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From: cliff@sol.UUCP (Clifford T. Matthews)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Re: Jasmine Disk Drives
Message-ID: <195@sol.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 22-May-87 18:30:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: sol.195
Posted: Fri May 22 18:30:11 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 23-May-87 18:56:53 EDT
References: <8704172113.AA02297@jade.berkeley.edu> <375@cup.portal.com> <419@eplrx7.UUCP> <4014@amd.UUCP>
Organization: VIBRAC Corp., Amherst, NH
Lines: 66
Summary: Get the 20mb Jasmine, but the smallness of the company shows

> In article <419@eplrx7.UUCP> lad@eplrx7.UUCP (Lawrence A. Dziegielewski) writes:
> >In article <375@cup.portal.com>, Samuel_gold_Goldberger@cup.portal.com writes:
> >> All reports I hear, both direct from friends and
> >> indirect from test reports, are positive.
> >
> >I have had nothing but trouble with Jasmine.  I'm on my 3rd 80 meg drive
> >and the third new ROM for the drive.
> 
> There's probably a difference between the 20 meg situation (put a
> ST-225N and a power supply in a box) and the 80 meg drive that has
> to be integrated with a SCSI controller. My guess is that the
> positive reports are from customers of the 20 meg drive.

For what it is worth, I would recommend Jasmine 20mb drives, but be aware
that they are a small company.  Here is a synopsis of my dealing with Jasmine:

I ordered a disk via phone with my credit card and was told which day to
expect my disk (about 2 weeks into the future).  The disk didn't arrive when
it should have.  After a few phone calls (my calls were supposed to be
returned, but I found I always had to call back myself) I was told that my
disk would be shipped tomorrow and I would get it two days after that.  When
the three days were up, I played more phone games and was finally sent one
overnight (they usually use two day air ship).  Finally I got my disk.

I hooked it up, thinking to myself how foolish I was to have let my Mac+
warranty expire without ever making sure the SCSI port worked and my worst
fears were confirmed...not only did the disk not work, but it wasn't being
seen on the SCSI bus at all, so it could be real SCSI problems.  Since 
the west coast was still asleep, I decided to take my Mac in to be fixed with
the idea that if the SCSI port was fine, I would call Jasmine... it was; I did.
I was quite happy with the person I talked to (Keith), but I still had to
ship my disk back (they told me to ship it 2 day collect).  I called Purolater
and the same guy who had brought me my disk early in the morning picked it up
to send back.  He asked me how to bill, and I said collect.  He saw that it
was going back to the same place and copied the info over including the request
for overnight express.  That was on a Friday.

I was out of town Monday, when a Jasmine person (Tom?) left a message asking
me to call.  When I called Tuesday, I was told that they were not happy with
me sending my disk overnight collect.  I explained how the mistake was made.
Tom sounded understanding, but wanted me to pay the difference (his explanation
was that their prices are so low, they couldn't afford the extra cost [of
course I would hope that my situation wasn't happening elsewhere]).  I
said that I had no intention of paying extra and that I was pretty steamed at
all the phone calls to CA I have been making etc.  I don't believe the
situation had been resolved by the end of our call.  I guess he would have to
think about it, and/or check with someone higher up.

Two days later, I got a working disk.  I am happy with it, although every
once in a while (probably once every twenty hours) it makes a noise that
sounds a little like the crew of the Enterprise beaming up/down.  The noise
occurs less frequently now then when I first got it, so I don't think it is
anything to worry about.

The ironic thing about the whole situation is that I am very familiar with
SCSI (I wrote much of and was in charge of all the SCSI software on the
Cadmus [should mean something to you Scully watchers] 020 machine).  I opted
to buy a Jasmine disk because right now I don't have the time to fiddle around
with cables/drivers, that would be involved with purchasing a used disk and
fitting it with a SCSI controller etc.  In the time I spent waiting for my
disk I probably could have hacked together much more disk space for about
the same investment in $$$ [sigh].

					rpd:amf
					--Cliff [Matthews]
					decvax!savax!sol!cliff