HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: lewis@oasys.dt.navy.mil (William Lewis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Internal 14.4K Modems
Date: 15 Dec 92 12:53:51 GMT
Reply-To: lewis@oasys.dt.navy.mil (William Lewis)
Organization: Carderock Division, NSWC, Bethesda, MD

In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware, mitch@nosc.mil (Ray Mitchell) writes:
>I'm in the process of buying a 14.4K internal modem and need some guidance.
>The brands I have had recommended include Intel, USR, Complete Comp,
>Practical Comp, MACS, and Boca.  Excuse misspellings because all of these
>have been phone discussions.  Price is an object but it doesn't outweigh
>reliability.  A FAX feature is desirable but not a must if the price is
>right.  The best price I found was on a Boca 14.4K FAX modem but one
>source told me they do not run reliably at 14.4K because they lack a
>UART, and one can't be added.
 >
 >Thanks in advance
 >Ray Mitchell
 >mitch@nosc.mil

I bought a Zoom 14.4k external, from Price Club at $239, that was the
				     ^^^^^EAST COAST, WASH. D.C.
best price I've found. I like the external alot better than my old internal
2400 because it's a LOT easier to take it to another machine if I had
to. Which I have done once so far, though I never thought I would ever
have to. The externals also have the added feature of the indicator
lights on the front, which is good for trouble shooting. It also came
with a very good book that you can use with any modem. It covers all
of the AT and extended AT commands, S register values, and V.42 etc...
commands.  AND the UART chip is on your I/O board, because the modem
plugs into a com port, either size connector (it comes with an adaptor).

One thing about 14.4 connections though, they are not guaranteed.
I've found that I've had little success in obtaining a reliable 14.4k
connection (My phone line is situated in a very noisey electrical environment
which makes anything above 9600 difficult)

This brings up a question to all of the hardware heads out there....

I've looked at my I/O card and don't see chip with the markings
   "16450" which is the chip I have according to PCTOOLS diagnostics
Nor have, I seen anything that says "UART" on it.

Now the question...

Would upgrading the UART (either by board or by chip), improve the
chance of obtaining 14.4k connections? (upgrade 16450 to a 16550)

well this has been more than my $0.02 worth.

for those of you who didn't get this far I'll repost the question in
a shorter format.

Thanks,
Bill Lewis
lewis@oasys.dt.navy.mil
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: chungy2@aix.rpi.edu (Yau Felix Chung)
Subject: System Configuration
Followup-To: chungy2@rpi.edu
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 22:11:46 GMT

Hello all!  I would like to optimize the memory usage in my system as
well as speed up loading windows and applications.  So far I think I have
optimized the memory usage but I am not sure.  Below is the my config.sys
and autoexec.bat; could someone tell me if there is anything I can do
to these files to improve system performance?

Using the configuration below, I have noticed the loading windows and
big applications like Ami Pro take fairly long.  I suspect that it might
be because I am using smartdrv.  Is there a faster caching program?

Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

To save bandwidth, please sent replies to chungy2@rpi.edu.

-F.

Computer system:
	Gateway 2000 486-33 local bus
	8 megs of memory
	ATI Ultra Pro video
	ESDI harddrive with Ultrastor controller
	
********* Config.sys ************
device=d:\windows\himem.sys
dos=high,umb
device=d:\windows\emm386.exe ram 2048 
device=d:\windows\smartdrv.exe /e:1024 /b:512 /q
devicehigh=e:\mach32\vansi.sys
device=e:\mach32\rambios.sys
devicehigh=e:\ndw\nav&.sys /b
files= 35
buffers=10
stacks=9,256
shell=e:\dos\command.com e:\dos\ /e:512 /p
fcbs=1
lastdrive=g


********* Autoexec.bat *********
@echo off
rem e:\ndw\smartcan /on /skiphigh
rem e:\ndw\image
rem d:\windows\ad_wrap.com
rem d:\windows\ad-dos.com
e:\ndw\nav c:\
PATH e:\ndw;c:\;c:\aldus;c:\pm4;e:\batch;e:\dos;C:\STACKER
loadhigh e:\utility\mouse\mouse.com
loadhigh doskey /buffsize=8
set gsfonts=e:\gsfonts
set temp=f:\temp
prompt $p$g

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: gryphon@openage.openage.com (The Golden Gryphon)
Subject: Re: NO Product support. BOYCOTT?
Organization: Open Age, Inc.
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 18:15:49 GMT

djlewis@ualr.edu writes:

>I am sure that most everyone that purchases a lot of pc hardware has noticed
>by now that many product suppliers are NOT printing in any form thier company's
>home or subsidary addresses or phone numbers.
>	I have seen this on new motherboards and video cards and I/O cards
>many times. 
>	It is my opionion that the supplier should include addresses and 
>phone numbers but I am willing to forgo this at times, depending on the 
>bargain, as I am comfortable. 
>	Do you , the people of netland, have any recommendations that could
>be put into a bill and given to congress? Is this important to you? Should
>we the people boycott the said products?
>	I feel that any vendor that sells their product without the information
>(address/phone) included is probably not intending to support the product and
>may be a "Fly By Night" company just out for the quick cash.

>any comments?
>Don Lewis
>djlewis@ualr.edu
>djlewis@spider.ualr.edu

Product support is not guaranteed by law, and would be expensive to enforce.  I
have also tried to contact manufacturers at phone numbers in their manuals, but
the phone just kept ringing.  Why legislate?  Why not do what you feel is
right, including boycotts, and negative information campaigns backed by actual
events.


-- 
The Golden Gryphon 				gryphon@openage.COM
"Mad Scientists seeks mindless brawny assistants, good pay, quiet location."
"They're not ghosts,  they're metaphysically challenged." - Me
Openage - The Premier SCO UNIX integrator in the Washington D.C. area
From: tdbear@dvorak.amd.com (Thomas D. Barrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Is the amd 386 40Mhz by Cyrix, if so is it crap ?
Date: 15 Dec 92 04:04:39 GMT
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.; Austin, Texas

In article <1fvg8lINNj1v@nutmeg.csv.warwick.ac.uk> cstaddc@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr M A Stuart) writes:
>	I am a little worried therefore about purchasing an AMD 386 40Mhz
>as  I believe this is by Cyrix.  

EEEK!  No, we have enough problems without involving Cyrix :)

-- 
| Tom Barrett (TDBear), Sr. Engineer | tom.barrett@amd.com
| AMD PCD / Austin, TX  78741        | v:512-462-6856 / f:512-462-5155
| "No is Yes, and We are All FREE!"  | 
| My views may not be shared by the organization or origin
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.mac.hardware,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Iskandar Taib)
Subject: Re: "Windoze" slow? Naah...Re: pc and mac: was RE: 486 and mac benchmarks
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 18:42:31 GMT

In article <trimble.724558422@ph-meter.beckman.uiuc.edu> trimble@ph-meter.beckman.uiuc.edu (Chris Trimble) writes:

> I just want to point out that Windows, although it may be an OS of
> sorts (virtual memory is the only thing that warrants this claim), is
> not a good OS at all. There is no memory protection! It's totally
> ridiculous that one crash actually brings down the system. This
> is my main gripe about the MacOS as well - so don't think I'm just
> picking on Windows.

Not just virtual memory, but its own memory management alto-
gether. 

There are crashes and there are crashes. When most apps crash 
they usually cause a "GPF" and the rest of Windows goes on its
merry way. System 7 also seems to exhibit the same behavior
(WP 2.1 seems to crash pretty often around here. Luckily it 
has online backup.). When something quits responding to keyboard 
input you can hit ctrl-alt-del and kill just the app. Under 
System 7 you can hit cmd-option-ctrl-esc and it'll do the same 
thing. 

Yes, both Windows and System 7 are more crash-prone than OS/2
since they don't have memory protection. But one can also run
into crash problems with OS/2 (the Novell requestor is a good 
example).



-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iskandar Taib                          | The only thing worse than Peach ala
Internet: NTAIB@SILVER.UCS.INDIANA.EDU |    Frog is Frog ala Peach
Bitnet:   NTAIB@IUBACS                 !
From: frederic@cs.unc.edu (Robin Fredericksen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: ATI is making me mad
Date: 14 Dec 92 19:42:31 GMT

In article <LABACH.92Dec12220155@acs5.acs.ucalgary.ca>, labach@acs.ucalgary.ca (Terence Michael Labach) writes:



|> And don't bother writing to ATI either.  At least not if you like
|> companies you purchase goods from to reply to your concerns.  ATI has
|> nice hardware, but seems content to treat their customers like shit.
|> 

I agree.  For example, they don't have an 800 number.  If they wanted to be
responsive they would have one.  I called to find out why the ATI UP that
I got with my Gateway machine would not run my monitor at 1280x1024 at a
non-interlaced speed.  It took 36 minutes and $18 of my phone time for them
to figure out that the Gateway card does not have the high end RAMDAC needed
to do this.  That was my $18 to find out something that they should have known
without thinking.


|> - terry -
|>   ======================================================================
|>   Terry Labach                                    labach@acs.ucalgary.ca
|>   Programmer/Analyst                              terry@ensu.ucalgary.ca
|>   Department of Geomatics Engineering    Proudly stamping out FORTRAN in
|>   University of Calgary                  the Wonderful World of Science!

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Fredericksen	: Insert amazingly funny or enlightening quote
frederic@cs.unc.edu	: in this space here.
I don't need a disclaimer, I'm a graduate student so no one cares what I say...
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: staffan@nynashamn.telesoft.se (Staffan K-E Ungsgard)
Subject: MFM controller with 25 sectors/track
Organization: Telesoft Norden AB
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 23:42:40 GMT


Hi,
I own an old Victor that has the HD controller built in on
the motherboard. The HD is of a type using 25 sectors per
track. I have tried to move this disk to other systems,
just to find out that the cotroller card I've tried ( Western
Digital only) doesn't support other than 17 sectors per track.
Does anybody know where I can get a HD/floppy controller that
will allow me to hook up my old 25 sec/track disk ? ( The disk
is a 130 Meg one, so it's not something I'd like to toss.)

-- 
  Staffan Ungsgard 		: Internet:
  Telesoft Norden AB		: Staffan.Ungsgard@nynashamn.telesoft.se  
  Utsiktsvagen 10, 		: Phone: +46-8 52069014
  Nynashamn, Sweden		: Fax:   +46-8 52020965
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.intel,comp.sys.mac.hardware
From: md@sco.COM (Michael Davidson)
Subject: Re: Orchid chip docs 
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 20:11:32 GMT


jscott@micom.com (James Scott) writes:

>i just got off the phone with the folks at Orchid.  does anyone know
>of an ftp site from which i could download the tech docs on their
>graphics chip (for the farenheit).  if not, i guess i'll just cough
>up the $25 they require.

It probably would be a good idea to get the documentation, however
there are a couple of pieces of information that you may find useful.

The S3 86C911 is essentially a single-chip "near-clone" of the IBM
8514 which also supports all of the standard VGA modes (unlike the
IBM 8514 which requires a separate VGA card to be present) and a
number of SVGA modes.

While the 86C911 is *not* an exact clone of the 8514 it is extremely
close. If you already know how to program an 8514 at the register
level you will have no problems with the S3 chip. If you *don't*
know how to program an 8514 you should probably go and buy one of
the 8514 programming books that are available (the S3 chip documentation
will tell you what all of the registers do, but it doesn't have much
in the way of practical examples of *how* to use them). If you already
have code for the 8514, then adapting it to the S3 chip should be
trivial.

The main differences between the S3 chip and the 8514 are as follows:

1) The S3 chip supports all of the standard VGA modes and some SVGA
   modes - the 8514 doesn't (it requires that you have a real VGA or
   SVGA present)

2) The S3 chip is programmed into it's extended modes differently
   from the 8514 (the F1280 card has a VESA BIOS so putting the 
   card into it's extended modes shouldn't be a problem).

3) The S3 chip doesn't support the 8514 color compare register or
   the 8514 fixed pattern registers.

Apart from these differences it is essentially functionally identical
to an 8514 - same registers at the same addresses etc ....

Hope this is of some help
From: Alan.Sawyer@f253.n633.z3.fidonet.org (Alan Sawyer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Amiga
Date: Sun, 06 Dec 1992 12:59:10

Lets face it you Amiga pukes.A Sega megadrive with the cd-rom 
will beat you in the games department nowdays.And with the 586 
being released soon you amiga pukes have no hope of beating 
us know so Ha Ha Ha!!! 
 
 
... OFFLINE 1.40 * Amiga are Crap!!! 
 * Origin: The 999 Planes of Hell +61-3-796-2180 -  (3:633/253)
Xref: sparky comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:33757 comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:16023 comp.os.ms-windows.misc:5638 comp.os.ms-windows.apps:6288 comp.os.ms-windows.setup:2424
From: bo@horus.cem.msu.EDU (Bo Peng)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.apps,comp.os.ms-windows.setup
Subject: Survey call on graphics accelarators
Date: 20 Dec 92 02:07:36 GMT
Organization: Michigan State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: horus.cem.msu.edu

Hi everyone,
I'd like to conduct a survey on usenet about end-users' evaluation of various
windows graphics accelaration cards. Please consider including the following
inofrmation in your reply via private e-mail to me:

1. Card brand + model name/number. Price you paid if purchased within the past
three months (in my judgement, the change in pricing is too fast for the info
past three-month old to be meaningful). (ATI Graphics Ultra, etc, etc)
2. Processor type. (S3, TI48020, etc)
3. The primary resolution you use with it. (800x600x93847292347458color, etc)
4. The primary type of work you do with windows. (Word processing, CAD, etc)
5. Of course, your opinion. (Brief or verbose, acclaimation or cursing)

I'll summarize replies to the same groups in usenet within a month, or couple of
weeks, depending on the amout of reply/my schedule.

For the inquiring minds: I'm doing this because 1) I'm thinking of getting one
myself  2) The market is very confusing  3) Such a survey could of some value
to the general window-user community  4) It might even be fun to run such a 
survey.

For the caring minds: My machines is a 386sx 16MHz/Interlaced SVGA monitor. 
Yeah, I know. I'm reasonalby sure that the TVGA 8900a/1Mb SVGA card is one of
the bottlenecks (if not the most limiting) when running in 800x600x256colors
mode, which is the primary mode I'd like to run. But I don't know what kind of
acceleration cards can match such a platform, yet without being a overkill.
It may sounds like asking for too much. But I'd really appreciate whatever
suggestion/advice you care to make.

For benchmark programmers: Why are you guys still so focused on calculating
bps about bit-blitting/linedrawing/polyfilling/etc/etc while it doesn't mean a
thing to anyone except cs professors researching in computer graphics? Worse
yet, the correlation between these numbers and real-world performance is very
complicated, if not ill-defined. Pleeeeez, give us something that makes sense!
IMO. wintach from Texas Instrument serves a good purpose for laymen, despite
the fact that it quietly promotes their own chips.

Bo Peng
Signiture? See above.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.os.os2.misc
From: goyal@utdallas.edu (MOHIT K GOYAL)
Subject: Which is better for multitasking, EISA or VL-Bus?
Organization: Univ. of Texas at Dallas
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 19:37:02 GMT

Hello.

Can anyone tell me which one would be better for OS/2 2.0?

VL-Bus seems to have better specs than EISA.  

What can EISA do that VL-Bus can not?

I'm trying to decide if an ISA system with 2 VL-Bus slots or an EISA system
would be better.

My setup is:
OS/2 2.0 on a single user, stand alone pc
will run a wide variety or programs

Thanks.
From: das@voodoo.boeing.com (Deb Schwartz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: I'm sick of off-white computers!
Date: 19 Dec 92 07:37:13 GMT
Organization: Yet Another Graphics Project, Bellevue, WA

One of my coworkers told me today he recently saw an ad in the paper
for a large furniture store (he didn't remember which one) that had just
added a computer department.  I can see it now - get your computer in
genuine oak or walnut.  <old fogey mode on>  Takes me back to the
days when a personal computer was something you built yourself by
nailing computer boards to the insides of wooden crates.  <old fogey
mode off>

------
Debbie Schwartz // das@voodoo.ca.boeing.com  // ....uw-beaver!bcsaic!voodoo!das
Xref: sparky comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:33802 comp.periphs:1697
From: gomez@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (JL Gomez)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.periphs
Subject: 2 HD under 1 RLL controller
Date: 21 Dec 92 01:27:21 GMT
Followup-To: poster
Distribution: usa
Organization: Arizona State University

What's the magic involved getting 2 Maxtor 2190's to work
under 1 DTC 7287 RLL controller?

They work fine alone.  The 1st drive boots fine but the 2nd drive
is an error.

The low-level format for the 2nd drive went fine but verifying it
made all the tracks as marked bad.

DOS fdisk says it can't find the 2nd drive and AMI BIOS says it's
an error.

I did remove the terminating resistor from the first drive.

Now, it's being unused.

Thanks for the help!
--
gomez@enuxha.eas.asu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: fhrich01@orion.spd.louisville.edu (Frank H. Richterkessing)
Subject: My experiences with INSIGHT (and Hard Drives International)
Date: Sun, 13 Dec 1992 03:28:47 GMT
Organization: University of Louisville

Contrary to what everyone else has been saying about INSIGHT
(formerly Hard Drives International),I have had nothing but
GOOD (!!!!!) experiences with them. I have not bought a PC from
them, but I have bought several hard drives nad other parts
from them over the years and never (and I REPEAT ----- NEVER)
have I had ANY PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER !!!!!!! I have always been
satisfied with my purchases from them. I will also add that
I am considerably more difficult to please than most people
when it comes to PCs. (In general I am known as a cynic's
cynic and a pessimist's pessimist) (spelling? - there's no
dictionary handy.) I am also not affiliated with INSIGHT or
any other retailer.

In general, I have'nt had any trouble with any mail order supplier.
(At least not the ones that advertise in Computer Shopper.)
On the other hand, any time I've done business with a local
retailer, I've always been screwed! I simply don't buy anything
locally anymore except printer paper (and that comes from
Office Depot).

Now if you want to hear some real horror stories, ask me
about my experiences with Compaqs and Grids!

- Frank (Chip) Richterkessing

*********************************************************
* Being new to Net News I don't have one of those cute  *
* trailers (or whatever they're called) for my messages *
*********************************************************
From: matthias@nsr.hp.com (Matthias Kamm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Am386-40Mhz DXL cpu for sale
Date: 16 Dec 1992 03:04:02 GMT
Organization: Hewlett Packard Santa Clara Site
NNTP-Posting-Host: hpmvd069.nsr.hp.com
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1.2 PL7]

Is anyone putting together their own PC?  If so
I have a 40Mhz AMD 386 chip (purchased through
the company store) for sale.  

I'm asking $85 or best offer.  If interested, send
me a message at:

	  matthias@hpmvd069.nsr.hp.com
From: laszlo.czuczor@compdyn.questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Laszlo Czuczor) 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: RE: Deico Motherboards
Date: 18 Dec 92 08:21:00 GMT
Reply-To: laszlo.czuczor@compdyn.questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Laszlo Czuczor) 
Distribution: world
Organization: Computer Dynamics - Vancouver B.C. - (604)986-9937 (604)255-9937

   I have a DEICO Predator S motherboard which I installed two months
ago.  It is equipped with a 40MHZ 386 DX chip, and 8MB of memory, as
well as 256KB of SRAM, upgraded from the standard 64KB.

   To date the the board has performed admirably with all the software
used with it, without errors of any kind. The only regret I have is
to have attempted to second guess the manufacturer by increasing the
cache size. I use PC WEEK's Benchmarks to test and document any
changes made to the system. Increasing the cache size produced
absolutely no advantages whatever, and I would not recomend it.

   The board is a thing of beauty. Clean and sharp traces, with no sign
of post release engineering. A quality product. There are enough
jumper selectable options from clock speed to CPU selections from
16 MHZ 386 sx to 50 MHZ 486 dx to make this an experimenter's
delight, as well as the product of choice for those who look for
upgradeability at a reasonable cost. When the time comes for me to
upgrade to a VESA motherboard, I will certainly investigate DEICO for
product availability.

   In closing let me add I am in noway connected to DEICO, or any other
supplier/manufacurer.

Laszlo

---
 . OLX 2.1 . MSI - Bringing it all together in '92
                                    
From: ruska@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Dave Ruska)
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 06:16:31 GMT
Subject: Gateway's new MINI-DESKTOP systems?
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware


DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE WITH THE NEW GATEWAY "MINI DESKTOP" SYSTEMS ?

These are the 4SX-25, 4SX-33, and 4DX-33 boxes (not the 4DX-**V boxes)

They have five 16-bit ISA slots.... Are these full length card slots ?

 (Reviews of Gateway's earlier full size desktops complained that some
  of the slots were not usable with full length cards (due to obstruction
  by the SIMM modules I think)).

How many drive bays are left internally?

Can the 5 1/4 floppy be replaced by a CD-ROM or tape drive ?

What Graphics Accelerator card is used ?


Thanks,
Dave                      (preferred email addr: daver@hpgrrd.gr.hp.com)

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.intel