barton@holston.UUCP (Barton A. Fisk) (01/09/90)
Here are all the responses I have received so far.
If there are any more, I will post later...please no
more mail asking for copies, due to the flood of interest
I will post.
------------Begin summary---------------------
Subject: northgate
Status: RO
I have had a northgate 12-mhz 286 for 14 months now. I did have a problem
with it for a while (it wouldn't boot up sometimes). They swapped a
power supply and two disk controllers with me via Fed-Ex, neither of
which fixed the problem. I then sent the system in, and they swapped basically
everything but the case and disk drives. Not surprisingly, this fixed the
problem. The total cost to me was about $30 to ship the system to them,
plus about a month of missing service while waiting for it to come back.
My overall impression? I really like the system - the keyboard is nice,
it's fast, it's been quite reliable since the above problem was resolved.
My biggest beef while the above was going on was that it was EXTREMELY
difficult to get through on their technical support lines - it usually
would take 2-3 days of sporadic attempts to finally get something other
than a busy signal. On two occasions, I was forced to call another number
(like their sales or administrative office number) and get them to relay
a message to technical support to call me back. This was *very* annoying-
I had a partly-dead system, and could almost hear the warrantee expiring
while I was waiting to get through. They claimed at the time that they
were improving their support phone services - I stopped calling (thank God)
about 10 months ago, and so haven't had occasion to evaluate this claim.
In light of this, my recommendation would be to find out their support
number (I'd give it to you now, but don't have it on hand) and call it
at some busy time of the day (like mid-afternoon). If you try several
times and get a busy signal, then they haven't corrected the problem
that I encountered. (In fact, I plan to do exactly this the next time
I am considering ordering major hardware from ANY mail-order dealer).
In summary, the hardware is nice, the support was mediocre (as of last
spring). Good luck.
Jim Davies
davies@uicsrd.csrd.uiuc.edu
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I bought a Northgate ATURBO, used. The hardware that I got (fairly
early stuff for Northgate) was just a C&T 12 Mhz board (w/ 10 Mhz CPU),
w/ Award bios, a 1.2, 1.44, herc, serial/parallel, Adaptec RLL controller,
& miniscribe 3560 hard disk. As far as I can tell, it's all fairly standard
clone stuff. (I believe that Northgate now has a custom mb, but I didn't get
it.)
I had some hardware problems. The Adaptec card died 'bout 6 months after
original purchase. The 1.2 died (may have been related to a stuck diskette.)
Also, the keyboard bios caused the system to hang in protected mode. An
Orchid VGA card didn't like the bus (either too fast or too dirty.)
Technical support is/was easily available. It's just a long distance number
(unfortunately not 800). Give 'em your machine number & date of purchase,
& they'll do everything they can. On the adaptec, they sent a new hard
drive & card out via Fedx, w/ just a credit card number from me. Same deal
for the 1.2. The keyboard bios they just flat out sent. They were willing
to step through the problem until they could figure out what was needed.
(I'm arrogant, though. I just said "I need a new 1.2 Mb drive.")
On the orchid, well, there wasn't much they could do. They blamed it,
naturally enough, on orchid. (Never mind that the same card worked great
on my friend's 386, and is now in MY '386. Want to buy a '286 board ? 8-))
(Orchid's technical support is SUPERB, but that's another story.)
I'm pretty sure my hardware comments aren't relevant to the current machines.
If my guess is correct, Northgate just used clone parts to get enough capital
& reputation to start using custom designed stuff. The technical service
stuff should still apply, though.
good luck,
horkan
p.s. I STILL don't like RLL, though. Oh well. I can't afford anything else...
--
G. Horkan Smith
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!gt1174a
ARPA: gt1174a@prism.gatech.edu
------------
No experience with their computers, but lots with their keyboards. I've
bought 4 Omnikey/102s's: one at work, two at home, and one for my father
who wanted the same keyboard I have. The one at work so impressed other
people that it has become the standard keyboard purchaced with new machines.
I had my first fail (key bbouncceee) and they exchanged it with no problems.
The seem to be geared for private purchases or large volumes and nothing
in between. They don't accept PO's for under $500, which makes it difficult
to buy the keyboards from them. We did find a local distributor, though.
It's the only keyboard I've ever seen that came with *FULL* documentation!
Schematics, command set, keycodes.
If you decide on another system, order it without the keyboard and buy a
Northgate!
Tom Almy
toma@tekgvs.labs.tek.com
-------------
I am currently debating with myself as to whether I should
buy a Northgate Slimline 386/20 or a Gateway 2000 386/20. I seem
to be leaning toward the Gateway for a few reasons:
Gateway seems to give more for less (ie. 2 Megs more of RAM,
a 65 Meg HD, a very good graphics card (ATI Wonder), etc...).
I suspect Northgate gives better phone service in that they take
your call right away (sales rep. and technicians) whereas Gateway
call you back in a few hours. Northgate also seems to charge too
much for shipping (granted it's Fed. Exp. Air service, but I think
I can wait a little longer for delivery and save $$$).
I recently posted a message similar to yours here concerning
Gateway, and ALL responders generally gave good marks to the actual
machine. They report, like I mentioned before, that over the phone
service typically means waiting a few hours (sometimes within 24)
for them to call back.
-------------
I have an Omnikey 102 kbd. So far, Northgate has mailed me a replacement
flip up plastic leg (I stepped on the kbd) and a new EPROM (compatibility
fix for a new computer). Both were mailed out by first class maiul, no charge,
no hassle (they didn't even ask for my serial number).
------------
I am a purchaser of their Omnikey 102.
I must say that theircustomer service department is one of the
most polite I've ever dealt with. In a few short months, I had to return
three (all arrived partially defective) and I exchanged them all with
civility. In fact, they sent their replacement several weeks before I
sent back my old keyboard, and I never got a nasty letter or a credit
card charge. The fourth, but the way, works fine, but I'm not sure it
wasn't better with the other one (for everything that is except the
function keys being where they should be, on the left.For that, I guess
I'll accept a suboptimal feel - to me that is, I had a really NICE
keyboard before that, except for the layout.)
---
Craig Werner (future MD/PhD, 4.5 years down, 2.5 to go)
werner@aecom.YU.EDU -- Albert Einstein College of Medicine
--
Barton A. Fisk | UUCP: {attctc,texbell}vector!holston!barton
PO Box 1781 | (PSEUDO) DOMAIN: barton@holston.UUCP
Lake Charles, La. 70602 | ----------------------------------------
318-439-5984 | "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone"-JC