Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA (09/28/84)
From: Info-IBMPC Digest <Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA> Date: 24 Sep 1984 2335-PDT From: STERNLIGHT@USC-ECL.ARPA Subject: AT hints To: info-ibmpc@isib Depending on when you get delivery you might try to get the new IBM graphics board for the color monitor which is supposed to deliver in November. Or you might see if the dealer will take back the existing board in a trade when the new one comes out. Or you might borrow or buy a used one. The new one, announced September 10, has higher resolution & works with the old display and the new one coming in January (also announced September 10). Unless you plan to run Xenix or PC/IX, don't buy more than 640k of memory. The hard disk is so fast you don't need a ramdisk, and PC-DOS 3.0 and 3.1 cannot address memory above 640k, so any more is useless unless you plan to run Xenix. The 128k upgrade for the 512k hard disk Model 99 (or is it Model 90; I forget) is about $340 and the 512k upgrade is about $1000. Make sure you get an 80287 math chip. The AT does not test correctly for the absence of such a chip, so all programs that are supposed to test for it and run math correctly if it is absent don't. But they all work OK if it is present. I have in mind Fortran and C in particular, compiled with the library that tests to see if you have the 8087 on a PC family and if not, uses the 8088 for arithmetic. If you never plan to write disks to be used on PC/PC-XT/PC Portable, don't bother getting a second disk drive of the 320/360k variety. The 1.2 meg floppy drive reads such disks just fine, and writes on them fine except that once you write them, IBM won't guarantee they are readable on any machine except the AT. Buy a couple of boxes of disks as soon as possible. They are in very short supply and hard to find. Dysan has a new disk, the UHR II, reorder #802914 that works perfectly at 1.2 meg on the AT. Otherwise get the IBM disks for the AT (red label on disks). Nothing else works at 1.2 meg no matter what the box says. In particular, the Capitol disks claimed to work at any density don't. Machines are now coming out of the pipeline nicely in Los Angeles. But accessories are hard to get. Get a serial cable or serial adapter as soon as possible. The AT has a 10 pin RS-232 DB-9 connector but unlike the Macintosh it is a male socket on the machine. Nothing fits except IBM or a custom-made cable. The serial adapter IBM sells is just a very short serial cable with a proper RS-232 plug on the other end that fits modems and serial printers. The serial cable just has a longer cord. Get one of each; they're not that expensive and when you need one, you need it badly. I am using the Ven-Tel PC-Modem half-card and it works fine; it is Hayes compatible and runs 1200 baud as well as 300. You can then use the serial/parallel card that comes with the Model 99 for a second modem or a serial printer as well as a parallel printer. When you first start up, unless the technician at the shop has done his job, you will have to set the date and time in the built-in clock/calendar chip. It's confusing but the ONLY way to do it and have it take in that chip, not just in the current session, is to use the configuration program on your diagnostic disk. (Yes, I know; that's a weird place for it, but what can I tell you?) You will need to know what type of hard disk you have installed if you have a Model 99, since the configuration program asks that. You can either ask the tech, take the cover off the machine and look at the upper right hand corner of the hard disk to see, or look through the front slots with a flashlight to try to make it out. Mine is a type 20. My machine has been running happily for three weeks now on its side next to my desk, without the floor stand, which I have on order. The machine hasn't fallen over yet. MAKE SURE YOU GET THE KEY WITH THE MACHINE. IF THE TECHNICIAN AT THE PLACE YOU BUY IT CHECKS OUT THE MACHINE, HE MAY FORGET TO PUT THE KEY BACK IN THE BOX. Make sure that any cards you get (modem, etc.) that are not AT cards but PC family are put in the two slots without the extra 16-bit bus connectors. You want to keep the 16-bit bus slots available for AT cards. There is already a file on a few RBBS systems called DOS30FIX.dat which contains a couple of patches to DOS 3.0 to eliminate a couple of inconveniences. I can send a copy to you when you get DOS 3.0. Good luck; --david-- ------- -------