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From: st138ak@sdcc12.ucsd.EDU (st138ak)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Hardware problems in PS/2 line?
Message-ID: <844@sdcc12.ucsd.EDU>
Date: Thu, 29-Oct-87 11:39:18 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcc12.844
Posted: Thu Oct 29 11:39:18 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Nov-87 07:37:17 EST
References: <1911@homxc.UUCP>
Organization: University of California, San Diego
Lines: 46
Keywords: PS/2
Summary: YES - PS/2 HARDWARE PROBLEMS

In article <1911@homxc.UUCP>, mchin@homxc.UUCP (M.CHIN) writes:
> 
> Has anyone heard of hardware problems in IBM's PS/2 line of computers?  I've
> only heard second hand of some problems with their disk drives and I was
> wondering if this was true?
> 
> Michael Chin
> ihnp4!homxc!mchin

 Interesting question.  I'm rather surprised I hadn't read anything
about this before.  We recently (2 months ago) bought a bunch of
IBM PS/2 Model 50s and a few Model 60s.  The first thing that went
wrong was on the 60s--a configuration error would appear every time
you booted the system.  The computer thought the date and time were
not set.  After going through the whole process of setting date and
time and reconfiguring the system numerous times, I figured that it
wasn't ME.  So, I called the company which has our service contract
(and believe me, anyone with the new PS/2 is well advised to get a
full service contract), and their response was, "Oh yeah, you keep
getting a configuration error, right?"  It turns out that they knew
of the problem, and so did IBM.  IBM sent out patch diskettes, which
were supposed to solve the problem.  Wrong.  They sent out incorrect
patch diskettes, and it wasn't until yesterday that we finally got
the right patch diskette to finally fix the problems.  (This is after
almost 2 months of living with the problem.)

The other problem we've experienced is another error message, which
turned out to be a hard disk problem on one of our PS/2 Model 50s.
The repair guys thought the hard disk had crashed (which would have
been ironic, since that particular computer had been used once, only
to install WordPerfect.  The problem really turned out to be a bad
controller board, which had actually burned out in a couple of places--
certainly not from overuse on our part.  The repair guy assumed that
the board was installed with the bad spots at the plant.  This really
does wonders for my confidence in these machines.... why didn't we
buy Macs?

If I discover any more problems, I'll be happy to post them.  By the
way, a number of departments on this university bought the PS/2 line,
and from what I hear, everyone's having the same problems.  However,
in at least one case, the hard disk on a Model 50 did crash, and it
took IBM over a month to ship a new disk -- timely replacement and
service is *not* a hallmark of IBM's commitment to the PS/2s.

Diane - Academic Personnel
st138ak@sdcc12