Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!wivax!linus!allegra!eagle!harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!seismo!uwvax!reid From: reid@uwvax.UUCP Newsgroups: net.micro.atari Subject: More on 400/800/1200 Message-ID: <900@uwvax.UUCP> Date: Fri, 3-Jun-83 01:41:29 EDT Article-I.D.: uwvax.900 Posted: Fri Jun 3 01:41:29 1983 Date-Received: Thu, 9-Jun-83 01:41:32 EDT Lines: 48 >From MRC@SU-SCORE.ARPA Thu Jun 2 17:43:31 1983 Date: Thu 2 Jun 83 15:20:03-PDT From: Mark CrispinSubject: more on 400/800/1200 To: Info-Atari@SU-SCORE.ARPA Postal-Address: 725 Mariposa Ave. #103; Mountain View, CA 94041 Phone: (415) 497-1407 (Stanford); (415) 968-1052 (residence) It seems that production on 400's and 800's has already ceased. It is now also rumored that production on 1200's will cease shortly; no confirmation is available yet. The 1200, despite its short product life, sold quite well. About half of the people who bought it did so thinking that it was a 64K machine (as the box stated) meaning that a user had 16K more RAM in Basic than on an 800. Needless to say those people are quite upset now. There is an Atari internal memo describing a possible fix to the video overdrive problem on 1200's (especially when using monitors), but it's been rumored that the "fix" makes the problem worse. Since nobody has schematics for the 1200 yet, nobody is willing to undertake fixing it themselves. If you have a 1200 that is still in warranty and want an ECO to fix the video overdrive problem before the warranty runs out, give Atari a call NOW. You ought to be able to arrange for an extension of your warranty or some other arrangement so that you will get that ECO for free even if you're out of warranty. I spoke with John Bernal who is one of the individuals at Atari responsible for 1200 customer support. He seemed warm to the idea of offering 1200 customers an upgrade to the 1400 (1450 is out of the question because of the built-in disk drive) at a reasonable price. Atari does seem to be concerned with losing credibility because of the 1200 (as well it should!). A 1200 to 1400 upgrade (whether trade-in or ECO) costing $300 or so ought to be profitable to Atari and do much to smooth over a lot of the bad customer feeling. If you have a 1200 and want a reasonably-priced upgrade, write Atari at their Sunnyvale address directed to the attention of John Bernal. He told me he will be meeting with the president of the organization in July and it would help a lot if he could show a set of customer letters asking for a 1200 to 1400 upgrade. -- Mark -- -------