maxc1503@ucselx.sdsu.edu (David Tse) (03/30/91)
I got my A3000 thru educational price, but not without a problem, they gave me three A3000 from their stock, for being nice, but all have problems: 1st had their store software loaded into them, just like their demo unit in the store, and it crashed with a yellow screen frequently, and warm or cold boot won't work, unless I wait for more than 15 mins. 2nd machine had very distorted sound output. 3rd machine seems fine, but the internal floppy drive had a lot of read errror, and I just happened to be using my FData10 external floppy drive. I took it back again, the fourth time returning a "new" A3000, it's their last one in stock. So I left it there and wait for my order to come in. All three dated an old shipping date on the boxes. The dealer said: " you cannot use any external floppy drive with A3000 unless it's a Chinon drive, or an Air drive(which they sell, I guess), or it can damage your internal floppy drive hardware!" Since then, I got my new machine, but am afraid to use any external drive fearing what the dealer said was true, then it's my fault to damage my A3000. However, since it's not documented on the manual, nor in the update sheets, how do they know, or I know about this serious problem? So I'm been reading usenet a lot, and never found anybody said any problem about it, or they have been busy on 2nd harddrive problem :-) Now I want to use a 2nd floppy, (BTW, my AMax II works perfectly!), after the cartridge. I want to know, especially from Commodore, if what my dealer said is true. How come I never heard from any other sources? another local dealer said don't know too. , and the owner later said:" all the machines you have returned, there are nothing wrong with them!". I said "how about the 2nd one , with bad sound?" He then said:"oh, only when you use music then you'll notice it" He was mad because I told him although my new A3000 is now working fine, their KS 36.143 and WB 36.68 is not the most updated, so I asked to copy an update disk for KS 36.207 and WB 36.67, he did not believe me since the machine arrived in Jan 91. and he insisted my verison must be newer than his update disk, which he got earlier. Very ironically, this is the best Amiga store in San Diego, in terms of look, knowledge, stocks, displays, demos, but price. My friend and I whole heartedly support the store, and express our support to them, and tried to help them to get on the market and shows on our campus. The other dealers in town are much worse, in services, displays, being C64ish still, and one has such bad attitude, drove me mad. These are generally true, in most cases, and do not contradict my problem with them, and I'll with some reservations now, still recommand the store. I surely hope it's an isolated case, but the owner's madness was unexpected, I'm the one supposed to be mad, having to return three times a A3000, prepaid months ago ($2815) (no monitor ordered, thank god :-) you want to know the store, e-mail me, I don't want to say it here. sorry it's long winded, but it could be worse, when I tell you how I cannot return a Sony monitor and A Mit. monitor from 2 places after finding it's screen is out of specs, and my order of video cable came too late etc. My whole A3000 purchase is a disaster, except the AMaxII, roms,and Fijitsu mac drive - very bad luck. thanks for reading, and sorry for being too long, David Tse (now becoming a monitor purchasing expert :-)
cpmwc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Matthew W Crowd) (03/31/91)
In article <1991Mar30.132556.19890@ucselx.sdsu.edu> maxc1503@ucselx.sdsu.edu (David Tse) writes: > >The dealer said: " you cannot use any external floppy drive with A3000 >unless it's a Chinon drive, or an Air drive(which they sell, I guess), >or it can damage your internal floppy drive hardware!" > >Since then, I got my new machine, but am afraid to use any external drive >fearing what the dealer said was true, then it's my fault to damage my I have a feeling that this comment from your Dealer was just a sales gimmick. As far as I know, the drive specs for the 3000 external drive port and the one on the 2000/500 are basically the same. I know of people using no-name/no-brand external drives with their 3000's with no problems. matt. Editor : Reef Amigans Disk Mag.
jseymour@medar.com (James Seymour) (04/01/91)
In article <1991Mar30.235620.2307@marlin.jcu.edu.au> cpmwc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Matthew W Crowd) writes: >In article <1991Mar30.132556.19890@ucselx.sdsu.edu> maxc1503@ucselx.sdsu.edu (David Tse) writes: >> >>The dealer said: " you cannot use any external floppy drive with A3000... > > ... As far as I know, the drive specs for the 3000 external drive >port and the one on the 2000/500 are basically the same. ... > Several months ago, I purchased a used 5.25" Amiga external floppy drive for my A3000 [ #@@#$%! thing is nearly as big as the computer :-)]. Sorry, can't remember the model number. It's the plain old off-white CBM product though, that plugs into the external floppy port on the machine and has it's own power supply. It worked fine, and certainly has not disrupted the A3000 in any fashion. Even used it with CrossDOS. No problem. -- Jim Seymour | Medar, Inc. ...!uunet!medar!jseymour | 38700 Grand River Ave. jseymour@medar.com | Farmington Hills, MI. 48331 CIS: 72730,1166 GEnie: jseymour | FAX: (313)477-8897