Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cica!iuvax!silver!rschmidt From: rschmidt@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (roy schmidt) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: PC BRAND 20 MHZ 386 Machines Summary: Another DITTO Keywords: CAVEAT EMPTOR Message-ID: <47664@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> Date: 14 Jun 90 16:19:15 GMT References: <46912@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <1990Jun10.175505.21209@caen.engin.umich.edu> Sender: root@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu Distribution: usa Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington IN. Lines: 46 In article <1990Jun10.175505.21209@caen.engin.umich.edu> elh@caen.engin.umich.edu (Ed_Han) writes: >In article fish@gemed.ge.com (Mark Fisher x4-6553) writes: >>I bought a 20Mhz 386 machine from them back in March. I sent it back. >I have a nightmare with PC Brand too. >>I sure feel like it was a rip off. >ditto for me. >>// Mark M. Fisher >Ed_Han@ub.cc.umich.edu Now, maybe we shouldn't hit a dealer when he's down, but maybe we can save someone else the *pain* of buying PC Brand. I bought a 20 MHz 386 from them over a year ago. I still have it, but... Soon after receiving the machine, I obtained a hard disk from another source, and popped the top to install it. Shock! Gasp! There was a 386-16 chip on the motherboard! There were 100 Nano DRAM chips! Further, the pages in the TRUMP motherboard manual about compatible memory had been ripped out. I called PC Brand. "Oh, well, the 386-16 is running at 20 MHZ, and that's OK, it can do it, we tested it. Look at the ad again, we didn't say 386-20, we said 386 _running at_ 20 MHz!" What about the ad saying zero wait states? Isn't 100 Nanos a little slow for that? "Well, you have to put in more memory and install interleave, then it will run at zero wait states. Check your manual." I tried, the pages are ripped out. "Well, those pages weren't important." _I_ think they are! "Then we'll send you another manual, and you can see for yourself!" (Of course, I _never_ got a new manual, despite repeated calls to geeks that didn't even know what motherboard they were using!) I also discovered that the cables they use are inferior. I have had two of them fail -- that is, the edge connector socket slowly loses its grip on the card edges of drives, requiring disassembly of the computer, jiggling (or replacement) of the cable, and a reboot to continue. Hey, but why complain? It was cheap, right? Then how come Gateway and others are cheaper??? I guess we're all in the same ol' ripped-off club. You guys out there in netland, CAVEAT EMPTOR!!! ----------------------------------------------------------- ^ Roy Schmidt | #include | | Indiana University | /* They are _my_ thoughts, | | Graduate School of Business | and you can't have them, < > Bloomington | so there! */ X ___________________________________________________________ X