kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley) (01/10/90)
Warning! Do not buy the AMI bios manual from AMI, or anyone for that matter.
I just bought it, it cost US$25.00, plus $5.00 for handling. It is the
biggest rip off in history. I won't go into hundreds of gory details, but
a typical example is the EMR enable. The menu in the extended setup
indicates that by setting the EMR enable bit to 1, then EMR is enabled. A
0 disables EMR. Similarly Quick mode can be enabled by setting the bit to
1, and disabled by setting it to 0.
I want to know what EMR and quick mode are, what they do, and what the
benefits/consequences of each setting is! All told, there are about 40
settings, some are intuitively obvious what they do, others are not.
That's why I bought the f*cking manual.
The manual doesn't explain any of these things. It just re-iterates what the
setup says... setting the EMR enable to 1 enables EMR, etc, etc, etc...
In the past I have gotten much more descriptive and helpful stuff for free from
Seagate, Western Digital, and NEC. I highly commend and recommend these
companies for their support of the end users like myself. AMI gets a big
raspberry for their petty thievery.
If, by chance, anyone does know what these features are/and do, and would be
so good as to relay that information to me, it would be greatly appreciated.
The machine is a 386sx with AMI bios and C&T NEAT chipset. (I'm interested
in all the features, not just EMR and quick mode.
Thanks for letting me vent my spleen...
All opinions are my own, my organisation is oblivious to my opinion.
Chewey, get us outta here!
kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (818)354-8771
Kaleb Keithleydmurdoch@watstat.waterloo.edu (Duncan Murdoch) (01/10/90)
In article <2545@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley) writes: >Warning! Do not buy the AMI bios manual from AMI, or anyone for that matter. ... >The machine is a 386sx with AMI bios and C&T NEAT chipset. (I'm interested >in all the features, not just EMR and quick mode. >Kaleb Keithley For some reason, my mailer doesn't talk to yours. However, it's possible this will be of interest to some others. I got some very useful technical information on the C&T AT/386 chipset by calling Chips & Technologies. It's all marked "preliminary", so presumably it's surplus for them, but I was very pleased when they sent it to me. (Actually, their Canadian dealer ElectroSource sent it, but C&T put me in touch.) If you want to try them, call 408-434-0600. Duncan Murdoch
jb@aablue.UUCP (John B Scalia) (01/13/90)
In article <2545@jato.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> kaleb@mars.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley) writes: >Warning! Do not buy the AMI bios manual from AMI, or anyone for that matter. > >I just bought it, it cost US$25.00, plus $5.00 for handling. It is the >biggest rip off in history. I won't go into hundreds of gory details, but >a typical example is the EMR enable. The menu in the extended setup > [deleted for brevity] >I want to know what EMR and quick mode are, what they do, and what the >benefits/consequences of each setting is! All told, there are about 40 >settings, some are intuitively obvious what they do, others are not. >That's why I bought the f*cking manual. > >The manual doesn't explain any of these things. It just re-iterates what the >setup says... setting the EMR enable to 1 enables EMR, etc, etc, etc... > I'd be pretty p*ssed off too about random acronyms which aren't explained anywhere, but please don't lump all manuals into the same category. I've got a copy of Phoenix's bios manuals from Addison-Wesley, and I've actually found it useful. While I realize that bios are different, the interrupts and most services have to be the same (I know, all of my normal machines use the AMI bios as well.) There is also a big advantage to A-W, at least if you join their pain in the butt book club. You can usually return the book if you don't like it; I know I have with others in the past. >If, by chance, anyone does know what these features are/and do, and would be >so good as to relay that information to me, it would be greatly appreciated. >The machine is a 386sx with AMI bios and C&T NEAT chipset. (I'm interested >in all the features, not just EMR and quick mode. Sorry, I looked in the book and, yes it says nothing. In fact it doesn't even list it under it acronym list. So, yes I'm probably missing some things, but I have to wonder how many of these things might be system specific? jb@aablue.UUCP -- A A Blueprint Co., Inc. - Akron, Ohio +1 216 794-8803 voice UUCP: {uunet!}aablue!jb (John B. Scalia) Just a little more nonsense to clutter up the net.