48 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
48 lines
2.5 KiB
Plaintext
IBM Wouldn't Do This, Would They?
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(But They Did!)
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I am not currently an AT user. Otherwise, I might have discovered
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this before now and probably at some inconvenience. I pass it on so
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that many of you who are using AT's might be aware of the possible
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inconvenience Big Blue has planned for AT users. The following item
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appeared in the Lotus Magazine, Vol.2, No.9, September, 1986 (p. 26).
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- Jack Kilday, Sysop
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Northern Lights BBS
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207-766-2467 2400/1200
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Preventing PC AT Amnesia
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If you've never pulled the cover off an IBM PC AT, you may not realize
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that there is a battery inside. If that news comes as a surprise,
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there's no need to be embarrassed; you apparently have a lot of
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company.
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According to Alex Papakyriakou, general manager of International
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Battery Corp. (IBC) (Reseda, Calif.), a sizable number of IBM PC AT
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owners -- including some large-scale corporate buyers -- are just
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realizing this because the batteries are beginning to fail. This
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causes the loss of not only time and date information but also
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internally stored configuration information like the machine's memory
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size and type and number of disk drives.
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When a PC AT's battery fades out, you are forced to enter the
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configuration info each time you start the system -- a tedious process
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that leads to a quick search for a replacement battery. The
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difficulty users face in finding the batteries is what got IBC into
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the AT battery business.
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IBC was getting requests for the 6-volt lithium units and couldn't
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find a supplier until they came across Tadiran, a major battery
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manufacturer headquartered in Israel.
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IBC obtained exclusive rights to aftermarkets sales of Tadiran's
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AT-compatible batteries and is selling them by mail order for $27.50,
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which Papakyriakou claims is $15 less than IBM sells them for. But
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IBC is likely to have competition soon in this lucrative market. The
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market-research firm Dataquest (San Jose, Calif.) estimates there will
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be more than one million IBM AT's in use by the end of 1986, each
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having a battery that runs out of juice every one to three years.
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