ctk@ecsvax.UUCP (Tim Kelley) (02/08/85)
My AT (with hard disk) is now one month old. To date I have seen no problems with either the hard disk or the enhanced graphics adaptor (which I only know how to use in text mode with the monochrome monitor. The hard disk has 61440 bytes in bad sectors according to chkdsk but still has the advertised 20mb. Am I out of the woods. Can the hard disk fail at any time or if it goes this far is it ok. About 2mb have been written to date. Does filling the thing up cause problems? Does anyone have any information on the enhanced graphics adaptor? I was able to use some of the new modes discussed in pc digest to get the small letters on the screen (supposed to give you 40 lines) but only 25 lines were visible at the top of the screen. What gives? I don't have the technical ref. yet or the options and adaptors manual yet. At lease no all ATs die young. -- C.T. Kelley decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!ctk Dept. of Math. N.C. State U. Box 8205 Raleigh, N.C. 27695-8205, 919-737-3300
dlsutton@uok.UUCP (02/19/85)
------------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations ! My AT is now 6 months old and I have yet to have a single problem. The rumours about hard disk problems, for the most part, are a farce. Yes there are people that have had hard-drive problems, but in reality, they have been exaggerated into unbeleivable proportions by the press because of shipping delays on the AT's.. the last figures that I saw indicated that MOST of the failures were occurring no more frequently than XT disk failures - although it is reported to be true that SOME AT drives were incorrectly formatted and tghhis can result in a crash in the WORST case. If you want to be sure that your disk is 100% ok, backup your files and use the Advanced Diagnostics formatter to re-format your hard drive, also another fix (should you encounter a bad sector) is to write the entire disk full of information then reformat it. The information I am giving you is not secret - any dealer or technical coordinator who has access to ASKINFO through their IBM dealer support packages can easily look up the information on INFOSYS. By the way, the reason for the AT delays in shipping is not because of disk mechanical problems, but because until now IBM could not get enough disks from its source to pass their quality controls - atleast that is what I have been told. I wish you continued good luck with your AT. David L. Sutton Marketing Sales Assistant National Accounts Division IBM. ****************************************************************** DISCLAIMER: The above note IN NO WAY reflects the views, thoughts, or support of IBM itself. ******************************************************************
rtc@masscomp.UUCP (Richard Carling) (02/22/85)
This message is for the benefit of Mr. David L. Sutton, of IBM's
Marketing Sales Division whose AT never gave him any problems and
believes the disk problem on the AT's is just a big farce.
I can't believe someone can think that just because their AT has
given them no trouble that ALL AT's are fine. Surely you jest!
First of all, the earlier AT's were all fine, those purchased in
August, etc. It's the ones purchased in November and December ...
that have had problems. You've had yours six months.
I purchased my AT in December (ordered it in November), when it
arrived the disk was DOA (dead on arrival). I bought it at
Computer Town in NH (just avoid them if you possibly can). They had
mixed mine up with someone elses and had forgotten to format it,
load DOS, etc. I won't go into details but basically it wouldnt
respond at all. Computertown replaced it with another. The new disk
kept showing the magical bad sectors. Took it back to computertown
and they did the unconditioned format and conditioned format, etc...
Well it worked fine for about a week, then I start getting
the CAN'T READ FROM DRIVE C: message. And then I get more and more
of them, pretty soon directories start disappearing, etc. I take it
back, they reformat again, I take it home, this happens again within a
week and I am absolutely bullshit with IBM. So Computertown replaced the
drive AGAIN (even though it didn't match up to IBM's set of requirements
for a bad disk). So a week later I got by AT back (after a month I
had been able to use my AT less then a week!). This time the disk worked for
about two weeks before I started getting the CAN'T READ DRIVE C: message.
Hmm, OK I'll buy the advanced diagnostics and fix it myself. So, tired
of hiking over to Computertown each time (approx 50 miles), I do the
unconditioned and conditoned format myself (the DISK WAS FULL by the way).
So it's been less then a week and I have ALREADY GOTTEN MORE
CAN'T READ FROM DRIVE C: messages.
So you say those disks being bad is just make believe?
Also note I have no other hardware on the system besides the
color graphics adapter.
A number of my colleagues have also had these problems (luckily
for them, most have had better luck with service (stay away from
ComputerTown in NH). Some disk drives can just have the unconditioned
format and run fine after that, some have to be replaced. I suppose
I should keep hassling ComputerTown until they replace it again, but
I have work I need to get done on my AT (why else pay $5700+) plus
the time it takes to back everything up (8 hours) and to takes it
back 2 or 3 times befor they believe it really is bad is time I can't
afford to spend. I estimate I have spent well over 60 HOURS of my
valuable time trying to FIX this problem and things are no better
then when I started (actually they are worse, it's hard to argue
when the disk drive doesn't respond at all).
Until IBM wants to provide me servie DIRECTLY and REPLACE MY
DISK DRIVE, I don't want to hear about how AT disk drive problems
are all a farce, THEY ARE NOT!
Richard Carling
johnl@ima.UUCP (02/24/85)
>My AT is now 6 months old and I have yet to have a single problem. >The rumours about hard disk problems, for the most part, are a farce. >Yes there are people that have had hard-drive problems, but in >reality, they have been exaggerated into unbeleivable proportions by >the press because of shipping delays on the AT's.. Gosh, David, I'm glad to hear that your AT still works and that you believe your employer's claims that there are no disk problems. Unfortunately, just because IBM says it's true and because your AT works doesn't mean that all of the disks work. We have nine ATs and eight of them have recurring disk problems ranging from occasional glitches to total disk cancer making the machines unusable. Most of the disk problems occur on the inner half of the disk, so if your disk is less than half full, you probably haven't started to use the bad part yet. For comparison, our XT disks work perfectly all of the time, like you'd hope. It's really dismaying to find that IBM is so totally unable to get a handle on their quality control problems. It may be true that there are not a whole lot of dealer returns, but if our experience is any guide, that's because sending in your AT to be "fixed" doesn't fix it, so we don't bother to take them in. If IBM could repair the problem, we'd have made warranty claims on eight of our nine machines. Sorry for the flame, but IBM's self-righteous claims that nothing is wrong are starting to get to me. John Levine, ima!johnl PS: My current theory is that the problem is in the data separator logic located on the drive. It may be CMI's mistake, but it's still IBM's problem.
doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee) (02/27/85)
> From David L. Sutton, Mktg. Sales Asst., Nat'l Accounts Div. IBM: > > By the way, the reason for the AT delays in shipping is > not because of disk mechanical problems, but because until now IBM > could not get enough disks from its source to pass their quality > controls - atleast that is what I have been told. I is confused! I don't have an AT, working or not, but I can't figure out what the above statement means. a) IBM won't accept the disks, even though they have no problems? b) The disks that CMI is now shipping to IBM are even worse than the ones reportedly failing in the field? c) Because of the field reports, IBM has instituted more stringent quality control, and is now catching the bad drives? d) Just plain old double-speak? -- Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug