I think the only real advertising Eyetech carried out for the AmigaOne was in 'Total Amiga' magazine in 2002 and 2003.

I bought my AmigaOne as a direct result of reading these adverts. There was a warning that 'Earlybird offer' was not suitable for those who wanted a 'switch-on-and-go' Amiga, because OS4 was not ready, but there was never any suggestion that the AmigaOne hardware might be faulty.

As these are actual advertisements, printed in order to elicit sales, I think that their content is important.

@DaveP

Quote:

A1-XE and SE's effected were always labelled beta, developer, earlybird with the warning that they might and would contain problems. You know, like the Pegasos 1.

Where is that warning?
The only warning I did see was about the not "switch-on-and-go", which I read as no official OS to run untill OS4 was ready.
(No Linux distro is still not supporting A1 officially)

I ordered my A1-XE according to this announcement.
It does not say anything about issues with the hardware as far as I can see...

Last edited by tomazkid on 02-Jan-2005 at 10:36 PM.

_________________
Site admins are people too..pooff!

@DrBombcrater

Sure, I agree on the main point, which is that its Eyetech and the Dealers responsibility
to provide a fix or a fix option however just because they haven't come up with a patch
yet does not mean they are not going to.

I suspect the pressure that this thread is going to bring to bear will do wonders to
expediate some kind of statement on the matter to existing A1XE/A1SE owners .

To be honest though, this is not something that really bothers me that much ( although it
bothers me that people who will not work around it with a plugin powered USB hub
do not yet have an option ) because I don't use USB much and where I do, I use a powered
hub on the x86 boards that I have the peripherals on. Yes, the ones that I added a hub to
were for reliability reasons and were on boards using the VIA southbridge. However it
clearly is ( if the comment in post 1 of this thread is true ) not the fault here.

Eyetech or dealer liability is something that will need to be tested in court, if anyone
takes it that far or if it has to go that far. Personally, I doubt it will go that far, and it
needn't. But what I hear on the grapevine really is no substitute in anyones angry stomach
than a press release from the official sources no?

Dave.

@tomazkid

Quote:

In addition this 'Earlybird' offer this also helps us spread the testing, assembly and despatch operations of the AmigaOne boards and systems over a number of weeks, which in turn helps us keep our own costs in check. . So, in return, we are offering all users who wish to take up this 'Earlybird' offer a free, registered, copy of OS4 for the AmigaOne as soon as it becomes available. The Earlybird 'free OS4' offer represents a saving of around 12% on an AmigaOneG3-SE mo otherboard This of course will not suit everybody, and if you want a switch-on-and-go AmigaOne system then this Earlybird offer is not for you. In this case we're afraid that you have a few more weeks to wait.

The meaning of "Earlybird" is what's up for discussion I'd guess? :-/

@jiyong

Im not going to answer everyone who has written the same comment back, especially
those just repeating the wayback links I posted myself or haven't yet read my comment
that the statement referred to may or may not be sufficient in of itself.

Quote:

IMO "not switch-on-and-go" is not equal to "having hardware defects".

Here also, but I remember a stronger statement, certainly I bought what I did without illusions
but if I can't find it, I can't find it. That means it either wasn't there or it was
an impression taken from another source than a purchase page - which would not, IMHO, sufficiently
cover Eyetech to the extent of not supplying a fix to its direct customers.

Quote:

I even remember that Eyetech claimed they didn't need April to get DMA working and I also remember they said it only was a matter of writing the right "driver". This implies we should expect to have working DMA on the A1.

Well, that was right, DMA in the ArticiaS used in the XEs does actually work as advertised
but a layout problem on the XE board stops the IDE controller working correctly as it should do. Once
you replace the IDE controller DMA works just peachy, with the right "driver" on AOS4.

Quote:

The "not switch-on-and-go" part I always assumed was referring to the minimal Linux installer and having to wait for OS4.

Thats part of the problem, it can be read any way you like in line with your own expectations.

However, Im not here to bat for Eyetech, or to be crucified in their absence by irate people. I'm here
to put my opinion forward. You either respect that, or you don't folks.

Dave.

@Eric_S

Quote:

The meaning of "Earlybird" is what's up for discussion I'd guess? :-/

I suppose
I wouldn't had gone for an Earlybird announcement, that had said that there is flaws in the hardware.
The software issues, like getting Linux working I was aware of, and prepared for, but not hardware issues.

_________________
Site admins are people too..pooff!

@Eric_S

Quote:

The meaning of "Earlybird" is what's up for discussion I'd guess?

From the Eyetech AmigaOne advertisement in 'Total Amiga' magazine:

Quote:

Earlybird systems are now shipping, and will be available until the official release date of OS4 is announced.

Hmm, that was another contentious issue - as far as I am aware, the release date of OS4 (as opposed to a pre-release) has not yet been officially announced, yet the Earlybird offer has ended, and Eyetech stated that the pre-release completes their liability under the Earlybird offer.

@tomazkid

Did you ever buy an A4000 or an A1200? They had similar strength bloopers in their
manufacture that I never saw anyone warned about.

The archives of aminet are full of fixes and patches to these bloopers, and they were
even revision specific. Later revisions having different flaws.

However, they can hardly tell you about flaws they did not know about, flaws that
transpire later on fair enough. If they had said "This is hardware that has had limited
testing and may or may not contain flaws" what would you be saying now? Would you be
an A1 owner? Describing something as beta, or developer edition sets an expectation. Does
"earlybird" do the say? Does saying "not switch on and go" do the same? I don't know, its
too subjective ( as we see throughout the thread ).

The point is, ask your dealer about a fix. If you have a right to that fix free by
law in your country of residence then demand it. But you can only have a fix once that fix
is available, and if they say the fix is being developed or in testing you will have little
choice but to wait. Taking it to claims courts you are more than likely, at this stage, to
be considered to have not given the dealer reasonable opportunity to resolve the problem -
that includes the time taken to develop and make available a fix for a diagnosed problem.

This of course, depends on your statutory rights in your local country, regardless of if
EU law applies, or does not.

Its far too early to be digging out the pitch forks or reaching for a lawyer.

Dave.

@DaveP

Quote:

Its far too early to be digging out the pitch forks or reaching for a lawyer.

Agree on that.
We've had enough of courtcases the recent years, haven't we?
Hopefully I can get the USB and IDE fixed privately eventually, one way or another



Quote:

However, they can hardly tell you about flaws they did not know about, flaws that transpire later on fair enough.

No, but it would be a pleasant change to get news about these flaws from Eyetech directly as a change, not from developers, testers or users.

*edit*

I've had a few classic Amigas too, so yes, I know about the limitations of an A1200.

Last edited by tomazkid on 02-Jan-2005 at 11:06 PM.

_________________
Site admins are people too..pooff!

@DaveP

Quote:

Sure, I agree on the main point, which is that its Eyetech and the Dealers responsibility to provide a fix or a fix option however just because they haven't come up with a patch yet does not mean they are not going to.

I'm sure those dealers who are already doing fixes are going to be bemused to hear Eyetech hasn't come up with one yet.

(Link to restricted A1 forum)

Quote:

I suspect the pressure that this thread is going to bring to bear will do wonders to expediate some kind of statement on the matter to existing A1XE/A1SE owners

Indeed. History shows that if enough people scream loudly for a while Eyetech will take note and say something.

Quote:

although it bothers me that people who will not work around it with a plugin powered USB hub do not yet have an option

I'm personally reluctant to buy a hub because there's been no confirmation that it solves the 'debounce' issue on A1-SEs, or that it cures the data-transfer issues.

And I'm sure XE owners who've already shelled out for a sound card to replace the broken on-board sound, and bought UDMA cards to replace the dodgy on-board UDMA controller, are going to be thrilled to have to buy a hub to fix problems with the USB ports.

Quote:

Eyetech or dealer liability is something that will need to be tested in court, if anyone takes it that far or if it has to go that far. Personally, I doubt it will go that far, and it needn't.

I agree. It should not be permitted to get that far. I can't see anybody benefiting if it does.

Quote:

But what I hear on the grapevine really is no substitute in anyones angry stomach than a press release from the official sources no?

Press releases from official sources are always helpful, and can be used as evidence

_________________
Who do you serve, and who do you trust? - Galen

Is there anything that works correctly on these boards at all?

They are so damn expensive and seem to have more bugs even than cheap x86 boards..

I really want to get a computer capable of running OS4, but this is just too expensive price to pay for some hardware that is both underpowered by todays standards and is malfunctioning..

I guess they were beta boards, but still...
I hope next batch is improved quite a bit

Last edited by Tomas on 03-Jan-2005 at 12:13 AM.

@Tomas

uA-ONEs works... If you want big-box amiga, you should wait XC. It will use ArctiaP, wich is not alive yet...

I really don't know ... if there will be more XE:s, I THINK that they have to be ok ... :)

Miikka

@Tomas

Quote:

Is there anything that works correctly on these boards at all?

Yes, AmigaOS4
Except for usb of course.

_________________
Site admins are people too..pooff!

@Tomas
Quote:

Is there anything that works correctly on these boards at all?

Everything works just great on my fixed XE board (big thanks to LiveWire) except sound support which is permanently broken. My MicroA1-C is also working great. Thanks for asking

_________________
ExecSG Team Lead

@Tomas

Quote:

Is there anything that works correctly on these boards at all?

The real question is what you want to do with your computer?

As of now the only way to run AmigaOS4 is to buy an AOne in one form or another and atm the only A1 available is the microA1-C version which from what I've heard has no problems so this is strictly a question for present day owners.

As to the question itself my AOne XE works just fine for the task I bought it for which was running AmigaOS4 and it does this better than any other computer on the planet,

I have (and had) a number of pc's with onboard sound which I have never used so this part was never an issue with me. I bought a controller to fix the DMA issue (one day I'll try the hardware fix) and USB works well enough for my uses atm. If I notice any problems in the future I'll have to look into the fixes for that as well.

I'm surprised that people are still complaining about problems that have arisen on "developer" boards?

All discussions about hardware/software liability and what can be assumed guarantee or not should consider a few things:

1) It has been clearly stated that these are "developer/beta" boards and that an official release will occur at the same time as OS4.

2) Since testing a board without the OS must be hard (if not impossible) and most (if not all) boards were shipped prior to USB support from OS4 it does not seem unreasonable that "issues" do show up.

3) In plain fact these boards were more or less released originally because a lot of us wanted to have something to play around with, and to prove to an (at the time) unbelieving storm of criticism that a board actually existed. It's true that most of the SE/XE boards were sold 1-1¹/2 years before we had any Amiga OS to use on it.

4) All issues to date are able to fix in one way or another except for the onboard sound. This is apparently not so for the SE boards but those at least (if not for the XE as well) should have been bought with a good understanding of the risks involved.

I'm not saying that Eyetech is devoid of obligation or any AOne owners of rights on this subject but unreasonable claims can only hurt the community and further alienate the last supporters of a future Amiga platform.

It is a truly brave bunch of computer enthusiasts who have bought and paid so much money for an OS with such an extremely uncertain future.

I'm certain that Hyperion and Eyetech have had good use of this "enlarged" group of betatesters for getting the OS to what it is today.

_________________
Fixed A1G4XE 7455 RX933PC with fried CPU
Sapphire Radeon 9100 128mb
ESI Juli@ 24bit 192kHz Envy24HT
Sil 680 Ultra Ata 133 E-ide
SeaGate Barracuda 120gb 8mb cache

@DaveP

Quote:

You didn't need a k in strictest.

Dave we both know english is not my native tonque.



@The one who reported my post as abuse

The quote I pasted is irony at its best, but anyway im sorry for offending you.

@LottaRosie

Quote:

just for fun and have just switch on my iron. 229°C !!

Are you kidding? The fix is on a multi-layer SMB board and requires specialised equipment and/or a high level of skill. If everyone thinks they can just fix it with a soldering iron then there is gonna be a lot of dead A1s out there if they were to release it. This is not an A500.

Regards.

_________________
The standard disclaimer applies

@DaveP

Quote:

Its far too early to be digging out the pitch forks or reaching for a lawyer.

So true.....

I would suggest that everyone take a deep breath, wait until OS4 is fully released.

Then test the boards out and go from there. I'm sure more problems are to come, its just the nature of the business.

You have some loyal Amiga people at Eyetech etc.

It will get sorted out.

_________________
"The system no longer works " -- Young Anakin Skywalker

@rossv
you are correct

You need a steady hand and a really good fine tip iron, ESD compliant is also a must. That aside you need the ability to solder parts that are smaller than 0.5 milimeter by 1.0 millimeter.

A Hot air pencil would make your life easier. ( Or blow alot of compenents off the board if you don't know how to use one )

The DMA fix is a lot harder as the surfaces you are working on are even smaller and the ability to kill your board with a single slip is really great.

The uA1 has fully working 6 channel sound,DMA and USB.

Folks instead of screaming here, please just contact your dealer.

Uhh correct me if I am wrong, I thought Eyetech did offer an upgrade to SE owners. I was offered and took it to upgrade my SE to an XE board.

The Latest XE boards have the fix done on them.

Kgrach

@hooligan

Yep, which is why I told you. Don't assume a negative light, I have a lot of respect
for you and the way you conduct yourself on fora.

Although in the light of the thread, I do think that dropping in remarks by Bill McQ
about levels of testing is like pouring petrol on an already blazing fire.

Dave.

Last edited by DaveP on 03-Jan-2005 at 06:53 AM.