Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: i486 machines
Message-ID: <110200026@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 9 Nov 89 15:28:00 GMT
References: <1263@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Lines: 26
Nf-ID: #R:rodan.acs.syr.edu:1263:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:110200026:000:1118
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald    Nov  9 09:28:00 1989


-
>Even having worked at a place where it was possible to release a computer
>with a major bug known, I still don't see how you can do it!  Why would
>any customer buy a PC with a known bug?  They'll have to release some dog
>version of BIOS which looks for the killer instructions, slowing down all
>FP operations.  

Simple. Some buyers don't know about the bugs. Remember, IBM sells
a lot to corporate accounts. The buyers of these don't know beans
about computers. They just buy what IBM tells them to. 

I point out that I had no idea that my Model 80 was defective when I got
it - I only found out when some programs bombed. I admit I hadn't
checked carefully about it before getting it, as it was free. 
  
Look inside any IBM 386 machine - for well over a year the machines
they sold were ALL defective - the 386 itself is bad. Look in your
older 386 box at the 386. IF the chip doesn't say 80386DX, it
is defective (not counting 386SX's, of course). Just TRY to get IBM to fix
it! It CAN be done, but it isn't easy. It took us months of bitching.


Just remember IBM's motto "We don't care!".

Doug McDonald