ih@udel.edu (Charlie Ih) (04/24/91)
In article <17296@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM> pastor@PRC.Unisys.COM (Jon Pastor) writes: >Anyone have any direct experience with (or heard anything about) the Data >NB/320SX? For $2995, you get: > ........ I believe this is basically the same as Tandon NB/386SX (even the model number). The size, weight, look, and technical specifications are identical as far as I can see. The software included are slightly different. Tandon is now delivering 60 MB HD. The price is also comparable. I have had a chance playing around with the Tandon NB/386SX for about 10 days. It has 60 MB HD, 8 MB RAM and a Cyrix 83S87 and came with MS mouse and window (which I have not tried yet) and Tandon MS DOS 4.01. It is a quite nice machine and so far everything I tried worked fine. On the possitive side, I like the following: The 60 MB HD, RAM expandible to 16 MB, expansion port, 20 MHz, 2 serial and one parallel port. You can use D-cell rechargeable battery (high capacity). The screen and keyboard are fine (I am not very critical about these) except it has only 81 keys. The size (could be thinner) and weight (could be slight lighter) are among the best in its class (and price). On the negative side, the "Resume" is not much use in comparing with Toshibas. At the turn on, it draws about 2.5 A and in sleep mode, 1.2 A. CPU active, screen on and HD off, it draws 1.8 A. The screen uses .2 to .5 A (brightness from low to high). The HD at stead state uses only .2 A! The battery last only slightly more than two hours for "Normal" use. The most anoying thing is that the low battery warning light and beep start at about 45 min of use and continue for 1.5 hrs before shutting itself off without special warning. Beside being anoying, it serve no useful purpose, since you don't know how much time still left. The documentation is terrible, in fact, none. Besides manuals for Dos and Window, there are only 3 sheets "instruction" to tell you how to set it up. If you really want a Notebook now, this is probably still the best you can get. The best is to wait for a while and the 80386SL may become available.
mheyda@heyda.austin.ibm.com (Michael Heyda) (04/24/91)
I have similar problems with the battery life not comming close to 3-4 hours. Also have the problem with low battery begining to beep. As far as the price being comparable I wouldn't go that far. The Dataworld, for only $2,695 is about $800 less than the Tandon (for the price difference you only get 10MB. About my only complaint is that the battery life is too short. This however should be helped when I replace the 4MB I have in it now (4 1MB SIMMS -- 2 came with it and I have another 2 laying around but you can get then for $55 a peice) with a 4MB SIMM. This should lower power consumption dramatically (maybe this is how Dataworld got their figures). I especially liked the upgradability of the machine. I plan to use the machine at school and wanted something that could survive trips back and forth every weekend so I could go back home and work on papers or take it to the library (also using it for program compiling is why I went for a 386SX/20). The 60MB hard disk upgrade would be nice though. When I was shopping for laptops I got interested in the Dataworld and then saw the Tandon. Whats interesting about this is that Tandon sells a 2 slot expansion box for $300 and Dataworld sells a 3 slot for $700 (thats one expensive slot --- $400!) Tandon maintained that they made their own machine and Dataworld says that they second sourced it but didn't say from who. I would be interested to know if the expansion boxes are compatible. I could deal with $300 for two slots since thats all I would use, but $700 for 3 slots is a bit steep. Please post in this group. Thanks. Mike Heyda
anthony@convex.csd.uwm.edu (Anthony J Stieber) (04/25/91)
In article <6964@awdprime.UUCP> mheyda@heyda.austin.ibm.com (Michael Heyda) writes: >About my only complaint is that the battery life is too short. This >however should be helped when I replace the 4MB I have in it now (4 1MB >SIMMS -- 2 came with it and I have another 2 laying around but you can >get then for $55 a peice) with a 4MB SIMM. This should lower power Are you sure you can do that? The SIMMs used in most MS-DOS machines are 9 bit devices. A 386SX has a 16 bit data path, so in order for the machine to run at all, you must have an even number of SIMMs installed. This is then a total of 16 bits (16 + 2 parity). Also, the two SIMMs must be of the same size. Even so, 2 4MB SIMMs will consume much less power than 8 1MB SIMMs, and perhaps less than 4. There are lots of ways to extend battery life. Minimize access to the hard drive, make use of RAM disks and cache software. The hard drive is one of the biggest power consumers in the machine. The power needed to run the floppy drive for a few seconds will be often less than the power needed to spin up the hard drive, then spin it down again a few minutes later. Put the hard drive and backlight to the minimum time to power off. Set the backlight to minimal usable levels, scout out well lit areas compatible with your display and viewing habits. If you have autoresume and it's turned on and you don't need it, turn it off, it's using power even when the machine is off. If you have a modem, there may be an explicit power switch, either hardware or software. Make sure it's off when you aren't using it. You can get more power out of a battery by giving it a rest while discharging. This is especially useful when low on power and unable to go to AC when the battery is nearly dead. And, you must follow a NiCd battery discharge/recharge discipline. Fully discharge, then fully recharge the battery. Failure to do so will eventually ruin the battery. If you don't use the battery much and just leave the machine plugged in either on or off, remove the battery if you can. If you can't, then don't leave it plugged in, either the machine is recharging, or it's discharging. -- <-:(= Anthony Stieber anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu uwm!uwmcsd4!anthony Psion Mailing List subscriber submissions psion ----------\ the (human) moderator psion-owner -------+--@csd4.csd.uwm.edu subscriptions and file requests psion-request ----/
ih@udel.edu (Charlie Ih) (04/25/91)
In article <6964@awdprime.UUCP> mheyda@heyda.austin.ibm.com (Michael Heyda) writes: >I have similar problems with the battery life not comming close to 3-4 >hours. Also have the problem with low battery begining to beep. As far >as the price being comparable I wouldn't go that far. The Dataworld, >for only $2,695 is about $800 less than the Tandon (for the price >difference you only get 10MB. I was interested in 60 MB and Datawold could even deliver 40 MB when I contacted them. I figure if upgrade to 60 MB later the price would be comparable. Also they FAXed me a more detail spec sheet which did not agree with what's advertised. I was suspicious and could not get more information from the saleman who did not seem to know anything. I lost confident with them and switched to Tandon. >About my only complaint is that the battery life is too short. This >however should be helped when I replace the 4MB I have in it now (4 1MB >SIMMS -- 2 came with it and I have another 2 laying around but you can >get then for $55 a peice) with a 4MB SIMM. ..... Do you know how much current the 1MB and 4 MB SIMM draw? Can you simply substitute them? I have not found spec of the SIMM yet and would appreciate your help. >....... >then saw the Tandon. Whats interesting about this is that Tandon sells >a 2 slot expansion box for $300 and Dataworld sells a 3 slot for $700 >(thats one expensive slot --- $400!) Tandon maintained that they made >their own machine ......... I believe the Tandon expansion is also 3 slots. I will find it out when I get it. They accepted my purchase order without question and data sheet they sent to me also says 3 slots. The machine I have has Phoenix Bio. A new Tandon Bio is supposed to solve the early Beep and other problems. I hope this is true. Both the machine and AC adapter say made in Taiwan. So the expansion box may well be compatible.
mheyda@heyda.austin.ibm.com (Michael Heyda) (04/26/91)
> Subject: Re: Tandon NB/386SX (was Dataworld laptop) > Keywords: dataworld tandon NB 386SX noteboook > Date: 25 Apr 91 15:03:57 GMT > Organization: University of Delaware > > >About my only complaint is that the battery life is too short. This > >however should be helped when I replace the 4MB I have in it now (4 1MB > >SIMMS -- 2 came with it and I have another 2 laying around but you can > >get then for $55 a peice) with a 4MB SIMM. ..... > > Do you know how much current the 1MB and 4 MB SIMM draw? Can you > simply substitute them? I have not found spec of the SIMM yet > and would appreciate your help. > As far as I know the 4MB draws approximatley the same amount of power as a 1MB SIMM. You can simply substitute the SIMMs but cannot mix the 4MB and 1MB SIMMs. > >....... > >then saw the Tandon. Whats interesting about this is that Tandon sells > >a 2 slot expansion box for $300 and Dataworld sells a 3 slot for $700 > >(thats one expensive slot --- $400!) Tandon maintained that they made > >their own machine ......... > > I believe the Tandon expansion is also 3 slots. I will find it out > when I get it. They accepted my purchase order without question > and data sheet they sent to me also says 3 slots. > When you do get it I would be interested in a description of the connector for the expansion box and a description of the major chips in the expansion box (i.e. the maker of the motherboard of the exp. box and the name on the major chips). The connector on the back of the box is a long thin connector, I can't recall how many contacts, but it looks like a 'D' and all the contacts are on the inside of the 'D'. I would like to know about this because I want the expansion box but I'm not going to pay the $700 that Dataworld wants. (anybody from Tandon out there who wants to draw some business their way?) Also, if you could tell me the part number of the expansion connector it would be most appreciated (i.e. the port on the back of the laptop -- on the Dataworld there is a part number on the door the opens, I would put it up here now but I don't have the machine with me.) Any of the above, the part number on the connector would be best, would be greatly appreciated. Mike Please respond in this newsgroup if you respond before May 25, after that send mail to gt6681c@prism.gatech.edu.
pastor@PRC.Unisys.COM (Jon Pastor) (04/27/91)
mheyda@heyda.austin.ibm.com says: > Whats interesting about this is that Tandon sells > a 2 slot expansion box for $300 and Dataworld sells a 3 slot for $700 I just got a price sheet from Dataworld, and you may have it backwards: Dataworld's 3-slot expansion box is $295. The battery from Dataworld is more expensive than from Tandon (according to a review I read on the Tandon) -- $95 as compared with around $70. BTW, does anyone know how soon the 80386SL will be available?
gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (George Wang) (04/28/91)
In article <6964@awdprime.UUCP> mheyda@heyda.austin.ibm.com (Michael Heyda) writes: >then saw the Tandon. Whats interesting about this is that Tandon sells >a 2 slot expansion box for $300 and Dataworld sells a 3 slot for $700 >(thats one expensive slot --- $400!) Tandon maintained that they made >their own machine and Dataworld says that they second sourced it but >didn't say from who. I would be interested to know if the expansion >boxes are compatible. I could deal with $300 for two slots since thats >all I would use, but $700 for 3 slots is a bit steep. > >Please post in this group. Thanks. From previous discussion, most of us concluded from the pictures that the original Zeos 386-20 LAPTOP (not notebook) was the SAME as the Dataworld Laptop.... When I noticed that someone mentioned that the Tandon was the same as the Dataworld, I read the features that were posted... That person mentioned a "resume" mode as well as the use of D-batteries... Unless Dataworld switched the OEM brand of their laptops, I know for a fact that the Zeos laptop does NOT use D-batteries nor does it have a "resume" function.... Previous discussion said that the Zeos laptop, which sold for $2,195 at the time, was a good buy... Good functional machine except that it was a bit heavy... Display was good... You could try adding your own larger Conner IDE drive, but it would add a "bulge" to the center of your machine.... George -- **************************************************************************** * George Wang - Computer Engineering T T * * University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | T | * * INTERNET: gcw20877@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu or g-wang3@uiuc.edu \_|_/ * * gwang@ncsa.uiuc.edu PH: (217) 332-4019 - * ****************************************************************************
pastor@PRC.Unisys.COM (Jon Pastor) (04/29/91)
> Previous discussion said that the Zeos laptop, which sold for > $2,195 at the time, was a good buy... Good functional machine except > that it was a bit heavy... Also discontinued; Zeos no longer sells it. Anyone got any clues where one might scare one up? The guy at Zeos acknowledged that it was OEM, but didn't know who made it.