HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Date: Thu,  7 Jan 1993 00:49:13 -0500 
From: "Timothy L. Nali" <tn0s+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: What is your dream machine?

Now that I have the money to buy a "dream machine", I though I'd ask
what you think the ultimate 486 system should be.  I'm rather new to
buying "good" systems (I currently own a crappy 386-20), so I'd like to
hear what motherboards/monitors/HD controllers/etc. are best. 

Thanks in advance.



_____________________________________________________________________________
 
 Tim Nali            \  "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of
 tn0s@andrew.cmu.edu  \   the dreams" -Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
From: mhemy+@cs.cmu.edu (Michael Hemy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Clock glitch or...virus?
Date: 11 Jan 93 19:39:29 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.C0pFy0.Lsx.1
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

Yesterday when using my computer, I noticed that the time was wrong.
It was not wrong by 1 or 2 seconds but by a FULL HOUR ! I checked the
RTC (real-time clock) and it was correct. So I began wondering what made the
DOS time SO different. This was extremely peculiar since you usually
expect the DOS time to LAG after the real-time clock, and here I had
it AHEAD of it.

My first reaction was that there might be a virus lurking in my
computer but after thinking about it some more, I came with the following
theory:

Since DOS is getting it's time initially from the RTC at boot-time, it
may be that it is doing so in two (or more) stages, such that first it
reads the minutes and then the hours. If this is true and I turned my
computer on at 11:59 pm, then it may have read 59 minutes and when it
got to read the hours it was 00 (am) already, so that it thought the
time was 00:59 am.

Can someone that knows DOS internals, shed some light on this or...
can some virus expert say something about that phenomenon ?

--Michael
From: jacklord@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu (Albert Chu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: SIMM query
Date: 8 Jan 1993 23:08:25 -0500
Organization: Homewood Academic Computing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md, USA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu

Forgive this newbie question, but . . .
I'm looking to increase the amount of RAM in my 386-33.  It uses the standard
3 chip SIMMs, but I don't know the speed (ns) of the existing SIMMs.  What
possible problems could arise if the speeds don't match from one bank to 
another, and if it is not advisable to do this, is there anyway to determine
the speed of the existing SIMMs (besides calling the vendor, since I have
acquired my system second hand, and the previous owner has no clue)?

                            Thanks in advance,
                                     Al
-- 
Albert Chu
jacklord@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
Even You Have EBV!
From: edwards@ee.fit.edu (John Edwards)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Buying a SCSI controller board.
Date: 12 Jan 93 03:19:43 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Florida Tech, CP/EE Dept.

In <KEVR.93Jan9164818@idt103.is.morgan.com> kevr@is.morgan.com (Kevin Reilly) writes:

>I own a Gateway 486-DX2 ISA machine that has installed one
>202 MB IDE hard disk as Disk1. I have come into possession
>a Maxtor 213MB SCSI HD model LXT213SY. I would like to add this
>disk onto my system. Here are a few questions I hope can be answered.

>1. I know I must buy a SCSI controller board. But which one?
>   I am sure this question has been beaten to death already but I
>   have read too many horror stories of systems with both IDE and SCSI
>   disks not being able to function together w/o being a SCSI
>   interface guru. 

the IN2000 scsi adaptor by Always Technology was designed to work
with other controllers.  I had no problem using with a MFM at least.
I've never tried it with a IDE though.

You can call Always' tech support at 818-597-9595

Another route would be to buy a printer port adapter.  Always
makes one, and Trantor came out with them first.  I don't
know what kind of performance hits you take though.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: harp@martha.utcc.utk.edu (harp)
Subject: Re: Comments on Adaptec 1522?
Organization: University of Tennessee Computing Center
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 23:45:17 GMT

In article <1993Jan12.114843.26679@sei.cmu.edu> gjp@sei.cmu.edu (George Pandelios) writes:
>
>Folks,
>
>I'm considering an Adaptec 1522 SCSI controller and Western Digital (~213 MB)
>disk combination.  I'm interested in any comments or concerns from users of
>this controller.  It will be installed on a Myoda 386DX-33 (ISA motherboard).
>
>Some questions are:
>
>1.  How reliable is it?

It is very reliable.  A great SCSI board, if all you are going to do is use
DOS.


>2.  Can it handle a tape backup unit?  I don't know much about these critters.
>    QIC or DAT, any recommendations there that might affect the choice of 
>    controller?
>

I hear that it will support just about any SCSI beast that you hook it up
to, but SCSI tape drives are expensive.  I bought a 250MB QIC drive you
hang off the floppy cable.

The one big problem with the 1522 is the availability of drivers.  I'm sure
that in the end, there will be drivers that support just about any
operating system.  Adaptec just doesn't seem to see the 1522 as important
enough to deal with quickly.  I have been waiting for SCSI drivers for the
Windows NT prerelease for some time now.  Adaptec even lied (at least it
would sure seem like they did) about the drivers for the 1522.  I was told
by a person at Adaptec (back in early Dec.) that the NT drivers were done,
but Microsoft wouldn't let them release them to the public.  Instead,
Microsoft supposedly had them and they would be included in the next
prerelease.  Funny, Microsoft doesn't have the drivers.  I got smoked.

Hindsight is 20/20.  Given what I know now, the 1542 would have been a
better choice.  I just didn't want to blow almost $300 at the time on a
SCSI controller.

Sean Harp
University of Tennessee

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: jcargill@oka.cs.wisc.edu (Jon Cargille)
Subject: Re: Maximus EISA/VL-Bus system
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Madison CS Dept
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 22:13:59 GMT

In article <1992Dec31.233940.28309@cc.umontreal.ca> roypat@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Roy Patrick) writes:
>Looking through Computer Shopper I found what seems to be a good
>deal from Maximus (p. 350).  But before buying it, I would 
>appreciate some comments about the system and the company.
> 
>Maxi-EV, EISA/VL-Bus
> 
>Combination EISA and VL-Bus (2 slots) mother board
>8MB 32bit RAM (70ns), expandable to 128MB
>256K ultra-fast writeback cache memory
>True 32bit EISA hard disk controller, 
>        super-fast 4.125MB/sec data transfert rate
>212MB Super-quick 12ms IDE hard disk, (Western Digital)
>        with 64K 30%-faster look-ahead cache buffer
>15" Flatscreen SVGA-NI, 1280x1024, 72hz 
>        (I forgot to ask but from the ad it seems to be a MAG)

When I called and asked about this, they said that it was actually a
Samsung monitor.  For the real Mag, add $145.

>MAXIGRAF VESA Standard Local Bus video with S3 Accelerator for windows
>         up to 1280x1024, up to 16 Million colors, 
>         50-100 times faster than VGA, Winmark 50.1M
>         (32bit driver for OS/2 available)
>TEAC's reliable 3.5" & 5.25" FDDs
>Futitsu soft click enhanced 101 keyboard
>2 Serial, 1 Parallel, 1 Game port
>MS Windows 3.1, MS DOS 5.0 and high resolution serial mouse
> 
>The price for the 486DX2-66  is 2625$
>Shipping 145$ to Canada (it would take 10 working days)


Other than that, their prices look pretty good.  I'm considering them
myself.  If anyone knows anything *bad* about Maximus, speak up!

Jon
-- 
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
Jon Cargille		jcargill@cs.wisc.edu
Want your .sig compressed?  Reasonable rates
and fast turnaround. Call today!
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: thor@csd.uwo.ca (Jim Thorsley)
Subject: ATI VGA Problem
Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, UWO, London Canada
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 16:51:32 GMT
Keywords: VGA EGA ATI

I have encountered a couple of problems with my VGA card...

I received a video game for Christmas called Lemmings. I tried it on
my system but the mouse cursor was messed up. It looked as if the
byte order of the cursor was reversed when it restored the patch of
screen it was passing over. Anyways, it royally messed up the screen
and made things unreadable. Also, The cursor seemed to jump (teleport?)
to other parts of the screen without provocation, usually to a point
directly above or below the current point. I've had this kind of problem
with other video games too. I've seen Lemmings working well on another
machine.

Also...

My VGA adapter screwed up on me. I was playing around with the configuration
program in an attempt to get the mouse cursor to work properly. The card has
two connectors on the back, one for a vga monitor and one for an ega
monitor. My monitor was on the vga port. In the vga setup program menu
(VSETUP) there is an entry to switch the card to the ega connector.
In hopes of fixing this mouse cursor problem I switched to ega. Now
when I reboot the system displays two version lines on the vga screen
reinitializes all the disks and then hangs. If I plug an ega monitor
into the ega connector and remove the vga monitor the system reboots
fine but now I don't have the resolution of the vga screen. If the vga
monitor is connected to the vga port (even powered off!) the system will hang.
If I go back into the setup program and try to set the card back to vga
it won't let me select the vga option in the menu. It skips over it.

My system is an AMI 386 running at 33 MHz and with 4 Meg of memory.
The board is an ATI VGA Wonder card. I managed to extract the following
info from the ATI BIOS information block:

Signature code:			31 = VGA WONDER
Chip version:			2 = ATI 18800-1
BIOS version			1.0

8 and 16 bit ROM supported	yes
Mouse chip present		no
Inport compatable mouse port	no
Micro channel support		no
Clock chip present		yes
Uses c000:0 to d000:ffff	no

Supports 70Hz non-interlaced	no
Supports Korean characters	no
Uses 40MHz memory clock		yes
Supports zero wait states	yes
Uses paged ROMS			no
8514/A hardware on board	no
32K color DAC on board		no

This video adapter is a VGA WONDER V5
Amount of RAM on video board 512K

What I would like to know is:

Is the cursor problem a bug in my card? Is there a fix?

and (more importantly)

What did I do to my card? Can I fix it? Am I stuck with an EGA card now?

Thanks in advance.

Jim Thorsley
thor@csd.uwo.ca

P.S. HELP!

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: rich@bostech.com (Richard Baughman)
Subject: Re: ATI Ultra PRO New Drivers (build 53) 
Organization: Boston Technology, Inc.
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 93 16:44:04 GMT

From article <1993Jan8.161521.22457@utkux1.utk.edu>, by harp@martha.utcc.utk.edu (harp):
> In article <1993Jan8.150655.5640@gvl.unisys.com> pastor@prc.unisys.com (Jon Pastor) writes:
>>The build 53 driver was uploaded by some kind person to ftp.cica.indiana.edu 
>>(in the ../win3/uploads directory).  I happened to be talking to Gateway tech
>>support last night, and I asked about it.  The tech said that they'd just had
>>a long meeting about ATI  drivers that morning, and they have now released
>>build 50, meaning it's on the Gateway BBS after passing Gateway's QA.  He said
>>that they *did* have to fix it up some, and that Gateway does not officially
>>recommend using ATI's beta drivers.
>>
> Gateway is officially "not with it".  The build 50 drivers were on the
> internet weeks ago and they stink.  Is this a different build 50 than I
> have played with?  Could there be such a thing as a build 50 final release
> that would be more stable than a build 53 beta?
> 
> Sean Harp
> University of Tennessee

Build 53 is the next step along on the (interminable) "bug fix" path for the
ATI drivers.  Gateway appears to have some QC process that takes them several
weeks to OK a driver for distribution (I suppose that makes sense, given the
exposure they have), so they've only just accepted build 50.

The Build 53 drivers eliminate (at least for me and many others) the extremely
annoying "insufficient memory" messages that kept popping up in the Build 50
drivers.  The only remaining bug I see is the first time I switch a DOS
window to full screen, it's got garbage in it.  The fix is to quit the DOS
app, restart, switch to full window again, and no more garbage.  I haven't
tried MS Access to see if the font/cursor problem (I-beam text cursor does not
match the font) is fixed.

Since Gateway does not officially support the ATI beta drivers, my
recommendation is >>don't bother with build 50<< - the build 53 drivers
are much better!

Rich Baughman / Boston Technology / Wakefield, MA
rich@bostech.com
-- 
Rich Baughman / Boston Technology / Wakefield, MA
rich@bostech.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David Lemson)
Subject: Re: Gateway2000 486DX-33 ??
Keywords: Gateway
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 08:24:58 GMT

tennesen@mars.dgrc.doc.ca (Andy Tenne-Sens) writes:

>(What will really burn me up is if, as soon as I receive my 
>system, I see the price on the 486DX2-66 dropped in the very 
>next issue of PC Magazine.  They should be about due for a price
>decrease.)   

They have 30 day price protection.  (GW 2000)  I took advantage of
this when I purchased my 386SX system years ago.  They credited my
visa $85 for the price differential (although they would not knock
off shipping and how much I had them lower the price...so they
really gained something there)
-- 
David Lemson                                                (217) 244-1205
University of Illinois NeXT Campus Consultant / CCSO NeXT Lab System Admin
Internet : lemson@uiuc.edu                UUCP :...!uiucuxc!uiucux1!lemson 
NeXTMail & MIME accepted                           BITNET : LEMSON@UIUCVMD
From: dsc3pzp@nmrdc1.nmrdc.nnmc.navy.mil (Philip Perucci)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Wangtek phone #?
Date: 8 Jan 93 17:39:32 GMT
Organization: Naval Medical Research & Development Command


Does anyone know the phone number for Wangtek?
-- 
===========================================================================
  phil perucci      | "Any opinions expressed are solely my own views and 
  ssb1pzp@digex.com |  do not reflect the position of any organization"
===========================================================================
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: wolfi@opal.cs.tu-berlin.de (Wolfgang Schwanke)
Subject: Re: 2 IDE drives
Keywords: IDE
Organization: Techn. University of Berlin, Germany
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 14:38:43 GMT

jon@sed.stel.com (Jon Radel) writes:

>In article <1993Jan7.160826.1605@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> cwatters@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Coyt D Watters) writes:
>>This is/should be a FAQ question, but since I couldn't find a FAQ....
>>
>...
>>Can I just hook up another IDE drive and change the CMOS, or do I have to 
>>bother with the master/slave problems I've read about?
>
>If anyone is e-mailing the answer to this, and related "how do I get 
>2 IDE drives to run off of the same controller" questions, please
>post them too!  I have two IDE drives, both of which will run on my
>controller by itself, but when I hook both up the machine hangs.  There
>aren't any obvious settings to change except in the CMOS.

I have connected 2 IDE drives just two weeks ago. You have to configure
"master" and "slave" using jumper settings on the disks. I had a hard time
doing that, cause I had no doc for one of the disks :I Testing out the
possible combinations found the right one (If the 2nd HD had no doc either,
the no. of possible settings would have been much higher still :).

(Oh, while I'm at it:
 Does anyone have the data sheet for a Quantum LPS 240 AT?)

I also bought a new IDE controller which is marked "2 HD 2 FD", because I
thought I had to (my old one is "1HD 2FD"). I never tested 2 HDs with the old
one ... Later someone told me, that he got 2 HDs on a "1HD" controller, so
maybe I bought the new one in vain - not sure.

After all this you have to change the CMOS as well of course, but that's
the easy bit :).

>--Jon Radel
>jon@sed.stel.com


Bye

Wolfgang


--
* Wolfgang Schwanke * Technische Universitaet Berlin * Germany * wolfi on irc *
* email: wolfi@cs.tu-berlin.de       *      wolfaefg@w250zrz.zrz.tu-berlin.de *

   Everybody needs a little love sometime; stop hacking and fall in love!
From: aa479@Freenet.carleton.ca (Michael Wolff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: Scanners
Date: 12 Jan 93 03:34:12 GMT
Organization: National Capital Freenet, Ottawa, Canada


I posted a message in this conference earlier on requesting
information on scanners, particularly 256 grayscale handheld
scanners.  I'm still interested in hearing from people with
hands-on experience, particularly with OCR (what software
are you using?).  I will post information in this conference
as I receive it.  

One useful reference I have just discovered is the January 1993 
issue of Computer Shopper.  It has a section devoted to explaining
the technical backgroud to scanners of all types, and a chart
listing many different scanners with cursory data on each.  If
you're in the market, like I am, you should give this article a 
look!

Until later....
-- 
Our thoughts were young, our spirits high.
We all looked like the happy guy!

I am:  Mike Wolff....
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Iskandar Taib)
Subject: Re: Parallel port as input port
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 19:02:49 GMT

In article <1993Jan8.055420.10172@nuscc.nus.sg> scip2060@nusunix1.nus.sg (SARDJONO INSANI) writes:

>Is is possible to set the parallel port of PC as input port? Has
>anybody tried this or know of other methods of transferring data
>one byte at a time to the PC?

There are programs like LapLink that let you connect two computers
via parallel port and transfer files. Also, HP scanners plug into 
parallel ports.





-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iskandar Taib                          | The only thing worse than Peach ala
Internet: NTAIB@SILVER.UCS.INDIANA.EDU |    Frog is Frog ala Peach
Bitnet:   NTAIB@IUBACS                 !
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: malhotra@gemed (Deepak Malhotra)
Subject: Problems w/ GTWY 2000 486SX
Reply-To: malhotra@gemed.ge.com (Deepak Malhotra)
Organization: GE Medical Systems, Milwaukee,  WI
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 93 15:42:06 GMT

I recently purchased a Gateway 2000 486SX-33 Local Bus system. I also got
a Telepath modem/fax card with it. I would appreciate any help with the following
problems I have encountered so far - 
1) The computer just freezes (hangs) once in a while. It has happened
while playing games under Windows 3.1, a few times while using floppy drives and 
the modem with the QModem software (under MS-DOS). The only thing I can do after
that is reboot. 2) While using MS Word for Windows 2.1, the program crashed and I
was at the DOS prompt. There were no error messages. This happened 5-6 times 
within a few minutes. I was using a letter template.
I ran diagnostics (QAPlus) to test my hardware, specifically RAM, Hard Disk, CPU
and floppy drives. All tests passed. Does this mean I have software bugs? 
This is my first PC and I am not sure if the problems I have seen are common with
PCs. Any help will be highly appreciated. I tried calling Gateway, but their 
phones are always busy.
Thanks.
From: dcm@iris.mincom.oz.au (Doug Merrett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Quantum Prodrive LPS - Jumper settings
Date: 10 Jan 93 13:02:53 GMT
Organization: Mincom, Brisbane, Australia
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL8]

I would like the jumper setting for a Quantum ProDrive LPS ~50Mb
Hard drive to enable Master/Slave setup.

Thanks in advance.

Please Email to the address below and save net traffic.

--

Doug Merrett
Internet: dcm@mincom.oz.au
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.intel
From: lam@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Ken Lam)
Subject: Good Sources for 486DX2-66s?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 01:01:28 GMT

I'm in the process of upgrading some systems.  I'm looking for vendors who
carry the DX-2-66(not the overdrive because the boards don't have the
OD chip socket).  

Any suggestions?  Oh, I may later be looking for overdrive chips also.

Email replies please.

--
Ken Lam                                                     (803)-884-7615 (H)
System Administrator                                        (803)-792-4969 (W)
Senior Systems Consultant                                   (803)-792-5446(FAX)
Netware/UNIX System Programmer/Integrator                    lam@jove.cofc.edu
MultiMedia Works & Video Productions ======= Teaching the world in better ways

Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
From: sasbge@ant.unx.sas.com (Gantt Edmiston)
Subject: Test for Cache memory on ZEOS 486DX266 needed
Originator: sasbge@ant.unx.sas.com
Date: Thu, 7 Jan 1993 21:13:36 GMT
Reply-To: sasbge@ant.unx.sas.com
Organization: SAS Institute Inc.


I recently purchased a ZEOS 486DX2-66 system and also got the
256K cache upgrade option.  The system shipped with the cache
but I am unable to determine if the system is acknowledging
it's presence.

Does anyone know of a way to test for additional cache memory?

I have pulled the cache and have not experienced any degrading
effects on performance.  I will readily admit that I am not sure
if my "test" results are accurate.

I have heard some rumblings from ZEOS tech support folks that this
item does not work and I am wondering if I have purchased vaporware...

PS:  There is no configuration for the cache in the BIOS setup, nor
does it show up at boot time.

Email or post your responses.  Thanks.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gantt Edmiston - SysAdmin     o |If you always do  what you've always done,
SAS Institute Inc.          <(  |you'll always get what you've always got.
Quality Assurance - V416     [\.+--------------------------------------------
Cary NC 27513 919-677-8000 x6091|            sasbge@unx.sas.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: wijkstra@fwi.uva.nl (Marcel Wijkstra (AIO))
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Modem problem: no "OK" with "AT", no connection
Date: 6 Jan 93 10:07:02 GMT
Organization: FWI, University of Amsterdam

Hi,

Recently, I posted a question about me having a problem with my 1200 baud
modem (the 'dialing tones' were just a bit of noise, while it worked fine
at my friend's place with his PS/2). This is still unsolved, but I have an
alternative in pulse dialing (AT DP instead of AT DT).

Now, if I try calling a BBS with Procomm 2.4.2, the BBS picks up the phone,
sounds some beeps at different frequencies (for baud rate determination?),
and then...hangs up, while my modem still waits for a connection.
Obviously, it does not respond to the signals from the BBS.

Apart from this, when I type 'AT', I get nothing, whereas I should get
'OK'. And of course, tone dialing (AT DT) is still not working (I'll try
setting the tone duration longer).

These problems occur with any combination of Procomm 2.4.2 or Windows 3.1
Terminal, and a 386 clone or a Bull Micral 35F. But they do not occur with
Procomm 2.3 on a PS/2... Furthermore, I've tries 3 different cables and
both COM ports, but I still get no positive result. BTW. The modem is a
Repko M2000 TRIO.

Does anybody know what is going on / what I am doing wrong?
  Thanks in advance,
    Marcel.
-- 
 X	   Marcel Wijkstra   AIO   (wijkstra@fwi.uva.nl)
|X|	     Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science	
 X	       University of Amsterdam   The Netherlands
======Life stinks. Fortunately, I've got a cold.========
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware