From: brucet@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Bruce Tulloch)
Subject: Re: HELP! Duo 230 problems
Nntp-Posting-Host: extro.ucc.su.oz.au
Organization: Sydney University Computing Service, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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bcherkas@netcom.com (Brian Cherkas) writes:
>chess@cats.ucsc.edu (Brian Vantuyl Chess) writes:
>>  I just got a Duo 230, and I'm having some difficulties.
>>If the machine is plugged in to the wall adapter, put to sleep,
>>unplugged from the wall, and woken up, it crashes 75% of the time.
>>(There's nothing but the original system software on the machine.)
>>The battery has plenty of life - I think this must be a power manager
>>problem, but I don't know what to do about it.
>>Also, the speaker occasionally makes a high-pitched hiss.  The noise
>>is irregular, but seems to favor sleep and restart commands.

>I've had my Duo 230 for a few weeks now and suffer from both
>of the above problems. I reinstalled my system software twice
>in an effort to combat the problems - thinking they were
>system software problems. Initially reinstalling the system
>seemed to help but not anymore. Occasionally when I try to
>wake up the Duo I get a solid screen of horizontal lines on
>the screen - it freezes.

>I also get the high-pitched hiss occasionally - but only at
>startup.

>I've called the apple hotline (800 SOS-APPL) three times
>already and finally they agreed something is astray after my
>Duo's screen would go dim and the hard drive spun down by
>itselft and put itself to sleep. This problem only occured
>twice. Apple sent me a box to ship my Duo to be looked at in
>New York but the problem now is intermittent and I can't
>afford to be without my Duo at this time.

>Anyone out there with these same problems?

>-- 
>Brian Cherkas     * *    bcherkas@netcom.com
>                   I   
>AOL/BrianC22      \_/    compuserve/71251,3253
>Netcom - Online Communication Services San Jose, CA

Yes, quite a number of people it seems from discussions I've had (me
included). I bought my machine a couple of weeks ago as well and
started to experience these problems.

Apple Australia via my dealer said that this problem has a number of
potential causes - Faulty applications, faulty third party hardware
(modems, memory etc), system software, PRAM corruption and power
manager corruption, and the Duo hardware itself.

None of the above are relevant in my case except the last two maybe
(no applications were running, the system software was re-installed, I
have no additional hardware). I have found that clearing PRAM appears
to help for a while at least (hold down command option P and R on
startup). Unfortunately the problem returns suggesting that PRAM is
being corrupted by something (system software bug ? - I don't have any
non-issue inits in my system). Apparently the Power Manager can be
reset by "holding the reset and interrupt buttons while powering up" -
Apple's advice - but since the Duo does not have an interrupt button
I'm not sure what they mean in this case. This may also help if
someone can decipher Apple's advice for me.

Beyond this Apple suggest that " you should follow the technical
procedures to check the hardware of this Duo". Since so many others
appear to be having the same problem it would seem to me that there
has been a system software bug introduced somewhere along the line -
and quite recently too - since it only seems to be recent Duo 230
purchasers who have this problem.

Any more comments from others in the same boat are welcome,
particularly Apple Duo engineers :-)

cheers

brucet

-- 
          bruce tulloch sydney australia - brucet@extro.ucc.su.oz.au
***complex problems have straight forward, easy to understand wrong answers***
