ss2@beach.cis.ufl.edu (SKS) (07/10/90)
I am summarizing the responses I got to my request for info. on Amstrad computers. I got contradicting opinions on Amstrads. There were a few people who expressed that they have no problems with their Amstrads but there were a lot who vehemently denied that the new line of Amstrads are completely compatible and advised me not to buy an Amstrad. Apparently, Amstrad's high level of customization have resulted in frequent failures of their machines. This was expressed by atleast two persons who had a chance to service Amstrads. Consequently I have dropped the idea of buying an Amstrad. Thanks for all who responded to my inquiry. Hope this helps other netters to come to a conclusion about Amstrads. The responses follow. Shyam Subramanyan _________________________________________________________________________ The Amstrad is NOT completly IBM-compatible, if anyone tells you different they are lying to you. Find out what software you are planning to use, and ask the vendor if it will run all of it; then get something in writing, stating what software will not run on the 'clone' you are planning to buy. paul. pmp@beach.cis.ufl.edu ________________________________________________________________________ > Amstrad claims that they are the largest sellers of PC compatible >machines in Europe and that they outsell IBM. Is there any truth in that? >Somebody in Europe should be able to confirm this. Well, I don't know if I can confirm this, but Amstrad really is a very big manufacturer. At least one sees Amstrads quite often.. in a matter of fact, I have one on my desk, too. This is one of the older models though, not the 386 one. What I've heard of these new Amstrads, doesn't sound very promising. Several people have told me about different problems. This one (PC1512) works well, but as I said, this is old. -- E. K. Holmberg, Co-Sysop of SAS-(M)BBS (+358-21-518-994,24h,V.32ECM) ______________________________________________________________________________ I am running a amstrad 386 laptop..i have had it for a couple months and have yet to see anything to complain about...as far as i know..they are a european company that is fairly large and finally branching out to the states...the national headquarters for the u.s. is in the dallas texas area. they have a 1-800 number and have been very friendly and helpful to me. i can give you more specific info if you can give more more of an idea of what you want to know -ted ____________________________________________________________________________ I don't have the machine you are considering but I had one Amstrad 1.5 years ago and I was very satisfied with it. Amstrad has lots of 'different' solutions like power suplly in the monitor but in spite of that I haven't heard anything discouraging yet. > Amstrad claims that they are the largest sellers of PC compatible >machines in Europe and that they outsell IBM. Is there any truth in that? >Somebody in Europe should be able to confirm this. At least it was like that a year or two ago although I don't know the current situation. I think they sell exactly the same machines (Amstrads) with a different name (e.g. Schneider) in some places (in Germany I saw those) but I am not 100% sure. Mark _________________________________________________________________________ Yes!! Amstrad is a large manufacturer of low cost clones in Europe. A few years back the introduced the amazing AMSTRAD PCW 8512, PC1512 etc.... One problem that you might encounter is their level of "customization". The PC 1512 which I had required that it's monitor (grey-scale) provide the power supply. This prevented me from upgrading easily to a regular monitor.Also there is a recess on the top of the CPU box where the monitor and batteries were fitted. Even if you managed to use another monitor,you would still have an ugly cavity in the system box. Besides that I found their systems highly impressive. They supply a mouse,GEM and a few other goodies with ALL of their PC systems. Mind you I've only had and used the PCW 8512, PC 1512 and a number of the color monitor /hard drive models (CM & HD). I have not seen or used the 80286 and 80386 class machines. Hope that helps. Chima Echeruo ____________________________________________________________________________ I am right now using an Amstrad 286 12.5MHz computer. I've only had it for a couple of months, but I'm pretty happy with it (no problems so far at least). > Thanks in advance for your help. I will summarise the response >provided there exists enough interest. Yes, please let me know what you find out. I don't know anyone else who has one of these babies, and I would like to know what others think. ***********************************Oh boy!************************************* Quote: "Sometimes weird things just happen." Sam, QUANTUM LEAP Disclamer: "Disclaim THIS, pal!" (my employer thinks I'm working) Debbie Brown: cci632!jloda!deb -OR- deb%jloda@cci632 ********** It's 1995: do you know where your quantum physicist is? ************ __________________________________________________________________________ i gave up a compaq deskpro 286 to get this machine and i have had less problems with lockups, etc than with the deskpro...i am running a form of unix. I am running dos 3.3 BUT i found a file on a bbs that has about 75 of the unix utils including the make and a shell. with all of that in a directory it is like running a dual os...the utils are directly compatible with the Sun Sparcs, HP 9000's, Ti's, Xerox, and other unix systems taht we have at UT. I have all the usual file and directory utils along with the encode, decode, compress, uncompress stuff. I hear prentice hall has a book that comes with a os called minix for around $100 that actually boots you up into a system v environment...if it is compatible then it is much cheaper than unix or xenix ...i am happy with what i am doing now though having both running together. feel free to ask any questions i have been trying to locate another amstrad user...i have about 2 or 3 so far.. ted ___________________________________________________________________________ >From: clear@bearcave.actrix.co.nz (Charlie Lear) ss2@beach.cis.ufl.edu (SKS) writes: > I am thinking of purchasing an Amstrad 386 20MHZ computer ... > Also, the machine has a lot of stuff built into the motherboard > like the VGA card etc. although it provides 5 standard expansion slots. > Has this kind of configuration caused problems to anybody? I'm typing this article on a 2386 at the moment. They are very good machines with a high level of standard hardware, eg minimum configuration is 4MB of RAM, VGA and 65MB HDD in most countries. 64k static RAM cache means zero wait states, much better than most. Older machines with an early BIOS had a lot of problems related to hard disks and random lockups, however all dud BIOSes should have been replaced (wherever you are in the world) at least a year ago. Amstrad have traditionally fitted Seagate ST277R drives mounted transversely behind the two 3.5" floppy blanking plates to the right of the single 1.44 drive. They have never been too fussy about drive quality, and I have personally seen 65MB drives with up to 450k in bad sectors. The manual states "up to 1% bad sectors" is acceptable - don't take that bullsh*t! If its over 80k, its too high. Modern drives simply don't have any bad sectors, or only a few k maximum. Additionally, check the disk access time. For a long time, standard ST277R's were fitted which - believe me - are DOG SLOW in a 20MHz 386. The one I'm using is a 1990 model with an ST277R-1: allegedly 28ms but more like 33. Definitely marginal in a fast machine. Check to see if the drive is using the on-board controller or if it is disabled and using a 16-bit controller in one of the slots. Most do. > P.S. Anybody tried running OS/2 or UN*X on Amstrad machines? I haven't tried OS/2, but an English Amstrad PC magazine for May '90 had a "how-to" on installing an Amstrad-specific version of SCO-Xenix. I made enquiries but the product seems to be UK-only - ask locally. Regards Charlie "The Bear" Lear ___________________________________________________________________________ > I am thinking of purchasing an Amstrad 386 20MHZ computer with STOP, think first!! I'm working for a company for the summer who used to deal a lot with Amstrads. We were experiencing a 200% failure rate (on average) with Amstrad machines, these include the PC2086, PC2286 and PC2386. Apparently the 386 has the worst record, so much so that we wouldn't touch them anymore, but we still have a lot of 8086 and 80286 machines on site giving problems. No matter how good a deal you are getting it is not worth it, because Amstrad and the third party companies they contract to repair their machines give to too much hassle in getting them repaired. Having been on an Amstrad training course for repairing their machines, I can say that the problems are not usually that simple, and often require spare parts or a new unit - both of which are difficult to get from Amstrad. I would advise you to look at an alternative machine. Olivetti and Dell are two very good makes worth looking at. > Amstrad claims that they are the largest sellers of PC compatible > machines in Europe and that they outsell IBM. Is there any truth in that? > Somebody in Europe should be able to confirm this. Well I don't know much about that, but I wouldn't really believe it. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- jagrogan@vax1.tcd.ie ______________________________________________________________________________ Hey guy! Dont dont dont dont buy Amstrad. I just read the last article and thought it was a joke. Is that person for real ! I used to work for an Amstrad super dealer we used to do repairs etc. Just try getting parts. They dont come they send the wrong thing, we even had an EGA PSU board come as new with chips missing of the board. Get real just say no to Amstrad! Alun Jenkins ____________________________________________________________________________ > Dont dont dont dont buy Amstrad. I just read the last artical and thought > it was a joke. Is that person for real ! I used to work for an Amstrad > super dealer we used to do repairs etc. Just try getting parts. They dont > come they send the wrong thing, we even had an EGA PSU board come as new > with chips missing of the board. Get real just say no to Amstrad! > Seconded! If the quality of their PC Clones matches the gear I *have* had the misfortune to be asked to service, then you can bet that more money was spent on advertising, and exterior finish than on the real guts of the thing! Biased? Maybe.. if you GAVE me one, I wouldn't even unpack it! Dave .