ctk@ecsvax.UUCP (Tim Kelley) (07/25/85)
The following was found in the INFO-IBMPC digest. My true life adventure
follows.
------------------ from the digest ------------------
According to the July 19 New York Times, in an article entitled "I.B.M. Says
PC II Just Doesn't Exist" (p.25),
...
"Separately, the computer giant said that a faulty Texas Instruments
chip in thousands of its year-old PC-AT units could cause the machine
to `crash,' or suddenly abort its operations.
"IBM denied that it was conducting a formal recall of the machines,
but said it would replace a critical circuit board in affected AT's
for free if the computer contained the faulty component. The
component, the company said, was in less than 10 percent of the AT's
produced.
...
"In announcing what it called a `consumer support program' to
replace defective PC-AT's, IBM said that the affected machines
were models built since the end of last year. It said they bore
serial numbers ranging from 5019001 to 5141250 and from 0054001 to
0146900.
"A spokesman for Texas Instruments, Norman Neuriter, said that
the error `appeared on a random basis' and could not have been
detected in ordinary chip testing."
Does anyone know which chip and which board are being referred to?
Old Norman must be new to the semiconductor industry if he doesn't
think that one reason to test chips is to find errors that occur `on
a random basis'.
-david
------------------- true life adventure --------------------
Yesterday (7/24) a man from IBM came by my office with a letter about the
potential problem and a floppy disk that contained a test for it. Our research
group has two AT's with serial numbers in the questionable range. I've tested
one of the AT's so far and it passed.
The test works like this: you boot from the floppy and "Test in
Progress" appears on the screen. The fixed disk comes on and atserisks
appear one after another in rows. After about an hour of this, the screen
clears and, if you pass, you see
TEST COMPLETED. NO ACTION IS REQUIRED.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION.
OK
From the letter and the directions it looks like if your machine fails the
test the fix will be done at your site. You're given an 800 number to call.
I think this is amazing. Can anyone name one other computer company
that sends their people to offices with their computers in them warning them
about hardware problems? I am not always happy with the response I get from
IBM (I'm still waiting for my DOS 3.1 upgrade that I was promised with DOS
3.0. ) but I am very impressed with this.
The problem was not described in detail. The above posting was far
more than I knew. The consequences must be pretty serious to get this kind
of response from IBM. Does anyone know what the bad chips will do to you?
--
C.T. Kelley decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!ctk
Dept. of Math. N.C. State U. Box 8205
Raleigh, N.C. 27695-8205, 919-737-7895