jeff@drexel.UUCP (Jeff White) (09/12/88)
I'm looking into recommending an IBM clone (either XT or AT) for a company I do some work for, and one thing I'm a little worried about it service and repair. Sure, a number of mail order places have very good policies (30 day money back guarantee, 1 yr. parts and labor, overnight shipment for emergency parts, and so on), but these policies are only good for as long as the company remains in existence. It's not very uncommon for a lot of smaller companies to come and go, and I've even seen some larger ones (Conroy-LaPoint) which seemed a solid company but still bit the dust. When a clone breaks down (and the repair isn't as simple as trying to swap say a video or disk controller board from a working machine and replacing the bad board if that solves the problem), what do you do (asked mostly to people who already have clones)? Do local computer repair shops (ie. independent ones, not ones part of a ComputerLand or Nynex store, for example) repair clone machines? If so, are there more popular ones (ie. motherboards made by ________) which I should try to look for purchasing the machine. I realize that most computers don't break down now a days (although we did have a motherboard on a Tandy 1200 (XT clone) go on us), but it doesn't make sense to save a couple of hundred dollars now on a cheaper clone if it's going to cost twice as much (or more) later on to fix or replace. Any comments or replies on this would be greatly appreciated. Jeff White Drexel University - ECE Dept. rutgers!bpa!drexel!jeff