🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 12 Apr 1997 00:08:35 +0800, Vincent Goh <Vinceg@pacific.net.sg>
wrote:

>I amm looking into buying an AST system. Anyone with experience with
>this brands model, kindly share with me. Thanks.

I have a Bravo MS P/75 bought in May 95.  It worked alright as a 75, but
when I wanted to upgrade the processor, the problems began.  First up,
in spite of what the owner's manual said, the board simply did not
support a clock other than 50mHz, i.e., for a 75 mHz processor.  This
took about 1 month to discover.

AST Australia agreed to replace the mobo with one that supported 60 and
66 mHz clocks (for 90 and 100 Pentiums).  This board was eventually
replaced (1 day in the AST dealer's workshop).  I found that it would
not run a 66mHz clock.  Back to AST.

It turns out that the mobo is from an MS P/90, and guess what?  It
didn't support a 66mHz clock.  It took the best part of a month to get
this information.  AST then agreed to another mobo upgrade.  Attempt 1.
Faulty mobo.  2 days away; no result.  Attempt 2.  Wrong rev number.
This is a Friday.  Leave the machine with us over the weekend.  We'll
have a new part up on Monday and install it.  No dice.  3 days away; no
result.  Take it in on Monday.  Monday afternoon I ring.  Part didn't
arrive.  Pick up machine.  4 days away; no result.  Part arrives.  Take
in  machine.  It's a Thursday.  Thursday afternoon.  Some good news and
some bad news.  The good news: the new board works at 66 mHz.  The bad
news: there are problems with the video drivers.  Some more bad news.
When we put your mobo back in, it was broken.  Leave the machine with us
overnight, and we'll get you a 50 MHz mobo to keep you going.  Why not?
5 days way; no machine.  Friday afternoon, I get a call.  We have you
machine working at 50mHz.  Pick up the machine.  6 days away; back to
square 1.  Do you like this story?

Later the next week.  We have a new mobo.  Take the machine in.  That
afternoon I get a call.  Your machine is working at 66mHz.  I pick it
up.  7 days way;  66mHz!!

But wait.  The machine starts to sieze up.  I begin to get "blue screen"
fatal exception errors.  I take all cards out of the machine, but it
still happens.  If I reduce the speed to 60 mHz, the problem goes away.
I have replaced 8 Mb of 70 ns AST/TI memory with 32 Mb of 60ns TI
memory.  After much correspondence, AST tech support in Sydney puts the
blame on my memory, and leaves it at that.  Silly me.  I replaced 70 ns
TI memory with 60 ns TI memory, and expected it to work at higher clock
speeds.  End result after 7 days in the workshop - a 60 mHz, Pentium 90
system.

Furthermore, there is NO provision on any of these mobos to change the
multiplier.  The boards are Socket 5, so multipliers above 2x are out of
the question, but the one available multiplier pin, which would give 2x,
simply does not appear on the mobo.  It's 1.5x or an overdrive.

In all of this, I was never once able to extract a commitment from the
AST dealer in Brisbane that they would service my machine in a given
time frame.  They would not even guarantee that, if I left the machine
with them all day, they would complette the work that day.  The name of
this dealer, for Brisbane locals, is Rapid (!!!) Technologies.

To AST Australia's credit, they did agree to replace the mobos, and they
did persist with this problem for over two months.  In the end, I think
it just got to be too much for them.  I don't think (my opinion only)
that they have any confidence in this ("Rattler") series of mobos
anyway.  This would be borne out by the number of replacement boards
which failed.

I am cross posting this to some aus (Australia) ngs as well, so if you
respond, trim back the newsgroups list as appropriate.

Yours faithfully,
Peter

 __ /__   Peter B. West
   /     p.west@mailbox.uq.edu.au
  /    "Master, to whom shall we go?"