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From: Les.Barr@f41.n147.z1.fidonet.org (Les Barr)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: KPR VS. Arkenstone
Message-ID: <13220@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jul 90 04:19:02 GMT
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Index Number: 9584

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 MW-"Don,
 MW-"        I recently attended an Arkenstone demo at the University of
 MW-"Pittsburgh and during the demo Dessie Page mentioned that the 
 MW-"Arkenstone
 MW-"was compatible with everything except a Packard Bell BIOS.  Well, I 
 MW-"was
 MW-"a little disheartened with that statement because I had just purchased 
 MW-"a
 MW-"Packard Bell 286.  When I had my Sounding Board installed I was told
 MW-"that my machine contained a Phoenix Bios so I assume I could use an
 MW-"Arkenstone.  Dessie, are you out there?  Maybe you could enlighten us 
 MW-"on this subject.

Maggi,

I am an ARKENSTONE Rep so I hope I'll do.  I have just spoken with
the tech at ARKENSTONE, and as far as either of us has been able to
acertain, there has only been one report of a Packard Bell computer
not working with the ARKENSTONE hardware.

This was a Packard Bell model 5, with a built in VGA card, and very
possibly could have been solved, but the customer opted to buy
another computer to run their ARKENSTONE on instead of working out
the memory addressing problem.  Since I am writing this late at
night, I have no way of verifying which system this was, but from
the sound of it with a built in VGA, it was most likely a 386
system.  ARKENSTONE is reluctant to say, "No the ARKENSTONE will
not work with Packard Bell Bios," but cannot say, "Yes it will"
either.  There is just no conclusive evidence either way.  The only
conclusive way to find out if it will work with your particular
computer system, is to try it out on your system.

If you buy an inexpensive system, there is always a chance you are
not getting exactly an IBM/compatible system, and there is a
possibility that the ARKENSTONE will not work with it.

We are currently advising customers to buy their clones with the
contengency that it will work with the ARKENSTONE OCR setup, before
the sale is final.

You can also get some solace by inquiring whether the system you
are buying has a standard 8 megahertz bus.  If it has a ten
megahertz bus, chances are that it will not work with the
ARKENSTONE OCR, and you are not getting a true clone.

Hope this helps,

-Les B

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