ruiu@tic.UUCP (Dragos Ruiu) (10/27/87)
Okay, I went out and bought an AT clone... so the saga begins.
I bought a THE 286/12 (yep, 12 stads for 12 Mhz). I'm a techie type
so I was not afraid... It arrived, two months later after being back-
ordered - even though they had it in stock when it was ordered. (?!!)
It arrives, and it works fine... with the cover off. I plug all the
cards from my last PC. (RIP, two PhD's, and $50,000 dollars of logic
analyzers could not bring it back to life.)
Once I get it home, I find out that after more than ten minutes at 12Mhz
it hangs and gets wonky.... much twiddling... It turns out that the CPU
is overheating, it's only a 286/10 and it has a BIG heatsink. Cold-spray on
the 286 will give it another five minutes of life in the fast lane.
What's even more funny is that it WILL run all day in high speed as long as
the cover is off and THE MODEM IS NOT PLUGGED IN (Novation 1200 int).
I phoned PC-Network, the dealer, and managed to spend $80 on their elevator
hold music. "Sure we'll fix it, just ship that sucker back and we'll
have'er fixed in ooh, about a month. And shipped right back to you by
overnight courier in just one more month!" Great, I'm now back at school and
dead in the water without a PC....
So, after about two weeks on the phone to every electronics dealer in Canada
I have managed to track down another 286. I got a lot of crazy looks, or
prices by the dozen, but almost no-one will sell me a single 286 !!!!
(grrr)
It's in Montreal, but hey it's only 10 Mhz rated. It seems that all the
286/12 in the universe are being sucked into black holes like Compaq
or IBM and they won't sell to little ole me.
Anyhow, I've given up on actually getting someone to sell me a twelve,
and I read in BYTE that most 12Mhz clones are actually using tens with
with heat sinks on top. Should I spend $230(a lot of money to me
since I gave Microport the last $500 I had) and gamble that a
ten will fix this problem.
I am worried that the modem behavior might mean there is something else
wrong. Any ideas anyone ?
Oh by the way, my motherboard uses the CHIPS set, if it helps.
Many thanks in advance.
Dragos Ruiu Email ...inhp4!alberta!edson!tic!dragos!root
Edmonton, CANADA Voice: (403) 432-0090
Never play leapfrog with Unicorns...