HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: davei@comp.lancs.ac.uk (Mr D Ingles)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Why you shouldn't buy NEC.  (More NEC 4FG horror stories!)
Date: 30 Sep 92 20:46:14 GMT
Organization: Department of Computing at Lancaster University, UK.

In article <To5wRB3w165w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca> chrisr@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Chris Ringe) writes:
>*** Note: This is a letter I just FAXED to NEC ***


>And the saga continues...

I had problems getting my NEC 3D repaired properly.  Although, they were
quick and looked after the monitor whilst in their hands.  After the
third time, I wrote an official letter to NEC demanding a complete
replacement delivered to my desk ASAP.  I told them that if this did not
happen, then I would write to all the major computer magazines revealing
the story. The new monitor arrived the next day along with prepaid 
carraige for the return of the old monitor. 

My new monitor has been going strong for the past 3 years now !

Davei 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: pvonk@scott.skidmore.edu (Pierre VonKaenel)
Subject: Re: Intel Microcode.
Organization: Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs NY, 12866
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 00:15:19 GMT

In article <1992Oct06.052416.988@skynet.uucp> ice@skynet.uucp (Ice) writes:
>
>This must necessarily include microcode since that is part of the
>IC design, right?
>
>How did Intel prevent AMD from using microcode?

Microcode can be either hard coded (part of the IC design) or soft
coded.  Interesting question....  is a soft coded version considered
part of the agreement?  By the way, does anyone know whether the Intel
chips have the microcode hardcoded?  (Tanenbaum's book gives a good
overview of both types of microcode.)


-- 
Pierre von Kaenel	| Skidmore College	     | pvonk@skidmore.edu
Math & CS Dept.		| Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 | (518)584-5000 Ext 2391

[.... old sig has been retired.  New sig isn't ready yet. ]
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: mc@wam.umd.edu (Morgan)
Subject: 586DX and 586DX2/100Mhz out already?
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 04:04:12 GMT


I heard that some of the Computer-Shopper's mail-order vendors are selling
586DX and DX2 systems.  I haven't had chance to get a copy of recent Computer
Shopper, but can someone verify this rumor?

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: mark@walt.CS.MsState.Edu (Mark Rauschkolb)
Subject: PLEASE teach me how to do IDE math ...
Organization: Mississippi State Univ.
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 03:14:11 GMT

I'm getting tired of having to ask about IDE hard-drives.
Can somebody teach me how to convert the actual layout of
an IDE drive into an acceptable layout for my controller?

I have a Miniscribe 8070AT who`s actual layout is

4 Heads	1170 Cyl 36 sec/track.

How do I convert this into 17 sec/track?

Thanks

Mark Rauschkolb
mark@cs.msstate.edu

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: q1hl@jupiter.sun.csd.unb.ca (Nameless CS Student)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Null Modem Cable For Hooking up two 386's
Keywords: Null, Modem
Date: 27 Sep 92 18:25:49 GMT
Organization: University of New Brunswick

In article <4243@winnie.fit.edu> rme81977@zach.fit.edu (Brian Fritz/ ADVISOR Russell (MAE)) writes:
>I'm not sure if this is possible, but I want to hook two pc's together
>via a ribbon cable.  I know I can buy two rs232 cables and plug them into
>a null modem, but my question is: isn't there a way to make these cables?
>Does anyone have the pin-out?
>Please reply personal EMAIL: rme81977@zach.fit.edu

Other people may be interested, so I'll post.

1 ----------- 1		frame ground- not required except at noisy sites
7 ----------- 7		Signal ground- required

2 ----------- 3		Transmit and receive swapping
3 ----------- 2

4 ----------- 5		RTS/CTS swapping- required only for hardware
5 ----------- 4		handshaking, not for XON/XOFF handshaking

6 + 8 ------- 20	DTR/CD/DSR: connecting 6 and 8 provides local
20 ----------- 6 + 8	carrier-detect.  Passing to 20 provides other
			machine with "terminal ready" if required.
			(Most MS-DOS software will want this.)
From: dpn2@po.CWRU.Edu (Damien P. Neil)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Keyboard
Date: 27 Sep 1992 00:59:55 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: dpn2@po.CWRU.Edu (Damien P. Neil)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


I have been thinking about buying a new keyboard, since my current one is
starting to fall apart. My roommate just got a Gateway 2000 machine, with a
Gateway AnyKey keyboard. This is a beautiful thing with function keys
across the top and side, eight direction keys instead of four (and a
'empty' key in the middle) and four keys that are used to program the other
keys.

I would like to boy something like this. I have heard that the Northgate
Omnikey keyboard is very good. Is is as good as the Gateway ones? Can
anyone offer me advice on a good keyboard to buy?

Many thanks in advance.
-- 
+-------------+------------------+---------------------------------+
| Damien Neil | dpn2@po.cwru.edu | Case Western Reserve University |
+-------------+------------------+---------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: klg@statsci.com (Kevin L. Gross)
Subject: Unmark Bad Sectors?
Reply-To: klg@statsci.com (Kevin L. Gross)
Organization: Statistical Sciences, Inc
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 17:08:19 GMT


We had about half of our 120MB drive accidentally marked with bad
sectors. The Bios drive type setting was changed and then someone ran
Norton DiskDoctor on it. The result was the back half of the drive was
marked Bad.

Is there any way to unmark these Bad sectors without reformatting. We had
no data on that part of the disk yet, but there is data on the first half
and it would save us considerable time to unmark rather than backup,
reformat and restore.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
-- 
-Kevin L. Gross          klg@statsci.com           Disclaim THIS: 
 This message is protected under the 1st Amendment to the Constitution
 of the United States of America. I'm protected under the 4th, 5th, 9th
 and 14th Amendments among others, or at least I used to be.
From: frank@cs.yorku.ca (Frank Pikelner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Where can I find HYPERDISK?
Date: 29 Sep 92 14:52:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: yetti.1465
Distribution: world
Organization: York University, Dept. of Computer Science

Just as the title says, I'm looking for the FTP site.

Thanks,
-- 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ---  ---    Frank Pikelner                                          /~\
 \    \  \   Technical Assistant, Department of Computer Science    <v.v>
  \-   \--   York University (Toronto, Canada)                      ,\^/;
   \    \    Internet: frank@cs.yorku.ca                            _{!}_
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: wessel@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Eric Wessel)
Subject: ATI VGA Wonder Questions
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1992 02:21:34 GMT

	I have an ATI VGA Wonder card with 512K, and lately have been wondering
about upgradeability, VESA support by this card, and so on. I got it through an
OEM, so the documentation that came with it was minimal at best. My questions
are:

	1) Is this card upgradeable beyond what I have?  Can I go to a VGA
	   Wonder + by swapping ROM chips or someting, or if I want something
	   better, do I have to look at getting a whole new card?
	2) Is this card VESA compatable?  If the answer is "not as it stands,"
	   are there any VESA drivers for it?  
	3) Is there an FTP site where there are a lot of drivers for this
	   card?  I don't mean a site dedicated to a certain peice of software,
	   that happens to have the drivers for this card, I mean a site that
	   has A LOT of drivers, for many programs, for this card.
	4) I know they ran a BBS that had drivers on it, but what is it's Phone
	   number?  If they have tech people on that I can talk to, it would be
	   very helpful.  I did get their voice phone number that was posted a
	   couple days ago, but if I could get acces to their software driver
	   library, I think that would be a bigger help.

	If you could, please E-Mail me the answers, as I don't read this
newsgroup very often.  Also, thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

							Eric Wessel
						   wessel@sage.cc.purdue.edu
-- 
   +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
   |  Eric V. Wessel           Internet1: wessel@sage.cc.purdue.edu  |
   |  Purdue University        InterNet2: wessel@physics.purdue.edu  | 
   +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
From: spira@panix.com (Greg "Sarcasm Is A Way Of Life" Spira)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Are AM 386DX 40's faster than Intel 386DS 40's ?
Date: 27 Sep 92 16:59:45 GMT
Organization: Boo!

In <1992Sep27.081929.9430@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> tkhut@ap.cl.msu.edu (Scott Karre) writes:


>    I was reading an article in the Sept. computer shopper about Advanced MIcrodevices processors, and in the article AM stated that their 386DX 40 processor was actually faster than a 486SX processor.  This impressed me, and I lookied into it further, and found out from a somewhat questionable sourse that AM processors are faster than Intel processors in the 386DX 40 class.  Is this true or just more rumormill bs?  If it is true, does anyone know how much better Am processors are than Intel ones?

You need to learn to press the enter key inbetween lines if you want your
posts to come out right.

The answer to your question depends on which 486SX processor you're talking
about.  The 386-40 is faster than the 486SX-16, about the same (maybe a tiny
bit slower) as the 486SX-20, and slower than the 486SX-25 and -33.

Greg 
-- 
  spira@panix.com       "The one-O delivery to Fisk.  He swings.  Long drive,  
 cmcl2!panix!spira      left field!  If it stays fair, it's gone!  Home Run!"  
158-17 Riverside Dr.                     Ned Martin, 10/22/75   
Whitestone NY 11357          (Insert your favorite baseball moment here) 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: RXMS10@waccvm.corp.mot.com (Jeffery Floyd)
Subject: Shugart SA-400 Floppy Schematic Needed
Organization: Motorola
Date: 30 Sep 1992 07:18:08 MST

Needed

What: Sugart SA-400 Floppy drive Schematic

Who To Contact: Jeff_Floyd@ausqm1.sps.mot.com
               Dave_McBride@ausqm1.sps.mot.com

Any Information leading to the arrest or contribution of the above
mentioned subject will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Xref: sparky comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:25850 comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:13279
From: sergei@upenn5.hep.upenn.edu (Sergei Borodin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Some silly RAM questions...
Date: 1 Oct 92 23:44:30 GMT
Followup-To: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Organization: University of Pennsylvania

In article <1992Oct1.192007.12381@sura.net> wbarnes@sura.net (Bill Barnes) writes:

>4) You've probably all seen ads which advertise "64K external cache,
>upgradable to 256K," right?  What I want to know is: is it the norm to
>construct the cache so you just pop in extra SIPPs until you get to
>256K or do you replace the initial 64K cache with newer, bigger SIPPs?
>Basically, do they leave usually empty space for the extra cache memory
>or are they saying, "Well, it can hold 256K, but we filled it with 64K
>instead - you need to replace the chips."?

  First of all, cache memory are  not SIPPs but rather DIPs, e.g. just
 regular chips. If an ad says 'upgradable to 256k' than, most likely 
 it means that guys (or whoever) will pull out chips and install 
 other chips. THat's why it's better to get it upgraded when you place
 an order. If they would leave an extra space they would advertise it
 like 'expandable' to 512k, since memory (any) comes in increments of
 4 times. But on most mom boards you see just 9 socketed cache chips.

 S.B.


Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.os.ms-windows.apps,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32
From: westes@sti.com (Will Estes)
Subject: Re: MS-Windows 32-bit Disk Access (was:  PowerPC or (P5 & P6)? )
Organization: Mail Group
Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 21:04:18 GMT

In article <Bvo1t3.8HA@sti.com> westes@sti.com (Will Estes) writes:
>In article <21623@global.hacktic.nl> peter@global.hacktic.nl (Peter Busser) writes:
>>westes@sti.com (Will Estes) writes:
>>
>>>In article <1992Oct2.163556.13131@tandon.com> tdbear@tandon.com (Tom Barrett) writes:
>>>>Actually, it is totally a waste to spend money on EISA for
>>>>personal computing... servers and multiuser (not
>>>>multiprocessing) machines excepted.
>>
>>>Anyone who knows of an EISA SCSI that has a 32-bit virtual device
>>>driver under Windows, please let us know about it.
>>
>>That's the point: there aren't any. And if they are there, they're expensive
>>because no one buys EISA boards.
>>
>>Besides, what is this 32-bit hype about?
>
>It's probably not hype at all.  If you've used Windows much, you know that
>any time you do significant I/O you end up blocking other tasks running
>on the system.  The reason for that is that int 13 is not re-entrant,
>and Windows can only have one task doing int 13 stuff at any one time.
>I think that maybe even Windows itself uses int 13 for the paging
>activity of Windows (someone correct me on that if it's wrong).
>
>The 32-bit option for virtual memory is basically a total replacement
>for int 13 BIOS hard disk calls.  It's a totally re-entrant I/O queueing
>system, and even if you are only using a 16-bit card with it in theory
>it should improve overall system performance by allowing low-level I/O 
>requests from multiple concurrently executing apps to queue up in parallel. 
>(Of course the thought occurs that all of these apps are probably going
>through int 21, which is also not re-entrant...)
>
>Anyway, Microsoft says that a 16-bit card that uses 32-bit disk access
>will in general improve system throughput by about 15%, and they claim
>that an EISA card that specifically supports 32-bit transfers in a
>32-bit virtual device driver will have a significant performance benefit
>(unquantified) above that.
>
>Again, I haven't used EISA or 32-bit access at all, so I can't report
>that I have experienced the result.  I'm just repeating what I've read
>from the Microsoft white paper on 32-bit disk access.
>
>-- 
>Will Estes		Internet: westes@netcom.com


-- 
Will Estes		Internet: westes@netcom.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: westes@sti.com (Will Estes)
Subject: Are GoldStar SIMMs Any Good?
Organization: Mail Group
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 20:23:28 GMT

Does anyone know if GoldStar SIMMs are good product?  Local suppliers of
SIMMs are selling the the GoldStars for around $30/SIMM for GoldStar,
but around $36/SIMM for Samsung, Motorola, and Intel.  Since the
GoldStar SIMM is taken from the Samsung mold, in theory it should all
come down to whether GoldStar has decent quality control.  What's the
record on GoldStar SIMMs?
-- 
Will Estes		Internet: westes@netcom.com
From: tvilla@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Tim Villa)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: expanded/extended mem
Date: 6 Oct 1992 08:42:44 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: tartarus.uwa.edu.au

lari@saadi.berkeley.edu (Francesco Lari) writes:

>I guess this is a FAQ (is there a FAQ list somewhere?) but what is the 
>difference between expanded and extended memory? 

>		  FRANCESCO

Basically extended memory is the real physical memory above 1Mb, while
expanded memory is emulated memory that is broken up into pages and
swapped in and out of conventional memory as it is required. 
And I bet I'm totally wrong too. ;)

As far as I'm concerned they both suck. Protected mode 32 bit memory is
best!
Tim
From: adhir@cygnus.umd.edu (Alok Dhir)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: 3rd floppy driv
Date: 2 Oct 92 20:17:13 GMT
Organization: /etc/organization

Hello all, I have a 486/50eisa with a DTC eisa IDE HD/FD controller.  It
supports up to 4 floppy devices, but requires the use of something the
manual calls an "IBM Flat Cable" (as opposed to what the manual calls a
"Standard AT Floppy Cable") and a 3rd/4th floppy driver.  My questions
are the following:  Where can I find this IBM Flat Cable?  Where can I find
the driver?  And since I run OS/2 most of the time, will I need to find
a IBM Flat Cable driver for OS/2 as well, or does OS/2 know about it
already?

Any info will be appreciated.

-- 
 ============================================================================
 Al Dhir                      			   Technical Consulting Staff
 Internet: adhir@cygnus.umd.edu	  	 University of Maryland, College Park
 Bitnet:   adhir%cygnus.umd.edu@Interbit      (301) 405-1500 * (301) 405-3014
From: schuster@panix.com (Michael Schuster)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Why nobody mention Hayes 14.4K modem?
Date: 28 Sep 92 22:43:24 GMT
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC

In article <1a76cfINNgv4@matt.ksu.ksu.edu> dajiang@matt.ksu.ksu.edu writes:
>schuster@panix.com (Michael Schuster) writes:
>
>>You must have the V-Series SmartModem 9600.
>>That's the problem - it will talk at high speed =ONLY= to another Hayes
>>V-Series. People have long-since abandoned such dinosaurs that use
>>proprietary modulations exclusively, for CCITT-compliant modems that
>
>Exactly they are V-series smartmodems. We have to make the purchase before
>the end of the fiscal year so this stink deal came. How about 14.4K
>Hayes Ultra series modem? Are they CCITT-compliant?


Yes, all the Ultras are.

-- 
_______________________________Mike Schuster________________________________
NY Pub. Access UNIX/Internet: schuster@panix.com | 70346.1745@CompuServe.COM
The Portal (R) System: schuster@cup.portal.com   | MCI Mail,GEnie: MSCHUSTER
From: rogere@ogicse.ogi.edu (Roger Ellingson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Speedstar24x compatibility with Microsoft C/C++7.0 graphics.lib
Date: 4 Oct 92 04:20:40 GMT
Article-I.D.: ogicse.43612
Distribution: usa
Organization: Oregon Graduate Institute (formerly OGC), Beaverton, OR

In article <43573@ogicse.ogi.edu> rogere@ogicse.cse.ogi.edu (Roger Ellingson) writes:
>I am having problems running DOS programs compiled with Microsoft
>c/c++ v7.0 graphics.lib routines with a Speedstart 24x.
>All the programs I cobble up using the library have terrible memory faults.  
>

Well I appeared to waste some bandwidth with this problem.  I put one and one 
together and have made progress on answering this one myself.  
A search of this group on "24x" found Ken Germann's posting on Diamond vesa.com
upgrades available.  The Microsoft Programming Techniques book on page 174
talks about vesa TSRs and related issues.  Using Diamond's vesa.com TSR
before running graphics.lib programs appears to take care of those nasty little
memory faults I mention above.  I haven't had time to exhaustively test
this but it certainly appears to be the case.

According to the Microsoft reference on page 174, if you do not have a TSR your
SVGA board should behave like a standard VGA adapter.  I question
whether this holds true for the Speedstar24x.

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: tdbear@tandon.com (Tom Barrett)
Subject: Re: 586?
Keywords: intel marketing madness
Organization: Tandon Corporation, Moorpark, CA
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 20:32:09 GMT

In article <1992Sep25.193943.4793@fs7.ece.cmu.edu> andrewg@ece.cmu.edu writes:
>
>I talked to an intel person just the other day who told me that
>the P5 WILL drop into "Overdrive" sockets on current motherboards.

Jeez... even Intel won't even talk to their own people.  How
paranoid :)

Intel just recently released a little info to the public which
I can repeat... the P24T is the device which fits into the
OverDrive (tm) socket which is one row larger on all sides as
the 487 Vacancy (tm) socket.  HOWEVER, since most chipsets do
not support the P24T write-back scheme (thanks a bunch Intel
for not letting the chipset folks in on your specs at least a
year in advance), there really aren't many systems which can
fully exploit the P24T.  By the way, the P24T is 32-bits
external and its core logic operates at the doubled external
frequency.

The true P5 is a 64-bit external databus chip... the external
address bus has flip-flopped a little but is at least 32-bits.
Again, there isn't really any main-stream chipsets available
right now... that will change by year end!

-- 
Tom Barrett (TDBear)    tdbear@tandon.com          voice: 805-378-6207
Tandon Corporation      609 Science Drive          Moorpark, CA  93021 
Sr. HW Design Engineer  "War is Peace, No is Yes, And We're All Free!" 
-=>NOTE:  The feed to tdbear@tandon.com may be interrupted in Sept.<=-
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: wiegand@rtsg.mot.com (Robert Wiegand)
Subject: Re: RAM memory is actualy a DRAM, isn't it ?
Reply-To: motcid!wiegand@uunet.uu.net
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group
Distribution: "world"
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1992 21:19:42 GMT

viznyuk@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu writes:


>  I have a question to PC community:

>  As far as I understood, the RAM memory on the
>486 computers is actually DRAM, contrary to
>SRAM cache memory. What I don't understand then
>is why to upgrade the RAM from 8Mb to 16Mb cost
>at least 150 bucks. DRAM is supposed to be much
>cheaper.
>S.V.

Actually this is cheap, SRAM costs even more.

There are probibly lots of people here who remember when $150 would
buy you a few *kbytes* of memory.


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Wiegand - Motorola Inc.
motcid!wiegand@uunet.uu.net            uunet!motcid!wiegand
Disclamer: I didn't do it - I was somewhere else at the time.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: engwhatt@iti.gov.sg (Toh Eng Whatt (SE))
Subject: Re: BERNOULLI BERNOULLI (Floptical drives?)
Keywords: Bernoulli
Organization: Information Technology Institute, National Computer Board, Singapore.
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 07:49:25 GMT

In article <3728@eastman.UUCP> lrxi00@icts01.Kodak.COM (James Nonnemacher) writes:
>I've been using Bernoulli's for a few years now, that includes the 20, 44, and now the 90Mb versions.
>Never had any problem with them.
>

All this talk about the Bernoulli and Syquest makes me wonder if anybody has
heard of the Floptical disk drives.  The drive looks exactly like that of an
ordinary 3 1/2" floppy drive, and it CAN read 720K and 1.44M disks.  The main
difference is that it can also read/write high capacity Floptical VHD diskettes
of capacities 21, 40 and 80Mb.  It is estimated to be about 4 times faster than
that normal floppy drives, and has an average seek time of 65ms and 170ms max.

Has anyone heard or used such a beast?  Perhaps you can share your experiences
with the net.  From what I can tell, it's a great alternative to backing tapes
but a far cry from the high access speed of the bernoulli and syquest drives.

* William

-- 
William Toh Eng-Whatt        | SE Lab, ITI, NCB          |    Tel: (65)778-2211
Assoc. Member of Tech. Staff | 71 Science Park Drive     | Direct: (65)772-0442
engwhatt@iti.gov.sg          | NCB Building, S'pore 0511 |    Fax: (65)779-5966
engwhatt@itivax.bitnet       | Republic of Singapore     |    Tlx: RS 38610 NCB
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware