Message-ID: <12459@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Sep-84 22:59:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12459
Posted: Thu Sep 27 22:59:30 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 1-Oct-84 04:29:24 EDT
Lines: 89

From:  Info-IBMPC Digest 

Date: 24 Sep 1984 2335-PDT
From: STERNLIGHT@USC-ECL.ARPA
Subject: AT hints
To: info-ibmpc@isib

Depending  on  when  you get delivery you might try to get the new IBM
graphics board for the color monitor which is supposed to  deliver  in
November.   Or you might see if the dealer will take back the existing
board in a trade when the new one comes out.  Or you might  borrow  or
buy  a  used  one.   The  new  one, announced September 10, has higher
resolution & works with the old display and  the  new  one  coming  in
January (also announced September 10).

Unless you plan to run Xenix or PC/IX, don't buy  more  than  640k  of
memory.  The hard disk is so fast you don't need a ramdisk, and PC-DOS
3.0 and 3.1 cannot address memory above 640k, so any more  is  useless
unless you plan to run Xenix.  The 128k upgrade for the 512k hard disk
Model 99 (or is it Model 90; I forget) is  about  $340  and  the  512k
upgrade is about $1000.

Make sure you get an 80287 math chip.  The AT does not test  correctly
for  the  absence of such a chip, so all programs that are supposed to
test for it and run math correctly if it is absent  don't.   But  they
all  work  OK  if  it  is  present.   I  have in mind Fortran and C in
particular, compiled with the library that tests to see  if  you  have
the 8087 on a PC family and if not, uses the 8088 for arithmetic.

If you never plan to write disks to be used on  PC/PC-XT/PC  Portable,
don't bother getting a second disk drive of the 320/360k variety.  The
1.2 meg floppy drive reads such disks just fine, and  writes  on  them
fine  except  that  once  you write them, IBM won't guarantee they are
readable on any machine except the AT.

Buy  a couple of boxes of disks as soon as possible.  They are in very
short supply and hard to find.  Dysan has a  new  disk,  the  UHR  II,
reorder  #802914 that works perfectly at 1.2 meg on the AT.  Otherwise
get the IBM disks for the AT (red label on disks).  Nothing else works
at  1.2  meg  no matter what the box says.  In particular, the Capitol
disks claimed to work at any density don't.

Machines  are  now  coming  out of the pipeline nicely in Los Angeles.
But accessories are hard to get.  Get a serial cable or serial adapter
as  soon  as  possible.  The AT has a 10 pin RS-232 DB-9 connector but
unlike the Macintosh it is a male socket on the machine.  Nothing fits
except  IBM  or  a custom-made cable.  The serial adapter IBM sells is
just a very short serial cable with a proper RS-232 plug on the  other
end that fits modems and serial printers.  The serial cable just has a
longer cord.  Get one of each; they're not that expensive and when you
need one, you need it badly.

I am using the Ven-Tel PC-Modem half-card and it  works  fine;  it  is
Hayes  compatible and runs 1200 baud as well as 300.  You can then use
the serial/parallel card that comes with the Model  99  for  a  second
modem or a serial printer as well as a parallel printer.

When you first start up, unless the technician at the  shop  has  done
his  job,  you  will  have  to  set  the date and time in the built-in
clock/calendar chip.  It's confusing but the ONLY way  to  do  it  and
have  it take in that chip, not just in the current session, is to use
the configuration program on your  diagnostic  disk.   (Yes,  I  know;
that's  a weird place for it, but what can I tell you?)  You will need
to know what type of hard disk you have installed if you have a  Model
99, since the configuration program asks that.  You can either ask the
tech, take the cover off the machine and look at the upper right  hand
corner of the hard disk to see, or look through the front slots with a
flashlight to try to make it out.  Mine is a type 20.

My  machine  has  been running happily for three weeks now on its side
next to my desk, without the floor stand, which I have on order.   The
machine hasn't fallen over yet.

MAKE SURE YOU GET THE KEY WITH THE MACHINE.  IF THE TECHNICIAN AT  THE
PLACE  YOU BUY IT CHECKS OUT THE MACHINE, HE MAY FORGET TO PUT THE KEY
BACK IN THE BOX.

Make  sure that any cards you get (modem, etc.)  that are not AT cards
but PC family are put in the two slots without the  extra  16-bit  bus
connectors.   You  want  to keep the 16-bit bus slots available for AT
cards.

There  is  already  a  file  on a few RBBS systems called DOS30FIX.dat
which contains a couple of patches to DOS 3.0 to eliminate a couple of
inconveniences.  I can send a copy to you when you get DOS 3.0.

Good luck; --david--
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