Occidental is a sub-something of Zeos, and that Zeos has been
getting hard-hit financially.  Other than that, what are my worries about
getting this machine ?  What further information should I ask about ?

Anyone purchase one of these machines and care to comment on how they like it ?

I'll post a summary if there is enough interest
-Thanks

-Eric
Xref: sparky comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:26766 comp.unix.bsd:7337
From: shite@sinkhole.unf.edu (Stephen Hite)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: Question on Diamond Clock Synthesizer
Date: 13 Oct 92 05:07:54 GMT
Organization: University of North Florida, Jacksonville


   I read a message that David Wexelblat posted recommending
for people to not use the "Batman" Diamond clock code (David got this 
advice from Thomas Roell).  I believe the reason was that it could
cause some kind of physical damage to either your monitor or card
(forgot which).  I'll take Thomas's word for it...

Steve Hite
shite@sinkhole.unf.edu
From: camerons@NAD.3Com.COM (Cameron Spitzer 764-6339)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: What does "tag RAM" do, anyway?
Date: 8 Oct 92 00:05:49 GMT
Reply-To: camerons@NAD.3Com.COM
Organization: 3Com Corp

The tag keeps track of what's in the cache.
For each line (block, if you prefer) of data in your cache,
the associated tag location holds the high order address bits
needed to remember where that line of data came from.
If your motherboard has 16 MB main and 64 KB cache, for
example, your tag contains address bits 23-16.
Some cache designs also have status flags which say the
line is valid, or dirty (must be copied to main before
replacing).  Tags for tightly coupled multiprocessor caches
can have more complex state information, but as far as
I know these do not occur on PC motherboards.  Caches with
more than one set of data storage need a tag memory for each set,
which is why PCs only have one set.  A one set cache is called
"direct-mapped."

If your motherboard is working, with no tag RAMs installed,
then your cache is disabled.

Cameron

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: tdray@pb2esac.uucp (Tom Ray)
Subject: Re: Citoh C310 dot matrix printer - info desired
Organization: Pacific*Bell ESAC, Oakland, CA.
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 21:35:46 GMT

In article <msf.718605917@skaro> msf@skaro.as.arizona.edu (Michael Fulbright) writes:
>Someone gave me this old printer - a Citoh C310 - to play with. I
>didnt get a manual, so i dont know what i have. I've discovered
>it is NOT epson rx-80 compatible. I can print text fine, but beyond
>that i'm lost. If anyone has info  (Citoh's phone number, docs)
>i'd really appreciate it.
>
>Does Citoh still sell printers? I havent seen one for a while. It
>looks like a good solid and quiet printer.
>
>thanks
>michael fulbright
>msf@as.arizona.edu


I had a C.Itoh C310 serial printer hooked up to an IBM clone PC.  For
software that doesn't support the C.Itoh 310, the booklet says to try
using NEC8023A.

The manual that came with my printer in '86 listed the following address
and phone number:

C.Itoh Electronics, Inc.
2505 McCabe Way
Irvine, CA. 92714
(714)660-1421
From: bilimoria@inland.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Something fishy when printing.
Date: 9 Oct 92 09:21:44 CST
Distribution: usa
Organization: Inland Steel Company; East Chicago, IN

In article <1b22g7INNioe@news.aero.org>, macheske@aero.org (Richard M. Macheske) writes:
>>
>>>A friend of mine has been having a problem I've never heard
>>>of.  When trying to print graphics, only half a page (or
>>>nearly half a page) have been printing.  This has never happened
>>>to him before.  Any ideas?
>>
>>If he is using an HP compatible laser printer (PCL4/5), does he
>>have sufficient RAM for 300 dpi full page graphics.  Most of these
>>printers are sold with just 512K RAM which is sufficient for half
>>page of 300 dpi graphics.
>>
> I'm sorry. Maybe I should have been clearer.  He used to be able
> to print a full page with the same hardware, now he can only
> print a half.
> 
> Rick
> 
> 
My guess is he was printing before at 75 or 150 dpi and was able to get a
full page.  Somehow he has changed his software setup (Printer Setup) to
300 dpi.  I think if he finds his printer setup and changes back to 150 dpi,
it will fix the problem. 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.unix.bsd
From: mhbrekke@iastate.edu (Monty H. Brekke)
Subject: Re: Question on Diamond Clock Synthesizer
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 04:57:50 GMT

In article <1992Oct13.050754.4113@sinkhole.unf.edu> shite@sinkhole.unf.edu (Stephen Hite) writes:
>
>   I read a message that David Wexelblat posted recommending
>for people to not use the "Batman" Diamond clock code (David got this 
>advice from Thomas Roell).  I believe the reason was that it could
>cause some kind of physical damage to either your monitor or card
>(forgot which).  I'll take Thomas's word for it...
>

Someone also warned me about the possibility of damaging the board
by improperly setting the dot clock. This doesn't seem possible to
me, but then again I don't know what Diamond's engineers had in mind
when they designed the board. Has anyone out there been able to set
the clock on the Stealth? If so, I would like to know if there is
anything special that needs to be done, or if it can just be set as per
the specs from S3. Thanks in advance.




-- 
Internet : mhbrekke@iastate.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: david@datamark.co.nz (David Rowland)
Subject: Re: Which is best between 386 and 486SX ?
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 02:03:29 GMT
Organization: Datamark International Ltd.

In article <1992Oct8.155639.214@cmu.unige.ch> cohen@cmu.unige.ch writes:
>I am planning to buy a notebook. I am using a bibliographic
>database manager, WinWord 2.0, Excel and Windows 3.1.
>Shall I better choose a 386/25 or a 486SX25 based system ?
>Thanks for any help.
>Emmanuel Cohen-Laroque
>University of Geneva
>Medical School
>Switzerland.

If you use mega computations in Excel, it will pay to go for the 486
as this has a built in maths co-processor.  Otherwise, go for price as
you don't want to go for an overkill on computers just for the hell of
it.
I used a compaq 386/20 SX laptop with 8 Megs of ram and found it to be
more than adequate for what I needed.
-- 
| David Rowland       | The British are using New Zealanders.  They must |
| Datamark Intl Ltd   | really mean business !                           |
| Wellington          |      -  General Rommel During Northern African   |
| NEW ZEALAND         |         Campaign WWII.                           |
From: mramesh@cbnewse.cb.att.com (m.ramesh)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: NEC 4FG MONITOR
Keywords: pin-cushion
Date: 8 Oct 92 15:36:17 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: AT&T

I have NEC4FG monitor.  When I run windows and enter say Excel then I 
do not see edge to edge display very clearly.  The top portion of the screen is
curved and the bottom is not. I tried the pin-cushion control and that
appears to control on the sides not the top and bottom.

How do I make it a st. line and edge to edge?

Ramesh
From: tkhut@ap.cl.msu.edu (Scott Karre)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Does the Diamond Speedstar 24x Have 1024 x 768 x 16M color drivers?
Date: 10 Oct 92 01:36:04 GMT
Organization: Michigan State University, USA


	I just purchased a Diamond Speedstar 24x SVGA board, and the stats 
say that it can run 16 million colors only in 640 x 480 mode.  Are there
new drivers out there that allow you to get 16 million colors or even
32 K colors in a higher resolution mode?  Or are there new drivers out
there for the 24x that give improved performance?  Thanks!

	  Kris

	     " That which does not kill us, makes us stronger... "

*******************************************************************************
*  Kris Kortright  ( tkhut@ap.cl.msu.edu or kortrigh@cem.cemvax.msu.edu )     *
*  Research : Laser analytical chemistry under Dr. Gary Blanchard             *
*  Depatment of Chemistry  -  Michigan State University  -  E. Lans. Michigan *
*******************************************************************************
From: cpw8034@summa.tamu.edu (ALAN C. WEN (409)693-2924)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: ***** Ah!!!!! For Speedstar24 and/or ViewSonic 5E owners...
Date: 13 Oct 92 15:48:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: summa.13OCT199210481341
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

>>I've got a Speedstar 24..  VMODE is a tsr that takes up some memory, but can be
>>loaded high if you have qemm or possibly emm386.  I've seen hi and true-color
>>pictures on it with the HALO image editor that came with my card..  Runs in
>>Windows.  Did you get one?  I think it's specific to the card.  I've tried VPIC
>>5.1 to show true-colors pics but I'm not sure if it actually enables the modes
>>or not..  Haven't done anything in Hi- or True-color in DOS.
>>  -Eric Swanson
> 
>VMODE is not a TSR.  It loads, sets your monitor configuration in the video
>chipset, and exits.
> 
>You must be confusing it with the VESA TSR...
> 
>Alex

Well, when I do a MEM/C, it shows BOTH of my VMODE switches from my .BAT file...
one for VMODE MONITOR 
and one for VMODE VESA

BTW, what advantages/disadvantages would setting VMODE VESA do?  
Will this interfere with anything?  

alan
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: ahill@boi.hp.com (Andy Hill)
Subject: Re: Hard drive table PLEASE READ!!!!
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 20:22:03 GMT
Reply-To: ahill@boi.hp.com
Organization: LaserJets by Bill & Dave
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3

kehcheng@netcom.com (Keh-Cheng Chu) writes:
> DRIVELST.ZIP is more than three years old.  Get pd1:<msdos.info>theref42.zip
> instead.
>
Even The Ref 4.2 is pretty old (a good year, anyway).  Anything more recent
out there?
From: carl@Cayman.COM (Carl Heinzl)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Packard Bell <---> Connor Hard drive <---> BIOS Compatibility?
Date: 8 Oct 92 20:31:18 GMT
Organization: Cayman Systems Inc., Cambridge, MA
In-reply-to: JCT3@psuvm.psu.edu's message of 8 Oct 92 16:30:34 GMT


>Well, Sears carries Packard Bell equipment, so you might try asking
>one of the sales reps there.  They are usually fairly well trained.

Yep, right after they're trained properly on their computers they're
*promoted* to car mechanics (see thread that pops up from time to time
in misc.consumers regarding Sears auto mechanics).....

I haven't heard anything so laughable all day, I just couldn't resist.

-Carl-
--
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware