wrbull@aluxp.UUCP (bullman) (04/27/84)
< This one's for you! > Hello NETlanders! I have recently noticed that that Itty Bitty makes a really annoying noise when displaying on a IBM monomonitor. This is a 256K motherboard but I have additional generic 64K RAM chips on a Quadram card. Any pointers to the cause and elimination of this "feature" are greatly appreciated. William R. Bullman AT&T Bell Laboratories Allentown PA ...!ucbvax!allegra!aluxp!wrbull
ray@vax135.UUCP (Raymond Soneira) (04/27/84)
My IBM PC also started making annoying noises after I installed a Quadram board, so the problem may be a design flaw in the new Quadram 384k board, rather than a pc problem. (The noise comes from the speaker and is probably due to spiking on the power buss. If the CPU is in a very tight loop it's a barely audible continuous high frequency pitch which is annoying, and if it is listing to the screen it comes out as clicks. Beware that subliminal high frequency noises can cause significant discomfort so you folks in noisy environments should make sure your pc is not making such noises.) I called Quadram and they finally admitted that it might be a board problem and to send it in. I'm now worried that that it's a design flaw and I'll get the problem right back. While we're on the subject of Quadram and all those other all in one pc boards, here are my experiences with my 384k board (also includes clock, serial port, parallel port, and some software): (1) Their customer service people are bozos; (2) the serial and parallel ports work but fail the IBM diagnostics routines (apparently because of circuitry differences. I don't like that, because who knows when the incompatibility will show up. This gave me quite a heart ache. (3) Their "software" doesn't seem to work properly. For example, the print spooler occasionally drives the printer crazy or simply hangs the system. It also won't work in Basic. If you have any other device drivers like the ansi.sys or printer device drivers included with dos 2.1, then forget it. You can't do a system reset and the system behaves weird occasionally (even when the Quaddriver is loaded first as Quadram says). (4) which brings us back to (1), customer service. You explain a problem and they say they will call back, but never do. This has happened six out of six times. There is a possibility that they are doing this systematically to minimize returns and overhead. Anyway, are other Quadram people experiencing the same problem? How about you Tecmar and AST et al. folks? Do you have similar problems? What is the best add on board? .
druid@inuxc.UUCP (Larry Marcus) (04/27/84)
-------------------------------- I've had no problem at all with my AST SixPack. Their (AST's) technical people are cooperative also.
mfn@ll1.UUCP (Test Login) (04/28/84)
{rm -r /*}
I have 2 PC's , 1 running VENIX and 1 PCDOS and a Compaq also
running VENIX. I have had very good luck with STB boards in all of them.
I run their color graphics board in the VENIX system because of its
no flicker static ram. I run the Super RIO multifunction board in all
of them. The Super Rio has 256 k mem with another 512 added on piggy
back. It has 2 serial ports and a parallel. Also a clock with external
battery (pen lite cell). It comes with a software package called
PC Accelerator (PCA). This package has a print spooler and up to two
electronic disks. One of the nice feratures is a soft reset which
will reboot the system, but leave the spooler spooling and keep the
contents of the electronic disks intact. I have had a 128k spooler
file running, and rebooted CCP/M86, and the spooler still runs. I have
found NO PCDOS package to not run properly with either the boards, or
the software. The Super Rio has a metal bracket that mounts on the
back of the pc and holds the 3 db25's for the ports. It also has
a IBM type game adapter that will take Apple or IBM controllers.
The company is very receptive to callers. I had a problem with
VENIX not liking the parallel port where it was, and STB sent me a new
PAL that relocated the port at no charge.
Randy Suess CBBS(tm)ray@vax135.UUCP (Raymond Soneira) (05/03/84)
a Quadram board, so the problem may be a design flaw in the new Quadram 384k board, rather than a pc problem. (The noise comes from the speaker and is probably due to spiking on the power buss. If the CPU is in a very tight loop it's a barely audible continuous high frequency pitch which is annoying, and if it is listing to the screen it comes out as clicks. Beware that subliminal high frequency noises can cause significant discomfort so you folks in noisy environments should make sure your pc is not making such noises.) I called Quadram and they finally admitted that it might be a board problem and to send it in. I'm now worried that that it's a design flaw and I'll get the problem right back. While we're on the subject of Quadram and all those other all in one pc boards, here are my experiences with my 384k board (also includes clock, serial port, parallel port, and some software): (1) Their customer service people are bozos; (2) the serial and parallel ports work but fail the IBM diagnostics routines (apparently because of circuitry differences. I don't like that, because who knows when the incompatibility will show up. This gave me quite a heart ache. (3) Their "software" doesn't seem to work properly. For example, the print spooler occasionally drives the printer crazy or simply hangs the system. It also won't work in Basic. If you have any other device drivers like the ansi.sys or printer device drivers included with dos 2.1, then forget it. You can't do a system reset and the system behaves weird occasionally (even when the Quaddriver is loaded first as Quadram says). (4) which brings us back to (1), customer service. You explain a problem and they say they will call back, but never do. This has happened six out of six times. There is a possibility that they are doing this systematically to minimize returns and overhead. Anyway, are other Quadram people experiencing the same problem? How about you Tecmar and AST et al. folks? Do you have similar problems? What is the best add on board? .