chip@ateng.ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) (02/15/89)
Once upon a time, A T Engineering bought several Everex Step 386/20 computers and sold some of them to our customers. They were great. They were fast. If you powered them on while the printer was on and connected, they were dead. Nothing. Nada. Not even the fancy front panel display. This problem was nothing more than a nuisance until we found that the same problem would be caused by leaving an Archive tape drive on and plugged in. Of course, the Xenix drivers for the Archive only look for the tape at power-up, so if you turn off the drive so the computer will start, then you can't use the tape at all. And trying to use the tape with the computer dead was, at best, a waste of time. The nice people from Everex came in and replaced our rev E motherboard with a rev G motherboard, which fixed the problem. Unfortunately, that upgrade isn't supposed to be free, and we're still trying to work that out. In the meantime, our customers with rev E motherboards can't use their Archive tape drives unless they're willing to shell out $500. This is not making our customers happy. So has anyone else had this trouble with Everex Step 386 motherboards? Are we the only Everex users with printers and Archive tapes? What's going on? -- Chip Salzenberg <chip@ateng.com> or <uunet!ateng!chip> A T Engineering Me? Speak for my company? Surely you jest! "It's no good. They're tapping the lines."
dave@micropen (David F. Carlson) (02/16/89)
In article <1989Feb14.175249.25055@ateng.ateng.com>, chip@ateng.ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes: > If you powered them on while the printer was on and connected, they were > dead. Nothing. Nada. Not even the fancy front panel display. > > So has anyone else had this trouble with Everex Step 386 motherboards? Are > we the only Everex users with printers and Archive tapes? What's going on? > -- > Chip Salzenberg <chip@ateng.com> or <uunet!ateng!chip> We have used Steps here since last spring. We have had *1* customer report of this sort (rev E) and were unable to duplicate the problem here (Everex QIC-02 tape card.) By my experience, not all revs of E boards will fail with certain devices attached, but those that do really suck. I'm glad I know what this little deal is now. -- David F. Carlson, Micropen, Inc. micropen!dave@ee.rochester.edu "The faster I go, the behinder I get." --Lewis Carroll
optical@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (02/16/89)
In article <1989Feb14.175249.25055@ateng.ateng.com>, chip@ateng.ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes: > Once upon a time, A T Engineering bought several Everex Step 386/20 > computers and sold some of them to our customers. > They were great. > They were fast. > If you powered them on while the printer was on and connected, they were > dead. Nothing. Nada. Not even the fancy front panel display. > > This problem was nothing more than a nuisance until we found that the same > problem would be caused by leaving an Archive tape drive on and plugged in. > Of course, the Xenix drivers for the Archive only look for the tape at > power-up, so if you turn off the drive so the computer will start, then you > can't use the tape at all. And trying to use the tape with the computer > dead was, at best, a waste of time. > > The nice people from Everex came in and replaced our rev E motherboard with > a rev G motherboard, which fixed the problem. Unfortunately, that upgrade > isn't supposed to be free, and we're still trying to work that out. In the > meantime, our customers with rev E motherboards can't use their Archive tape > drives unless they're willing to shell out $500. This is not making our > customers happy. > > So has anyone else had this trouble with Everex Step 386 motherboards? Are > we the only Everex users with printers and Archive tapes? What's going on? > -- > Chip Salzenberg <chip@ateng.com> or <uunet!ateng!chip> > A T Engineering Me? Speak for my company? Surely you jest! > "It's no good. They're tapping the lines." YOU ARE NOT ALONE!!! I was working for a local computer store last summer, and we had the same problem with Everex 386 machines (verious model types). We had to replace the mother board all the time ( 6 out of 10 units we ordered had this problem). Due to the long wait to get replacement part from Everex, the owner finaly gave up carrying Everex 386 machines. The problem we had encountered are: (1). System will not start at all after power has been turned off for more than 5 hours. You have to turn the power on and wait for about 20 min. then try to reboot. It will then work without any problems. (2). For those units without the above problem originally, if a 80387 coprocessor is installed, then they would not start in the morning (the same problem as (1)). Everex never told us what was wrong with those units. Qiwu Liu
jbayer@ispi.UUCP (Jonathan Bayer) (02/16/89)
In article <1989Feb14.175249.25055@ateng.ateng.com> chip@ateng.ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes: >Once upon a time, A T Engineering bought several Everex Step 386/20 >If you powered them on while the printer was on and connected, they were >dead. Nothing. Nada. Not even the fancy front panel display. >This problem was nothing more than a nuisance until we found that the same >problem would be caused by leaving an Archive tape drive on and plugged in. >Of course, the Xenix drivers for the Archive only look for the tape at >power-up, so if you turn off the drive so the computer will start, then you >can't use the tape at all. And trying to use the tape with the computer ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Not so. Do the following command and the tape drive will work OK: tape reset and wait until the drive finishes resetting. > >So has anyone else had this trouble with Everex Step 386 motherboards? Are >we the only Everex users with printers and Archive tapes? What's going on? We're running a Step 25 here, with no problems such as you described. JB -- Jonathan Bayer Beware: The light at the end of the Intelligent Software Products, Inc. tunnel may be an oncoming dragon 19 Virginia Ave. ...uunet!ispi!jbayer Rockville Centre, NY 11570 (516) 766-2867 jbayer@ispi.UUCP