(1) Switching disks; (2) CompuAdd "Support" [ :-( ]

[was-John McMillan]

In article <1605 at mtunb.ATT.COM> jcm at mtunb.UUCP (John McMillan) writes:
:
>Having already blithered a reply her way, let's pursue this issue,
>restricting ourselves to the SIMPLE LIFE:
>		1/2 height disks
>		access times < 40 ms
>		w/ <= 8 heads and
>		<= 1024 cyl.
				I meant "using at most 1024 cylinders
					out of disks that are not much
					larger than 1024 cylinders".
:
>Some candidates:
:
>	40MB	Miniscribe 3085	(discard 46 trax over 1024)
	^^^^ -- WRONGO
		1) I HADN'T intended to include this machine as
			its 1170 cylinders were above my cut-off.
		2) I also hadn't intended to WRONGLY state its capacity
			at 1024 cylinders: shoulda been...
	56MB <-- Thanks to Ned [see below] for this correction.

Since I did include the 1170 cylinder M*3085, I'll toss in a few more:

	56MB	Fujitsu M2243T (1186 cyl)
	56MB	Rodime RO-5090 (1224 cyl -- wasting enough?-)
		

In E-mail (Ned Nowotny) writes:

];-) Just one minor correction to your drive list.  The Miniscribe 3085 will
];-) yield approximately 56MB if you only use 1024 cylinders.
:
];-) Of course, the real question is whether the 3085 is still available.
];-) Anyone who is interested might try the source I used, CompuAdd.  They
							   ^^^^^^^^-C Below
];-) are a locally based mail-order house and retail chain that advertises
];-) in most of the popular PC magazines on a regular basis.  Their price
];-) for the drive was ~$569.00.  They will include an MS-DOS disk manager
];-) program and do have the drive's jumpers set for disk #2.  However, the
];-) jumpers are not hard to locate, are clearly marked, and are easy to
];-) reset to drive #1 for use in a 7300.  (The shield around the stock
];-) 20MB drive will not just fit around the 3085.  I found it necessary
];-) to leave the bottom off and to fold the back side straight out.  That
];-) last step may explain the difficulty I had in getting the rear of the
];-) case to reseat.  Then again, maybe not.)

];-) Ned Nowotny...
];-) ARPA: ned at mcc.com    UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!milano!cadillac!ned

Welllllll....  "CompuAdd" ... [AfterBurner ignited]:
This past week a friend's EGA monitor ["Imtec" labelled, but Samsung
manufactured according to CompuAdd] failed -- probably from heat
prostration during the 90+ weather (I'm "serious" about heat factor,
but who cares?).  She'd bought the DOS machine from CompuAdd, via mail
order, 17 months before.

CompuAdd:
+ Had a local store with a seperate REPAIRS entry & counter
	-- where they DO NOT do repairs, they just ship to Texas.
+ Had a phone to Texas where I was delayed -- first by store
	inquiries, then by MY inquiries -- for 1+ hours.
+ Has a policy -- which ONLY became absolutely clear the next
	day when they left a message on my friend's answering
	machine -- that when the MONITORS fail after warrantee
	you are ON YOUR OWN WITH *NO* SUPPORT: apparently this
	holds for ANY equipment which COMPUADD does not
	manufacture ITSELF.  Pushing as hard as possible they
	would only go so far as to offer me, for $300, another
	monitor that has a list of $349.  They have NO
	provisions for having any outside company work on
	the equipment they relabel, no working relationship
	with a national repair outfit, and their corporate
	Technical Support staff has NO recommendations of
	who/what/where you should start on the road to fixing
	what is probably a power supply self-destruction.

(Some clever soul will try to turn this into comments against AT&T,
judging from the 'normal' course of events, but I've seen a great
deal of AT&T _REPAIR_ over the years.  The UPGRADE service which
provoked this series is not a maintenance item for AT&T, and it's
not surprising she couldn't find AT&T information on where to do it.)

Anyway, while CompuAdd has a strong reputation for supporting its
warrantee, and perhaps for supporting the equipment it manufactures,
weigh my friend's experience too....  Anyone with suggestions on
where to get that monitor worked on, please E-mail me at the usual:

john mcmillan	-- att!mtunb!jcm