Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!samsung!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!cica!travis!greg From: greg@travis.cica.indiana.edu (Gregory TRAVIS) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: More info on A2091 woes Message-ID: Date: 14 Jan 91 20:10:22 GMT References: <9696@cica.cica.indiana.edu> <1991Jan14.193336.13387@convex.com> Sender: news@cica.cica.indiana.edu Lines: 80 swarren@convex.com (Steve Warren) writes: >BTW, it wasn't designed "years ago;" it has been out less than 2 years. I bought my machine one year ago, I assume the controller wasn't designed the day I bought the machine. Ok, perhaps I should have said "over a year ago" >I don't think you know what you are talking about. Your experience with >your controller does not define the universe. I also think you are hearing >some "information" that is bogus. Sorry, I do know what I'm talking about. The problem was originally discovered by me last year. Early last summer a Commodore technical person informed me, on condition of anonymity, that the A2091 controller was indeed suspected of being defective within Commodore. I have duplicated the problem with numerous disk drives, cables, options settings, and, even, different A2091 cards. I have verified that the setup I'm attempting to use works correctly on other machines (I have used the drives and cables in question reliably on Suns, Macintoshes, and NeXTs). I have been working on this problem for quite some time now. >Anyway, I think you are foolish to blurt out all the extravagent accusations >you presented in this posting without personally verifying it (ie, you let >your dealer(s) make the calls and you believed whatever they told you, even >if it seemed ridiculous). I have seen too many examples of dealers who >are incompetant and try to blame all their problems on Commodore. Wrong again. I have attempted to contact Commodore directly a number of times. The one time that they didn't blow me off with "you'll have to go through your dealer for that information, sir" they acknowledged that there was, yes, a problem with the A2091 and my dealer should have the Tech Notes on it Real Soon Now. That was in late September of 1990, a full five months after I reported the problem to Commodore and four months since it had been privately verified to me by a Commodore employee. I, like you, suspected the dealers at first. But when I could not find a SINGLE dealer in Indiana, including CPU which is quite highly regarded by Amiga users, which could get the info from Commodore I began to think the problem might lie with Commodore. >Their are several experts from Commodore who post technical help here. Have >you attempted to contact any of them with these problems? An authentic >request for help will get you a lot further than angry flaming denunciations >of Commodore and their designs. The Commodore people who participate here are >actually quite helpful and friendly if you don't go out of your way to insult >them. Yes I have. This is my fourth posting on this subject. I began with earnest queries last summer to see if anyone else was having trouble with multiple drives. Slowly some users began to contact me and affirm that with higher performance drives there was a problem. I asked again, publicly on the net in September, what was going on since I could not get any information from Commodore or dealers. I was nice both of those two times and (relatively) nice when I posted the list of dealers I had called and their responses last October. All three times were opportunities for Commodore types "in the know" to respond with an explanation of what was going on and what was going to happen about it. I believe that only Andy Finkle even acknowledged my posting. Look, I believe I have been patient. When I first suspected the problem I blamed my setup. But I've heard from too many other people having trouble to think it's my fault. And Commodore is on record as admitting to the problem both when I called tech support and got a response that a fix was coming and in their response to both of the dealers I called today. My machine, for which I paid quite a bit of money (A2500/30, 4MB 32Bit RAM) is now desperately out of warranty. The specs DID advertise that the controller would handle multiple drives - guess I shouldn't trust specs. Why didn't/don't I ask my dealer to exchange my A2091 for a third-party controller? 1) I have this fantasy about running UNIX and I want to make sure the disk controller I have is supported. 2) I don't want to have to pay for another memory board to hold the 2MB I have on the A2091. I bought my first Amiga in 1985 and I think it's a great machine but I'm tired of being jerked around by Commodore. -- Gregory R. Travis Indiana University, Bloomington IN 47405 greg@cica.cica.indiana.edu Center for Innovative Computer Applications Disclaimer: Everything I say is true and I never lie.