HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: newsman@milton.u.washington.edu (Chris Ricci)
Subject: 386 ------> 486
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 01:57:28 GMT

This is a two parter......

Part one: Packard Bell

	Just as a rule, I've been flaming Packard Bell computers for the past
couple of years for their shoddy components, uncommon design(Backplanes), and
poor reliability.  Well, their still in business.  Why?  Have they bettered
their computers?  I think not!  In just the last two weeks I've heard
complaints from three different people regarding their PB computers.  Is it 
just me and my bad experience, are these computers better than I'm making them
out to be?

Part two: 386 -----> 486?

	One of my computers has a 386-40Mhz board in it.  If I remember right
it was built by Contaq.  I remember in the boards manual there was mention of
an adapter that allowed you to plug in a 486DX chip and change a few jumpers
and WALA! new 486.  Does anyone know of such a board?  Does anyone have any
experience with it?  Does anyone else eat their sandwiches with two hands?

That is all....

Thank you 

Chris

C
it was built by C
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 02:21:21 EDT
From: <JJS160@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: HD trouble. SOS!

    Hi.  I am running a 386SX-25 with the Headland chipset.  I have a
general purpose I/O controller with 2 serial, 1 parallel, floppy and
IDE hard drive control.  The other day, the hard drive crashed BADLY.
I reformatted it from the American Megarends CMOS and then used FDisk
to get a C: D: and an E: drive.  Everything went fine until a reboot,
at which point the C: drive comes up with
"Invalid media error reading drive C:"
  The other two partitions are not affected, but I must boot from floppy
to access them.  I think this drive wants a low level format, but I
don't know if that can be done with an IDE drive.  It is a Quantum
80 megabyte old style type 80AT.  Right now, I have remedied the situation
by making C: a little 4 meg partition and then using the D: and E:
partitions.  I have to boot from floppy.  It's very precarious.  What can
I do?  How can I mask these bad tracks out, if that is the problem?
Apparently, the bad sectors are where the FAT should go, which would
explain why the C drive crashes at each reboot.  Is there anything I can
do?  Are there any programs I can get at an FTP site to effectively low
level format this IDE drive?  Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: brumba@rtsg.mot.com (Alan J. Brumbaugh)
Subject: Re: Query: Quantum Quality?
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group
Distribution: na
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 20:24:28 GMT

lrj@cs.cornell.edu (Lew Jansen) writes:


>	  'tis time to get a larger/faster hard disk in my system.
>	Right now I'm looking at the Quantum LPS120A IDE drive.  Has
>	anyone had any problems with them?  The MFM drive I'm using
>	will go on the back shelf for the time being, leaving the
>	Quantum as the sole drive in the system.  This is on a 386DX
>	machine.

>	  Anyone have any good/bad experience with 'em?

>	  Thanks.

I wish that I had had the good experiences that others have posted,
but they have been unresponsive and incompetent with respect to the
porblems in their software with respect to OS/2.

I have no complaints about the quality of their hardware.  I do find
it a bit unusual that they would set up a 900 number for support.  I
really don't care for paying when their product doesn't work, even if
it's only a flat $5.
-- 
Alan J. Brumbaugh                  email: brumba@rtsg.mot.com
Motorola General Systems Sector    voice: +1 708 632 5040
1501 West Shure Drive                fax: +1 708 732 4552
Arlington Heights, IL  60004
From: hho@usc.edu (*** N.T.K.C.D. ***)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Problem with Orchid IIs
Date: 1 Sep 1992 23:59:17 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: aludra.usc.edu

Has anyone experience a greenish shade on an Orchid Prodesign IIS
1meg with RAMDAC on SRC1402 Noninterlace monitor. it's not the monitor..

When I turn on the system, even the bios message is in different shade
of green :-(, then Text green, and window turn a little green too :_)

In non interlace the monitor support
1024x768  60Hz vertical
800x600   56/59
640x480   60/66
640xx400  70
640x350   70

So I set switeh 1 & 2 on the dip to off, which give 60-60-60..

Is the card bad?

Thanks :_)
H.
-- 
*******************************************************************************
Hung P. Ho, Jr. (John)     USC DENTISTRY    PH.SYSTEMS          CCCOGP  
                           hho@usc.edu      hung@phsys.com      hung@cccogp.com
From: massoud@chemteca.sdsu.edu (Massoud Ajami)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: IDE and RLL/MFM drives
Date: 4 Sep 92 15:17:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: chemteca.massoud.82.715619872
Organization: San Diego State University

In article <kFwJqB1w165w@infopls.chi.il.us> andyross@infopls.chi.il.us (Andrew Rossmann) writes:
>From: andyross@infopls.chi.il.us (Andrew Rossmann)
>Subject: IDE and RLL/MFM drives
>Date: Thu, 03 Sep 92 19:26:55 CDT
>  This is probably a FAQ, but are there ANY cards that can co-exist with an
>IDE drives for an MFM/RLL drive?
>
>  I run a BBS, which currently has a 200M Seagate IDE. As a temporary
>measure, I'd like to add in a Seagate ST251 from my old system, a Tandy
>1000SX. The controller card it has is a WD1002A-WX1. I thought I heard
>someone say that XT cards used a different IO address (I know the IRQ's are
>different), so I tried it. It just locked up the computer.
>
>  The drive will be for my FILES section, so the slow access and throughput
>times are not a factor.
>
>  Does anyone have the jumper settings for the WD1002A?? (or Western
>Digital's BBS number, in case I can't find it amongst my 'records?' [Some
>people would call it a stack of paper, I call it my records!!]) :-)
>
>--
>Andrew Rossmann            | Sysop of Infoplus BBS, +1 708 537 0247
>andyross@infopls.chi.il.us | Infoplus Support, latest version available
> uunet!infopls!andyross    | by logging in as infoplus. [v32bis/v42bis]
>                      NO new taxes...NO new gambling

These are the setting for WD1002-WX1;

JUMPER		INSTALED		REMOVED
S1-1		drive D:20Mb,		drive D:=10Mb,
		4 hd.,612 cyl.		4 hd.,306 cyl.
S1-3		drive C:=20 Mb,		drive C:=10 Mb,
		4 hd., 612 cyl.		4 hd.,306 cyl.
S1-5		Enable Auto-config	Disable Auto-config
S1-2,4,6,7,8	Reserved.

NOTE: Remove ALL jumpers at location "S1" if using a 30 Mb. hard drive.

JUMPER		PIN		STATUS
W3		Installed	BIOS ROM Enabled
		Removed		BIOS ROM Disabled
W4		1-2		Device Address 324H
		2-3		Device Address 320H
W5		NO JUMPER
W6		1-2		Head Sel. 3 (16 heads)
		2-3		Reduced Write Current (default)
W7		1-2		Use IRQ 5
		2-3		Use IRQ 2
W8		1-2
		2-3		(default)


Peace and Prosperity!
  ---==< 110 >==---
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: grund@pyrite.SOM.CWRU.edu (Victor Grund)
Subject: Re: fax, voice, answering machine switch
Organization: International Business Machines, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Date: 29 Aug 92 10:11:32

In article <1992Aug27.132549.5883@athena.mit.edu> shanghai@athena.mit.edu (Edward S Chen) writes:


   I paid a visit to Radio Shack yesterday and found that their 
   fax/voice/answer switch is selling at a price of $89.


While we're are it... is this a passive switching device?  (i.e. does
it listen for the incoming fax's tone and not blast the caller with a
fax answer tone)

Victor
--
Victor D. Grund        | grund@pyrite.som.cwru.edu *
IBM Cleveland Mktg Ops | grund@vnet.ibm.com        * November '92:
RISC System/6000 & AIX | DETVMIC6(VGRUND)          *   Use your vote to 
(216) 664-7381         | FAX: (216) 664-7348       *     reform Congress.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: wayne@gbrmpa.gov.au (Wayne Amisano)
Subject: Need a low level SCSI formatter for Adaptech 1542B!
Organization: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 01:05:08 GMT

Hi,

Could anyone please tell me where to find a low level SCSI formatter
that will clean out track 0 from a SCSI disk.

any help appreciated.

tnx in advance
cul 73's de wayne!!

-- 
Wayne Amisano (VK4KT)     _-_|\\    E-Mail - wayne@gbrmpa.gov.au
Great Barrier Reef       /     \\   Phone  - +61 77 81 8861 (GMT+1000)
Marine Park Authority.   \_.-._/    Fax    - +61 77 72 6093
Our's to use Wisely!          v     Mail   - GPO Box 1379, Townsville QLD 4810
From: vsuzuki@amaebi.cs.uec.ac.jp (Suzuki Mitsugu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Help me ! EVEREX EV-235
Date: 31 Aug 92 02:17:58 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan.

Hi,

I got EVEREX EV-235 graphic system for sound !
But they only include adaptor board (inserted into PC),
display monitor and demo/driver diskettes.
No printings are not included.
And drivers are too old for current windows/orcad/...
(Distekke labels say that they shiped at 1988.)

I have plan(s) to write

  1. display server software for X-window
  2. driver for GHOST SCRIPT

But I have no technical informations of this system.

Advice me about

  1. How can I get technical informations about this system.
  2. FTP cites which have drivers, sources, etc.
  3. Anything about this board.

Thanks a lot.

+-------------------------------------------------+
+                                                 +
+     Mitsugu Suzuki (vsuzuki@cs.uec.ac.jp)       +
+                                                 +
+     Computer Science department of              +
+     University of Electro Communications        +
+                                                 +
+     1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu-si, Tokyo 182,      +
+     Japan                                       +
+                                                 +
+-------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: ehobbs@nmt.edu (Eric Hobbs)
Subject: Rising Chip Prices?????
Organization: New Mexico Tech
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 16:27:03 GMT

The other day, I called ABS computers to check up on the price of a
386-40 system I was thinking about getting someday.  In the August
Computer Shopper it was $1307 and in the Sept. issue, it was $1289.
Anyway, the salesman said the price had gone back up to 1307 because
Intel and AMD raised their chip prices.  

So did they really raise chip prices?  To all you budding market analysts
out there:  how temporary is this price increase?

Thanks.

Eric A. Hobbs
ehobbs@JUPITER.nmt.edu
New Mexico Tech  Money's #10 best deal in college!!!
                 Don't tell the students!
From: pr18+@andrew.cmu.edu (Paul Reber)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: PS/2 CMOS (?) configuration
Date: 29 Aug 92 11:39:33 GMT
Organization: Doctoral student, Psychology, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

I recently purchased a used PS/2 model 30 (80286).  It came with an
external 360K drive which is bulky and essentially useless for my
sister-in-law (intended user).  I have disconnected the drive and
removed the internal card drive controller.  However, upon reboot the
computer clearly detects an error and requires you to press F1 to
reboot.  I think the CMOS is still configured to look for the external
floppy.  I can't seem to find a way to modify the CMOS configuration
information.  I currently have no documentation for the unit (the
previous owner will send it to me soon).  I tried using my old
SETUP.EXE program from my old AT, but it's DOS 3.2 and gets confused.
How can I remedy this problem?

Paul Reber
reber@cmu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: drew@ophelia.cs.colorado.edu (Drew Eckhardt)
Subject: Re: What program tells HD interleave factor?
Organization: University of Colorado at Boulder
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1992 02:14:25 GMT

In article <1992Aug24.005513.26362@ryn.mro4.dec.com> chungh@armory.enet.dec.com (Henry Chung) writes:
>
>In article <1992Aug23.003408.220@weyrich.UUCP>, orville%weyrich@tnet.com (Orville R. Weyrich) writes...
>>In article <1992Aug19.015845.7696@ra.msstate.edu> cbb1@ra.msstate.edu (Chris B. Borchert) writes:
>>>Can someone tell me a good program to determine the optimum interleave
>>>factor for any HD?  I have used HDTEST 1.28 (and it works great!), but
>>>it says it only runs on RLL drives.  I cannot find a newer version of
>>>this program.  Are there others for MFM and IDE drives?
>> 
>>Spinrite will do this  for MFM and RLL; I don't know about IDE's. [My version
>>of spin-rite predates IDE's].
>> 
>Norton Utilites' Calibrate will work on MFM and RLL drives.  Never try
>to change the Interleave for IDE and SCSI drives.  IDE and SCSI drives
>have 1:1 interleave set at the factory.
>/Henry

You can't non-destructively change the interleve of most SCSI drives,
however you *CAN* destructively reformat them with some interleve 
other than 1:1.  Normally, the controller BIOS or setup program
bundled with your controller can be used to do this.


-- 
Microsoft is responsible for propogating the evils it calls DOS and Windows, 
IBM for AIX (appropriately called Aches by those having to administer it), but 
marketing's sins don't come close to those of legal departments.
Boycott AT&T for their absurd anti-BSDI lawsuit.
From: faklis@joker.optics.rochester.edu (Dean Faklis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Actual FLOP performance of math coprocessors
Date: 29 Aug 92 19:35:29 GMT
Reply-To: faklis@joker.optics.rochester.edu (Dean Faklis)
Organization: The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester


   I ran two tests to try and empirically determine the computational
speed of math coprocessors. 
   Using assembly language or Turbo Pascal I obtain about 500,000  
floating point operations per second. Microsoft C doesn't do any
better.
  Does anybody have any comments on why this seems so low? All I 
was doing was some adds and multiplies? 
   ( The system was a 486 @ 25 MHz)

Thanks in advance for any comments

Dean Faklis
faklis@joker.optics.rochester.edu
From: youngqd@atlantis.CS.ORST.EDU (Dean Youngquist)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Any use for 4-floppy controllers?
Date: 26 Aug 92 20:28:13 GMT
Article-I.D.: leela.1992Aug26.202813.11026
Organization: Computer Science Outreach Services - Oregon State University

In article <8magPB5w165w@slic.cts.com> mikey@slic.cts.com (Mike Shirley) writes:
>kevin@kosman.uucp (Kevin O'Gorman) writes:
>
>> I keep seeing these HD controllers that include logic for 4 floppy drives.
>> I keep wondering why bother?  I thought MS-DOS (what most of these will
>> be used for) only recognized 2 floppies, no matter what logic was actually
>> present.
>> 
>> Am I wrong?  Can one use the 3rd and 4th for something else, like floppy tape
You might be wrong about the DOS support for 4 floppies.  I have installed
4 floppies on one system for someone who wanted to do a lot of disk copying.
I started with an IBM XT.  The IBM XTs all came from the factory with 4 drive
controllers.  Drives C + D were ported out the back of the controller card.
We put on 2 360K drives as A + B inside the CPU box and attached 2 720K drives
in an external box.  This was back in the '80s right after the 720K drives
became popular but before the 1.4s were readily available.  The hard drive
ended up as E: .

I now use 386 computer and I would like to have two 1.2 and two 1.44 drives.
I've been looking for a way to do it but I don't know how I would tell the
setup program I had 4 drives.  It the old XTs we just set the system board
switches to the setting for 4 drives.  Anyone know how I would do this?

Dean
youngqd@atlantis.cs.orst.edu	
Xref: sparky comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:23282 comp.sys.mac.hardware:16412
From: adair@hal.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Jonathan Edward Adair)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Pinout for Mini-DIN 8 (keyboard/mouse) connector
Date: 2 Sep 92 23:23:32 GMT
Organization: MIT Laboratory for Computer Science

What is the organizations of the pins on these little connectors?
I don't need the signals that are one the pins, but something
like a diagram that shows which pin is pin #1, etc.  None of the
connectors I have have any mark for pin 1.
 
Thanks

-- 
--
Jonathan E. Adair  -  Programmer at Large                          /\
adair@gnu.ai.mit.edu             <-  Best choice                  /<>\
adair@cfrrisc1.cfr.usf.edu       <-  Works for now               /    \
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: nina@panix.com (Nina Yuan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.os.os2.misc
Subject: Re: Gateway 486/66DX2 system and OS/2 (was Re: Gateway 486DX2 system)
Keywords: Gateway, DX2-66, OS/2
Date: 26 Aug 92 00:27:27 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix, NYC

In <1992Aug25.151547.23904@zeos.com> kgermann@zeos.com (Ken Germann) writes:
>The piece that you are not mentioning that I believe deserves merit is that
>ZEOS will be releasing their own VESA LOCAL BUS VIDEO Card this Fall. From all
>indications, it will be very fast. The motherboard is made and designed 
>entirely in the U.S. by ZEOS. We are able to get any engineering problems
>that may be encountered fixed quicker because we have control over the
>engineering process.

True; I didn't read about the Zeos card until after I had posted the above.
Now, for the $64,000 question; does the Zeos card require special drivers 
for OS/2, and if so, will the driver be released with the card?

-nhy



>-- 
>       	     
>Ken Germann		ZEOS International, Ltd.  
>Technical Support				support@zeos.com.
>Operating Systems Group.			os@zeos.com	
-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nina H. Yuan            Panix -- Public     (all addresses regularly checked)
Harvard College         Access Unix of NYC  Molecular Biology Computing Lab
yuan1@husc.harvard.edu  nina@panix.com      yuan@mbcl.rutgers.edu (Summer 1992)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: jimh@pacdata.uucp (Jim Harkins)
Subject: Re: Stealth Incompatability?
Organization: Pacific Data Products
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 17:20:31 GMT

In article <H3hBr*dv2@postmod.NASHUA.NH.US> andrew@postmod.nashua.nh.us writes:
>
>	has anyone run across problems with incompatability concerning the
>diamond stealth vram cards and drivers and particular 386 boards?

I've got a Diamond Stealth in a 486 box and Fractint locks up.  I farted
around with settings and drivers for about an hour with no luck.  I installed
OS/2 and then tried it, now OS/2 comes back with an 'invalid opcode'.  This
same copy of fractint works fine on my 386 box with the generic VGA card
I use at work.

In all honesty I don't know if the problem is the video card or the motherboard,
or some combination.  Haven't yet gotten my modem hooked up so I can't call
their BBS either.  I'll buy the cable to rectify that problem tonight.

jim

-- 
Lawyers Creed:  What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Harkins                         [ucsd|uunet]!pacdata!jim
Pacific Data Products               jim@pacdata.com
--------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: smintz@sedona.intel.com (Stephen Mintz exp 11/92~)
Subject: Re: suggestion for 200-250 MB drive?
Originator: smintz@alamo
Organization: Intel Corporation
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 16:16:46 GMT


The Quantum 240 is a very nics quiet drive, with auto recalibrate, and a low
level format, pass though (you can't destroy this one  with software)!!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: tomd@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Tom Davidson)
Subject: Re: Ice-cap to tune a 486/33 to 50Mhz speed?
Organization: Motorola Inc., Austin, Texas
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 16:22:47 GMT

kyle@wendy-fate.UU.NET (Kyle Jones) writes:

>smintz@sedona.intel.com (Stephen Mintz exp 11/92~) writes:
> > Please do not do this, We at intel have rated that chip at 33 mhz, that means it
> > hasn't passed a quality test for 50mhz, and using it at that speed will cause
> > errors, and possible damage to the processor, if it were able to go at 50 mhz, we
> > would be selling it as one, and making the profit from it..:)
 
You should clarify that ...  The chip has been rated at 33 mhz at ambient temperature
with no heatsink. Under those conditions the die is probably at 100C at which
 it is rated at 33 mhz , at lower temperatures the chip will run faster. 
For example , a chip I work with runs at 33MHz at 120C, 40Mhz at 100C 45 mhz at 25c
and almost 50 at 0c. However some chips hit a brick wall at certain speeds.  
 The problem with speeding up the CPU is usually in the other chips on the mother
board, especially the Cache SRAMS 33Mhz is 30ns cycle, 50Mhz is 20ns. Your external
Cache SRAMS are usually faster than the CPU cycle, 10ns is a big difference.
If your mother board is rated for a 50Mhz processor, you may be in luck, the
ICE-cap should cool the 486 to nearly 0C case, the die will be at 20C probably
able to run at 40mhz (25 ns) if your lucky you may have a chip that runs at 50mhz.
From: msadowsk@Teknowledge.COM (Mike Sadowski)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Help with Fixed Frequency Hitachi Monitor.
Keywords: Hitachi, Fixed Frequency
Date: 26 Aug 1992 21:07:13 GMT
Organization: Cimflex Teknowledge Corporation, Knowledge Systems Division

Hi -

I've acquired an Hitachi CM2073 fixed-frequecy monitor which I'd like
to be able to use with my PC.  The question is what kind of video card
is available which can drive this monitor at a 49.7 horizontal scan
frequency and give me some DOS text modes, VGA and perhaps 1024x768 or
even 1280x960?  Applications (hopefully) which would run include: Win 3.x,
DOS and AutoCad.

Any help would be appreciated - thanks in advance.

Mike Sadowski
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.arch
From: glew@pdx007.intel.com (Andy Glew)
Subject: Re: Does a 487sx shut down the 486sx??
Organization: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, Oregon
	<1992Aug26.173519.22421@unislc.uucp> <1992Aug27.183804.8605@tandon.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 17:18:42 GMT

    >Ah, but there is not more work, actually less.  The reason that they
    >offer this chip for less is that they don't have to spend the man-hours
    >testing the coprocessor. 

    Yeah... like maybe 1/10 cent per chip (test vectors are cheap)

I don't really know if the first poster was correct - the price
difference was probably as much anticipation of the chips that had the
FPU removed, which are cheaper both in yield, area, and testing - but
I would like to correct the second statement.

Test vectors are cheap. But tester time isn't.  Testers are often the
manufacturing bottleneck. When this is true, every time unit of tester
time is a time unit lost on the expensive machinery in the rest of the
fab - and that machinery costs out at one hell of a lot more than 1/10
cent per chip.

"Buy more testers" is only part of the answer.

(NB. by "tester" I mean test machinery, not human operators.)


--

Andy Glew, glew@ichips.intel.com
Intel Corp., M/S JF1-19, 5200 NE Elam Young Pkwy, 
Hillsboro, Oregon 97124-6497

This is a private posting; it does not indicate opinions or positions
of Intel Corp.

Intel Inside (tm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware