HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: kingpin@spiff.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Joe Smooth)
Subject: Speedstar 24X, Windows 3.1, Gateway 386/33 PROBLEM
Organization: None
Distribution: comp
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1992 23:13:16 GMT

Hi I just bought a new Diamond Speedstar 24X graphics card.. I am using it with
a Gateway 2000 386/33mhz machine.. I was wondering if anyone has had the
same problem as me, and everywhere I have called (ALL the tech. suport
for Windows, Gateway, and DIamond) don't know the answer..

	When I load SMARTDRV.EXE for Windows or load Windows itself, I get
a weird kind of static everytime the hard drive accesses itself.. DOS
works fine without using Windows and loading SMARTDRV.EXE (Disk caching
for Windows).. 

	I've tried moving power to another outlet, using surge protection,
setting different jumpers and switches on the graphics card, replacing
the card in another slot, etc.. and I've only had the card for one day..
	
	This has never happened before with any other graphics card I've
used.. so my question to everyone out there is... Has anyone had this problem,
and can it be fixed? Should I replace the graphics card (I haven't tried it
in another computer yet, as I don't ave access to one), or what?

	ANY suggestions will be appreciated.. I am extremeley dissapointed
that none of the companies seem to know what the problem is.. I am doubtful
that the card is broken/defective, but one never knows.. I will probably
buy another one in the next couple days to see if that works, but I would
rather get suggestions from you people first..

		Thanks VERY MUCH in advance..

				- Joe
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: mcdonald@aries.scs.uiuc.edu (J. D. McDonald)
Subject: Re: Gateway 486 simm configurations
Organization: UIUC SCS
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 01:15:31 GMT

In article <92364.174405JXS118@psuvm.psu.edu> Jeff Siegel <JXS118@psuvm.psu.edu> writes:

>Gateway is selling their 486 systems with 8 meg of ram. The salesperson
>claims that the machines are shipped with two 4 Meg simms. Now given that
>a simm is 8 data bits and a parity bit,

Wrong. These simms are 32 data bits and 4 parity bits (per simm).

Doug McDonald
From: price@helios.unl.edu (Chad  Price)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Crystal Scan vs. MAG MX15F - and - Alternatatives to Anykey Keyboard
Date: 24 Dec 1992 16:52:09 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln	
NNTP-Posting-Host: helios.unl.edu

friedman@starbase.trincoll.edu (Mark A. Friedman) writes:

>The Anykey keyboard does not feel solid to me.  I prefer a heavier
>(metallic) keyboard and find the Anykey to have a cheap plastic feel.
>Can someone recommend a brand of keyboard or a specific keyboard to
>look at?

I've used all sorts of keyboards over the years. My favorites have been (in no
particular order), Northgate keyboards, older Zenith keyboards (say pre 1990),
and the keyboard on the Dell I got at work this year. These all have a firm
bottom to the keystroke, medium key pressure, and no electronic click.

The Gateway keyboard (I have a new one at home) is one of my least favorite. It
reminds me of the Wyse terminal keyboards. My all-time least favorites are the
VT100 (original) and the Compaq mushy keyboards that came with the compaq
portables and desktops in the mid-late 80's. I haven't tried a Compaq keyboard
in a couple of years or so, so they may have changed. The original IBM PC
keyboard and their current ones are so-so. I prefered the feel of the original
to the new ones.

>I am typically not a user of function keys nor numeric keypads, thus,
>101 keys seems plenty to me.  My fingers are quite satisfied with the 
>location of numbers along the top row and with the typical control key 
>combinations used in Unix.

Pick the Northgate to fit your needs - they have 3 current models with function
keys in old-style, new-style, or both positions.

--
chad
price@helios.unl.edu
cprice@molecular.unmc.edu
From: pk@opl.com (Pravin [prah-veen] Kumar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: ? VL-Bus Video Cards
Date: 22 Dec 92 15:05:49 GMT
Reply-To: pk@opl.com
Organization: OPL, Inc.

Hi,

I've noticed that some of the (system) vendors in _Computer Shopper_ are
offering VL-Bus video cards from ATI. One of them says that they offer the
VL-Bus version of the UltraPro.

I'm putting together a system based on a VL-Bus motherboard, and I'd
like to use this card (or the Orchid S3-based Viper), but I haven't seen
it offered by anyone in _Computer Shopper_. Has anyone seen these VL-Bus
video cards via mail-order? If so, could you please send me the name of
the mail-order company?

Please respond by e-mail, and if there's enough interest, I'll post a
summary to the group.

Thanks in advance,
pk

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: twfh5@isuvax.iastate.edu
Subject: Re: Packard Bell experiences
Reply-To: twfh5@isuvax.iastate.edu
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 05:15:35 GMT

To whoever it was who wanted to know about buying Packard Bell.  If you have
any thought of installing a soundcard, you may want to read a post by 
eric@tvnews.tv.tek.com (Eric F. Dorondo) in comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard
from Sun, 27 Dec 1992 07:44:37 GMT.  He writes in part:
 
As a side note, it seems that alot of Packard Bell owners that bought SBPros
have had a high incedents of hardware incompatabilities, from odd occurances
to not getting them to work at all.  To be more specific, I have installed
sbpros into 2 packard bells, one a Legend or Force (can't remember) but it
wouldn't work at all, well actually it worked only in 2 operator mode but soon
as one tried 4 operator, the system got clobbered somehow so that 2 operator
nor 4 operator would ever work again until you reset the whole computer.  I
finally got it to work by using the sb-basic mono unit that only has 2 operator.
This way I was assured of never seeing 4 oper.  The people are happy cause
they think thats all there is (not knowing about the pro), and all the games
work ok, and the fm organ works ok so they are none the wiser.  Other than
that I would have to tell them to sell the PB computer (if they could) and
go get a more standardized computer with a real motherboard.  God I hate Pack
Bell, they have created so many headaches for people that will try to go
multimedia soon, I hope it bites that wretched corporation so they will go
out of business.  The other Pack Bell machine I put a sbpro into was the 
Packmate series and it exibited no problems.  The only thing I didn't like
was they put LPT1 at IRQ7 with no motherboard jumpers to set it to the normal
place of IRQ5, so I had to put the SBPro at IRQ5, but all games play and
windows 3.1 work fine, no problems.  I know the Force series has problems and
I got a sneaken' hunch its in the DMA end of it, I know that is crucial but
its only a guess why they don't work, and of course PB knows they can save
a penny by leaving out some critical piece of the DMA or something in their
asic.  
We need more PB owners to write in and share good/bad experiences with the
sbpro.  If enough dissatisfied owners write in, I wonder if a class action
suit wouldn't be in order, not that it would help, PB would just say they
never said it was mmedia ready.  What a joke.
Well, I guess you can tell I'n not all fired up.  I take it personal when
I have to tell people, sorry, you bought junk and your going to have to trade
it in, you might get 350 bucks for what you paid 1500 for, even though its
386sx or whatever, but other than that you can forget stereo sound.
From: jwilson@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Need Help to ID PURE DATA product.
Date: 21 Dec 92 10:59:34 CST
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services

I ran across an unidentified board while working on an older computer.
It has not been in use for at lease a year or so.  The board is some
type of etheret/arcnet board.  On the PCB are the words:

PDI508PLUS
1987,88
PURE DATA LTD.
0060012102.

Ccan anyone help me identify and/or locate drivers for this board?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Jason
jwilson@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: quan@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Tony Quan)
Subject: Gateway CD-ROM deal
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 02:29:30 GMT


Does anyone know which Sony CD-ROM drive Gateway 2000 sells?  Is
the drive external or internal and which model is it?

--Tony
quan@cs.stanford.edu
From: seah@ee.rochester.edu (David Seah)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Gateway's 15 inch monitor included with 66-DX2 system
Date: 29 Dec 92 07:19:23 GMT
Organization: Univ of Rochester, College of Engineering and Applied Science

In article <18906@mindlink.bc.ca> Richard_Robb@mindlink.bc.ca (Richard Robb) writes:
>With all the talk about Gateway's 66 MHz DX2 system that has been on this
>net, I am surprised that no one has commented on the quality of the 15 inch
>monitor that is bundled with it.

There's been some discussion about the 1572FS, most of it not very good.

>Could somebody please tell me whether the monitor is worth having?  And is
>the viewing area truly 15" diagonal?  Thanks in advance.

For $430, it's a good monitor.  I've been looking at monitors from NEC
as a potential upgrade for a couple of months now, and I have yet to
see anything that would justify spending $300 to $500 more for a minimal
improvement in display quality.  The Gateway monitor is not as bright,
nor does it offer as much constrast or sharpness as the NEC 3FGx or 4FG.
The difference is hardly that between night and day, though...if you
are pushing SVGA resolutions on a 15" tube, you're probably not going to
see razor-sharp characters on any monitor without getting someone to
tune it.  The NEC monitors also do not scan as high or as fast as the
1572...you're not going to squeeze 72Hz refresh out of an NEC 3FGx or 4FG
at 1024x768.  I think you get something like 60, and it flickers like the
dickens under fluorescent lights.  I decided that the NEC 4FG would be what
I would want (if I went NEC), but the slight benefits (brighter tube, better
contrast, color matching, and digital controls) didn't seem worth the extra
cost considering that the 1572 is adequate.  It beats a round 14" screen
by a mile, and is fairly sharp with a bit of jiggling.  

The viewing area measures 14.5" diagonal, though the tube itself may be
15" diagonal if you measure the whole thing.  I think this is standard
practice...my Apple 12" monitor is actually 10.5" or so.   You can adjust
the analog knobs on the front to give yourself maximal viewing area if you
work with the vmode settings for your display card (the Gateway version
of the ATI Ultra Pro can store these settings on EEPROM). The tube isn't
perfectly flat, either, though it is much flatter than your typical 14"
cheap-o monitor.  There is a manual degauss and pincushion adjustment on the
back of the monitor, as well as a gun convergence focus.  Front has
horizontal and vertical controls for size and positioning as well as
brightness and contrast.  I had to buy one of those antiglare screens to
use in the daytime...works fairly well except that my whites aren't as bright
and white as they could be.
-- 
Dave Seah ^..^   | Graduate MSEE, University of Rochester, New York           |
                 | Apple II Graphics & Sound Forum Consultant, America Online |

[Internet] seah@ee.rochester.edu, AFCDaveS@aol.com   [America Online] AFC DaveS
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: gasman1@netcom.com (David A. Silva)
Subject: Re: Can SCSI Transfer Rate be Increased??????
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1992 00:54:57 GMT

Jim Lick (jim@ferkel.ucsb.edu) wrote:

: >Currenly I am using a Future Domain 1660 with a Rodime 3259T and am
: >obtaining XFER rates of about 860KB/s.  This is not why I chose SCSI.
: >I would like to increase the XFER value and would like a suggestion as
: >to how this may be accomplished.  I have a very knowlegeable friend who
: >informed me that I would receive little or no performance boost by
: >purchasing another mgfs. controller.

: That is probably true.  ISA SCSI boards don't vary much as far as
: throughput is concerned.  You could get faster response times by
: using a caching controller, but your transfer rate probably would
: stay about the same.  It's also likely that your drive already has
: its own cache.
Jim
I don't know about this. I am running an Adaptec 1542B on an ISA system
with a hard drive comparable to the Rodime being compared, and the
slowest transfer rate I got was 1800 KB/s, and with tweaking of the
bus-on/off times and the DMA transfer speed, I've gotten it up to
2800-3000 KB/s. I have a friend with the EISA Ultrastor, and he is
getting around 8000 KB/s with the internal cache turned off on the HA.

David
From: keiths@cae.wisc.edu (Keith Scidmore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: SCSI hard drive question
Date: 29 Dec 92 03:47:05 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: College of Engineering, Univ. of Wisconsin--Madison

In article <1992Dec28.230052.124433@zeus.calpoly.edu> jowalker@zeus.calpoly.edu (Jonathan Walker) writes:
>Can anyone explain the advantages of a SCSI drive and controller over an
>IDE drive and controller?
>I have read that they actually perform worse than IDE drives. Is the
>only advantage that you can link numerous SCSI devices together?
>
     There is no reason to use SCSI on your average stand-alone system.  If
what you want is a file server or you have some special application then
SCSI may make some sense.  The fact of the matter is that even a lowly ISA
bus has more bandwidth than evn the fastest hard drives.  Unfortunately,
many people confuse the external transfer rate of a hard drive (from its
buffer or "cache" as some call it) with the internal transfer rate.  If you
pay $50/MB for some additional memory and run a software cache you won't
be constrained to the bus speeds, you'll save money, and have a system
that will blow the doors of the bus bandwidth limited SCSI controllers you 
can buy for hundreds more.  Bus mastering is only useful if you have more
than one device that wants to do work while the other is master on the 
bus. Few stand-alone systems can exploit this advantage.  	

Keith
From: CZTF@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA (CZTF000)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: RE: ATI soundboard
Date: 28 Dec 92 05:09:02 GMT
Organization: McGill University

In article <26DEC199211340853@cc.utah.edu> msfuller@cc.utah.edu (MARC S. FULLER) writes:
>Does anybody have any experience with the ATI soundboard?  How compatible is it
>with other sound boards?

Seems seemlessly compatible with Soundblaster stuff, including some
games, and comes with decent win 3.1 utilities, but the bundled
Windows software is a little wacky (DOS version has no problems).
The only weirdness I've been unable to understand is recurring errors
in voice assignement of the FM chips, even within their own DOS demos,
never mind the Multimedia Player. Maybe you just have to reset it
more often. I have not seen these voice assignment glitches in
the few games I've tried.

I've tried it with many of the public domain sound recording
programs from simtel that do not specifically know about it,
and it works fine, but you will not be able to use its stereo
capability when the program only knows about Soundblaster.

I _have_ had enormous problems trying to make it work in a notebook
docking station, but that's probably common to any card that uses
a DMA channel and won't let you change it.

I'd like to hear from others using this thing too, of course.

M.


Morgenstern________________________________________cztf@musica.mcgill.ca
                                                   (514) 937-8424,-5285
From: wbedard@corvus.usc.edu (William Bedard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Monitors made in US?
Date: 21 Dec 1992 15:31:56 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: corvus.usc.edu


Hello All,

	I regards to the monitor question, correct me if I'm wrong, but I 
believe that Nanao, out of Los Angeles, CA is an American made monitor.  In all
honesty, though, with a name like that I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me
that it was foreign owned or operated...

						My $2 Worth,

						William A. Bedard III
						email: wbedard@ucs.usc.edu

PS.  I only mention the possibility of the company's origin because I believe
that, on inspection, you will find that they make the best monitors bar none
(including Sony, Hitachi, NEC, Taxan, etc.).  If you can find better, I bet I can
prove you wrong, but I'd be interested nonetheless.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: smintz@sedona.intel.com (Stephen Mintz exp 11/92~)
Subject: Re: Jumbo 250 makes my screen image shake...
Originator: smintz@sedona
Reply-To: smintz@sedona.intel.com
Organization: Intel Corporation
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 20:27:15 GMT


Move the hd/interface card for the tape drive as far away from the video card.
Second check how close the cables are (if it is externally mounted).
and third, pick up some split ferrite cores from an electronics stores, and
clamp them around the video cord...it should cut out external noise..
Stephen


In article <greg03540921120172513@turbo.atl.ga.us>, greg@turbo.atl.ga.us (Greg Montgomery) writes:
> I just put a Jumbo 250 internal tape drive in my system, and it works
> great except for one little problem:  When doing certain physical
> operations (I'm not sure if its rewinding, writing, reading, or what),
> it makes my monitor shakes. Not physically, but the image on it shakes.
> I assume this is because of electrical interference? But what I would
> like to know is is this harmful to my monitor and how can I stop it??
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Greg
> 
> 
> ---
> Greg Montgomery -                       |  Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.
> greg@turbo.atl.ga.us                    |
> {gatech|rutgers}!emory!turbo!greg       |
> 
-- 

Intel Corp.                         |   "What is the air speed velocity
arentzis@sedona.intel.com           |       of an unladen swallow?"
UNIX TECHNICAL SUPPORT              | 
(602) 554-2244                      |           -Monty Python's Holy Grail
From: matthias@nsr.hp.com (Matthias Kamm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Bunch of PC questions?
Date: 29 Dec 1992 01:16:09 GMT
Organization: Hewlett Packard Santa Clara Site
NNTP-Posting-Host: hpmvd069.nsr.hp.com
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1.2 PL7]

Neal Wickham (nwickham@nyx.cs.du.edu) wrote:
: 
: Is the EISA bus and Microchannel the same thing?  They are both 32-bit
:  If not the same, which is better?

Microchannel is IBM proprietary, while EISA (Enhanced ISA) is an industry
standard.  I believe there isn't much performance difference.  Both are much
better than the old ISA (Industry Standard Architecture).
I was a little shocked at the time of the microchannel introduction.  IBM
had originally released such an OPEN machine in the original IBM-PC, and
here they are trying to bring everything in house again.  It just isn't
popular, and you now see IBM re-releasing ISA boxes due to market pressure.

: 
: ISA is just the old AT 16-bit bus, right? 
:
yup.

: Why is that?  What does the EISA bus have a big effect on?  I thought
: anything going down the EISA bus would go twice or more as fast? 
:
I think the problem is that software, and lots of hardware doesn't
yet take advantage of the 32-bit bus.  If you buy an EISA system,
you're hedging for delayed obsolesence of your box.  

: Are 386 systems usually socketed for the math co-processor?
Yes.  You can buy an Intel, IIT, Cyrix, or other 387 to work with
your Am386.

: How do you rate video card speed.  The resolution and # of colors is
: simple enough but I understand that the gfx speed is very important to
: overall performance?  How do you tell fast cards from slow ones?

The latest issue of BYTE contains a complete listing of benchmark
performance ratings of new video cards (windows accelerators). Check
it out before you buy.
: 
: Oh... and here's the one that's been bugging me for a long time.  I know
: that the 386 is a 32-bit chip internally and externally and that the 386sx
: is 32 internally and 16 externally, but if you stick them both on an ISA
: 16-bit bus, why is the 386 so much faster than the 386sx?

Almost all motherboards these days (even up to 3-4 years ago) used a 32-bit
wide local bus which ran from the processor to the memory.  That's why
Compaq and others had special memory cards, or memory expansion boards.

good shopping,
Matthias
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: paul@tct.com (Paul Levin)
Subject: Re: Parallel Port; Tape Drives ???
Organization: TC Telemanagement, Clearwater, FL
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 14:08:06 GMT

According to sheldon@iastate.edu (Steve Sheldon):
>In <1992Dec21.234306.4661@scf.loral.com> andres@scf16.scf.loral.com (Jeff Andres) writes:
>
>>What organizations/companies make them ??? and how reliable are they ???
>>What is their expected throughput ???
>
>>I've heard of one from H45 Technology, which is either out or soon
>>to be announced that does 8 meg/minute. 
>
> So far I only know of two, there are probably others.
>
> Microsolutions Backpack
> Colorado Trakker (or some such name)
>
> We have the microsolutions Backpack.  It's basically just an Archive XL
>tape unit with an interface for the parallel port.
>

Add to that list the Irwin EZ-Port.

Yesterday I posted my review of the CMS Trakker (one of which, I now own).
I short, it does about 4 Mbyte/min on my uni-directional parrallel port.
I am very happy with it.

-- 
From:  Paul Levin   paul@count.tct.com   813-532-2239 (work, 9-5 EST)
    --> Jesus loves you, and died for you; thank Him today. <--
From: des@ausom.oz.au (Dale Staines)
Subject: Info On SCSI Controller
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1992 11:30:19 GMT
Organization: AUSOM - The Apple Users Society of Melbourne

hello

I an look for some information on a Adaptec 1642B SCSI Controller
card for my IBM

I would like to know where the rom address is and can I move it

And where the I/o registers are in the Address space

I need this info to see if i can get this SCSI controller to work
with a ESDI controller

Thanks In Adavance
Please Relpy with E-Mail to the Address below Relpy is not working at the
time.
-- 
Dale Staines
Reply Does Not Work Please E-Mail to The Address Below
E-Mail Internet : des%ausom.oz@sol.cc.deakin.oz.au
Apple II Forever and A One or Two
From: eric@zen.maths.uts.edu.au (Eric Lindsay)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: I'm sick of off-white computers!
Date: 23 Dec 92 21:07:05 GMT
Organization: University of Technology, Sydney
NNTP-Posting-Host: zen.maths.uts.edu.au

In <3588@voodoo.UUCP> das@voodoo.boeing.com (Deb Schwartz) writes:
<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>

I resent the implications of this posting.  I have never used old crates 
for this purpose (chipboard, yes, plywood, yes).  I have now standardised 
by bolting my computer boards inside discarded Honeywell 19inch power supply 
cases.  (  add 8-) for humour impaired)

--
eric@zen.maths.uts.edu.au  Eric Lindsay, Sch of Maths, Uni of Tech
Don't take life too seriously.
It is only temporary.

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