RFORSTER@UNCAEDU.BITNET (04/30/87)
From: <RFORSTER%UNCAEDU.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu> [ok line eater, for what you do, this lines for you] I recently purchased an INSIDER 1 meg board from Michigan Software and thought I would tell you about my installation woes. First off I am not in any way associated with Michigan Software I simply bought their board. Secondly I have absolutly no hardware hacking experence (at least not until I attempted this) :-). The kit comes with one disk that contains the clock reader, ADDMEM, MEM on/off (i suppose this would be the same as the HIDE program), and a mem tester. The board comes preassembled, the chips are soldered not socketed. The kit also comes with a 16 page manual, and a sticker to proudly annouce what lurks inside your machine. I ordered my board and had it in my hands in 5 days, I thought that was pretty good. After a quick scan through the instructons I thought I'd do the installation myself (they suggest having a technician if your not sure what your doing). The instructions state that the overall procedure should take you about an hour. I found that it took me two hours the first crack (notice the "first"). For the first test I tried Kickstart/WB 1.2 and after the system asked for WB disk, the system crashed or hung. I tried 1.1 of the operating system and all worked correctly. I thought my work was in error and had a friend check it out. We found all work to be correct but still couldn't get it to work. I made quick call to Michigan Software and they asked me if my connections were correct, they suggested I send it back and they would check it out. Well, due to the fact that I am in Canada, I had to by it from the sole distrbutor here by the name of Design Tech Business Systems Inc. I gave them a call and informed them of my discussion with Michigan and they said to send it to them (Design Tech) and they'll test it. The board checked out ok on their systems, so they sent it back to me again. I stuck it back in again, this time it took half an hour. The board still didn't work. I had a local technician check it out in her machine and it worked just fine. At this point I was ready to send the whole thing back and ask for my money back, but I presiverred and called Design Tech again for ideas. They contacted Michigian on my behalf and they made an offer such that if I paid for the shipping TO AND FROM Michigan Software, they would get the board working free of charge. I thought about this long and hard and then called Michigian myself and talked to the guy who made the offer. I had asked if he would put in writing what we discussed verbally, he refused with the statement if you don't want it fixed just send the board back for a refund. My morbud coursity got to me, I needed to know why it didn't work in my machine. Mishigian had suggested that I put one more ground wire in my machine. Well I did, and I can now proudly say that I now have a 1.5meg machine uder 1.2! For all their effort I would like to thank Ralph from Michigian Software, and Brian from Desigh Tech. These two men put up with my many and long phone calls and were instrmential in solving the problem. Overall impression The manual is excellent! There is a rough edge in it in regards to removing the 68000 but other then that its very very good. The installation went very well (except for the above problems). I would suggest you read the TECH TIPS section of the installation guide as it does give a few extra pointers (its also where the extra gound wire is shown). Would I suggest this to my friends? YES! INSIDER sells for $595.00 CDN, I believe it was $349.00 US. Again, I am in no way related to Desigh Tech nor Michigian Software I'm just a (now) proud owner of one of their products. /Russ -- "We must acknowledge, once and for all, that the purpose of diplomacy is to prolong a crisis." - Spock Russell M Forster BITnet: RForster@UNCAEDU.BITnet ARPA: OC.Russ@CU20B.Columbia.Edu CPS: Mount Royal College 4825 Richard Rd. SW. Calgary, Alberta Canada, T3E 6K6 Voice: (403) 240-6052 Opinions expressed herein are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer or anyone else for that matter.