From: tel1568@tamuts.tamu.edu (Thomas Edward Landrum)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: Mix of 3-chip and 9-chip simms with OS/2
Date: 16 Dec 1992 04:41:57 GMT
Organization: Texas A&M University, College Station
NNTP-Posting-Host: tamuts.tamu.edu

In article <1gm6deINNjqd@agate.berkeley.edu> shyguy@ocf.berkeley.edu (David S. Shy) writes:
>In article <L7VqVB5w165w@qed.cts.com> pyrite@qed.cts.com (Sean Camanyag) writes:
>>With the Service Pack installed, I get a lot of trap errors, around 8-10,
>>sometimes more, per day.  People at IBM NSC BBS have put the blame on my mix
>>of 4 3-chip 1mb simms, and 4 9-chip 1mb simms.  This is UNACCEPTABLE,
>
>Hummm... fascinating... I don't have a big problem w/ trap errors... if
>i do, it's typically because i am trying out untested software or i was
>playing around with some stuff on my hd.  i've only had about 2 "real"
>trap errors since i've installed the sp.
>
>my setup is 12 megs of ram (4 1meg 9 chips 70ns simms (don't know brand)
>and 8 1 meg 3 chip 70 ns simms (goldstar))  i remember way back
>when trap error problems were numerious, it was typically becasue 
>people were not putting the same kind of simms in the same bank.  (i
>kept all the 9's in one bank and all the 3's in the rest)  so you
>might want to check for that.
>
>also, if you are mixing different speed simms, that may be your 
>problem (although some people have not experienced any problems
>under this setup...)
>
>oh, btw:  my my m-b is a 486dx/33 + ami bios
>
>
>-- 
>=============================================================================
>| David Shy                |  "You know anything about Windoze?", "Sure I   |
>| shyguy@ocf.berkeley.edu  |  know OS/2", "No, Windows!", "Oh, Warbage!",   |
>| shyguy@soda.berkeley.edu |  "No, Windows, the OS", "Micro$oft has an OS?" |
>=============================================================================


I have done maybe fifty os/2 installs on new machines with a 
wide variety of hardware and found the following:

1. OS/2 seems to be VERY picky about memory..I've heard but can't verify 
   that this has something to do with the flat memory model OS/2 uses.
2. Only a couple of times were nightmares.
3. Most problems were traced to incompatibilities between various system
   parts, i.e. one video card just didn't like the IDE controller;  slap
   a different video card in there and it works. (I should point out
   I build CLONES not True Blue. Weird stuff happens sometimes even
   with straight DOS)
4. OS/2 seems to be exponential in terms of performance increases vs. 
   hardware.  The difference between a 386-DX @ 40Mhz and a 486-DX @ 33Mhz 
   both with 8 megs RAM is a lot less than the difference between a 
   386-SX @ 16 Mhz and a 386-SX @ 33Mhz...In the latter case it seems 
   as though suddenly you've got a REAL computer. The former, mearly a bit 
   more stimulating.
5. Installations on machines that had been running DOS/WIN 3.x seemed to have 
   more problems if I didn't do a media analysis on the drive first. If I
   just reformatted the drive with DOS, the install DOS, little quirky things 
   that are unrepeatable happened. With either a clean drive or a new one
   these "quirky things" (well??? what would you call them??) seemed fewer.



These are strictly subjective observations....I like OS/2 alot, but I ain't
got stock in IBM...(Micro* either.).  Most of my experiences with OS/2 have
been pleasant, it is at least as stable as WIN 3.0..(before flame on...
remeber, I sell this stuff so it's gotta work MOST of the time..."It's 
a bug in the software" only goes so far.  However, just between us, OS/2
beats the s**t out of Win 3.x in most ways.  The problems right now are
with periferal support.  Drivers etc. are beta/non-existant for many
of the higher end products.  For many people, who never do any multi-tasking
OS/2 is the more stable platform, definitely with DOS based apps, and
arguably with Win apps...(I used win 3.1 Beta and it was FFFFAST!!!)
If I could offer support to my customers who have the 24X or the
Magnavox CD-ROM drive (it was cheap) just to name a few, I could push
a lot more product.  




THE PROCEEDING WAS NOT SPONSORED....THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE JUST THAT:
OPINIONS.  ADMINISTER WITH SALT SHAKER AVAILABLE.  



Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc