) (12/03/89)
Recently, I bought an Epson Equity 2+ with a 40 meg drive from Computer Land.
I got a computer and a drive, but here's the specs on the drive:
250R 42.3meg RLL drive
ST11R RLL controller
The controller is an 8-bit XT controller. When I ran Norton's SI, the relative
drive speed was 0.3 compared to a XT. Most 286/386 systems have this speed at
least 2.7. I was unable to run all program flawlessly because the AT's CMOS
RAM didn't know that I had a drive. The controller did all the work.
When I talked to an authorized Epson technician (EPSON gave me the number), I
was told that the 250R's are generally for an XT. The problem I was having run-
ning programs, such as, Norton's Speed Disk, was that the AT didn't know about
the drive. He also told me that, in general, the Equity 2+ normally have a
ST251-1 or something similar. A technician at another Computer Land store told
me the same thing. The Epson technician told me that to fix the problem, I
would have to install a 16-bit card. Since Computer Land would exchange the
card, I had to buy one. After installing the drive, I had only 32 meg available.
The technician told me only 4 meg would be lost not 10 megs!
Currently, SI states the relative speed to be 2.1 -- thank god! Now, SpinRite
tells me that the random access speed is about 75 msecs. This is a friend's
copy, so I don't know anything about SprinRite. On a ST251-1 system, would the
random access speed be about 28 msecs?
First of all, has anyone else had problems similar to this from Computer Land.
Second, do I have a legal cause for a formal complaint? I paid $1300 for a
40-meg system and I only have 32-meg!
--
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Santanu Sircar BITNET: ssircar@umaecs.bitnet
University of Massachusetts/Amherst INTERNET: ssircar@ecs.umass.edu
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"A pig ate his fill of acorns under an oak tree and then started to root
around the tree. A crow remarked, `You should not do this. If you lay bare
the roots, the tree will wither and die.' `Let it die,' said the pig. `Who
cares so long as there are acorns?'"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------lance@virgin.MV.COM (Lance Fraser) (12/13/89)
In article <8657.25786d0a@ecs.umass.edu> ssircar@ecs.umass.edu (Good writers re-write -- not write!) writes: >Recently, I bought an Epson Equity 2+ with a 40 meg drive from Computer Land. >I got a computer and a drive, but here's the specs on the drive: > 250R 42.3meg RLL drive > ST11R RLL controller > >Second, do I have a legal cause for a formal complaint? I paid $1300 for a >40-meg system and I only have 32-meg! > >-- First of all I think it needs to be said.. KNOW what you are supposed to get and get it in writing. You should have taken the entire system back to the store and got your money refunded. Unfortunatly you probably got just what you ordered without knowing it. I recently lost a bid because I quoted a 72 meg Micropolis drive and the competition quoted a 85 meg Micropolis drive. If anyone knows Micropolis you would know that this is the same drive....85 megs unformatted, 72 megs formatted. This seems to be a common scheme cooked up by sales staffs. I now quote a system with both specs included. My whole point is that when I write hardware specs I list every single item that I am supposed to get and then make sure that I get it. Most of my systems are greater than $10,000 so I don't feel embarassed about being picky...I think it's my right. I also expectmy customers to do the same with me. If anyone out there is purchasing new equipment, please ask someone with experience to help you. If you don't know anyone E-mail your config to me and I'd be glad to comment on it or point out pitfalls you watch for ---lance