suther@novavax.UUCP (Scot M. Sutherland) (07/28/89)
I can only add one thing to your comments about Amiga as a personal computer. There hasn't been, and may never be, a more elegantly designed computer, where software and hardware work together so well. I find it almost magical. Sigh, I guess I've been studying hardware too much! Please forgive my sentimentality. The Amiga design, in my personal opinion, is a work of art. Scot M. Sutherland--
utoddl@ecsvax.UUCP (Todd M. Lewis) (07/31/89)
In article <1385@novavax.UUCP>, suther@novavax.UUCP (Scot M. Sutherland) writes: > > I can only add one thing to your comments about Amiga as a > personal computer. There hasn't been, and may never be, a more > elegantly designed computer, where software and hardware work > together so well. I find it almost magical. Hmm. Software, yes. Hardware concepts, yes. But the net reliability of that hardware as it comes out of the box, no way. Power supplies die too often. Power supplies should never die. Everyone who has bought more than one power supply for an A500 raise your DTR. Another problem that I can't understand is that some chips want to crawl out of their sockets. I can only assume that cheap sockets are to blame. Once _Amiga_World_ even recommended banging the A500 on your knee a few times to reseat the graphics chip for a few more days. I heard a service tech. advise a friend to try dropping his A500 about 6 inches onto the table to reseat his chips before bringing his system in FOR THE 3RD TIME for the same problem. > > Sigh, I guess I've been studying hardware too much! Please > forgive my sentimentality. The Amiga design, in my personal > opinion, is a work of art. > I own 3 Commodore computers: a PET 2001, a C64, and an Amiga 1000. I talked a friend into buying an A500, which has failed repeatedly as indicated above, and he feels he was burned by the A500's engineering. He's right, and though I truly enjoy my Amiga, I don't see how I can ever recommend a Commodore computer again, even though I'll probably buy another for myself someday. Sad but true. > Scot M. Sutherland-- _____ | Todd M. Lewis Disclaimer: If you want my employer's ||\/| utoddl@ecsvax.uncecs.edu ideas, you'll have to || || utoddl@ecsvax.bitnet _buy_ them. | || |___ (Never write a program bigger than your screen.)
a218@mindlink.UUCP (Charlie Gibbs) (08/01/89)
In article <7416@ecsvax.UUCP> utoddl@ecsvax.UUCP (Todd M. Lewis) writes: <stuff about kludgy A500 power supplies deleted> > Another problem that I can't understand is that some chips >want to crawl out of their sockets. I can only assume that cheap >sockets are to blame. Once _Amiga_World_ even recommended >banging the A500 on your knee a few times to reseat the graphics >chip for a few more days. I heard a service tech. advise a friend >to try dropping his A500 about 6 inches onto the table to >reseat his chips before bringing his system in FOR THE 3RD TIME >for the same problem. The first time I heard of this problem, the solution was known as "the Atari twist." That's right, it happens to the ST too. I once worked on a mainframe that was having intermittent problems that disappeared when we started leaving it powered up 24 hours a day; the servicemen figured that the temperature cycling was making chips crawl out of their sockets. I guess some things never change. BTW I'm writing this on an Amiga 1000 that I've had for nearly 3 1/2 years. I finally took the cover off a few weeks ago just to see whether it had everyone's signatures inside (it does). But it still runs perfectly, except for once in a while when my two SOTS boards (a 2-meg RAM expansion and a Wedge hard disk interface) start to crawl out of their sockets. :-) I already bought another Commodore computer, but I can't get at the 2500 right now because my wife is painting the basement floor... Charlie_Gibbs@mindlink.UUCP "Programmers who write small modules have short attention spans."