February 27, 1994
Peter's Computer News, Copyright 1994
You may note that I now have a new address shown above. This isbecause my school has asked me not to mention its name in mywritings. Seems that there is a policy to that effect. I hadhoped that my writing was good enough to have them be proud ofme, but policy is policy.
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The MAG 15 inch monitor died once again. After months ofhorizontal size jitter, a driver transistor inside the monitorfinally gave up. The result was that I could not use my computer.Relying on my computer engineering and technician background, Idecided to fix it myself.
MAG Innovations has not been willing to supply any schematics,but I had previously detected that a TO220 (type of package)transistor was getting overly hot. It had no heat sink to cool itand the circuit board had some discoloration due to heat. Thiswas an obvious design flaw in the MX15 design. Last time I hadthe case open, I installed a small heat sink to keep thetransistor cool. This helped it, but now it finally died anyway.
I checked the transistor type. It was a 2SD1088. Seemed asimple job to just buy a replacement. Good luck! Non of thesources I checked had the part. I checked the ECG cross referencelisting; no luck. I have specification sheets for transistors andidentify the dead part as being a high voltage darlington powertransistor. This is an unusual device. No wonder I can’t find itanywhere. Looking through my assortment of transistors, I foundsome darlington types that might work. Remember, my backgroundwas in electronics engineering. I still have a good stock ofelectronic parts.
A replacement transistor gets installed. Power on isaccompanied by a flash on the circuit board. Guess thattransistor did not work! I decide to trace out the circuit. Turnsout I had misread the connections on the transistor and had thenew one installed backwards. Another transistor goes in. No flashthis time, but it just does not work. At least I tried. Must havethe exact part for it to work.
Finally I call MAG to see if they can sell me the part. Yes,they will. The minimum order for parts is $100! Hey guys, thistransistor should only cost about $3 plus shipping. MAG iswilling to repair the monitor for a flat fee of $125 if I returnit to them. This would be the second time for it to be sent it toMAG. I don’t like the idea of shipping it. I know that UPS takesexcellent care not to jar any of their boxes in transit, but Ijust don’t like it. Besides, there will be $25 for shipping.Total cost of $150 to replace a $3 transistor which failed due toa bad design.
Past experience has shown that if I send the monitor in forrepair, I won’t have it back for several weeks. No option but toscurry for another monitor to use. Temporarily, I borrowed amonitor from my computer at school. It is hard to go back to a 14inch monitor once you are used to something better.
Tony Mares (electronics instructor) digs up a new MCM catalogand finds the needed transistor listed among the new parts theythe now carry. Since MCM also has a minimum order (only $25), thetransistor will be included in a combined order with other parts.
What to do in the meantime. I can’t be borrowing the monitorfor long, nor do I want to use a 14 inch monitor for long. Thechoice is clear. Now is a good reason to buy that 17 inch monitorI had been wanting, but what to buy?
The research begins. Since the technology is moving so fast, areview done 6 month earlier is now old news. Fortunately, thecomputer publications are responding to the needs by runningarticles every couple of months.
There is an article in a recent issue of Windows Sources towhich I subscribe. A trip to the school library is of no help.The selection of magazines for computers is non-existent.Library’s excuse is that they have the magazines on acomputerized system. Trouble is, the computerized system onlyprovides an index reference, not the articles.
Fortunately, I just happened to have an evaluation copy of Ziff-Davis Info-Select on CD-ROM. This nice, but expensive, resourceallows me to scan full text articles from dozens of magazines. Ifound about 6 recent reviews which should help me decide. Readingthe reviews reveals another problem. A monitor which is loved byone reviewer is hated by another. The top rated monitor in onereview is panned by another. What help is that?
I then started looking at features which are most important tome. Many of the review give ratings in each area of performance.I can then decide for myself. Not quite as good as seeing themonitors in person, but unless you live in a large metropolitanarea, in person evaluations are not an option.
In the end, I conclude that non of the review said anything badabout the new Sony 17se. It has a large usable screen size, astable image, and one of the brightest images of any monitor. Itis a bit more expensive than the others, but is not the mostexpensive either. I am aware of the Trinitron tube and its shadowlines, but am willing to give it a try. My late father-in-lawwould have been proud of me. He always bought Sony.
For those who might be interested to know, I was alsoconsidering a MAG MX17F, a Philips 1762DT, and a Viewsonic 17. Iwas reluctant to get another MAG for obvious reasons, and thePhilips monitor had some bad characteristics based on a couple ofreviews. I did consider the Viewsonic, but some reviews said ithad some jitter in its display.
The Sony 17se was ordered, and in 3 days it was in the house.Before I could put it on my desk, the shelf above the desk had tobe raised! Although the Sony is one of the smaller 17 inchmonitors, it still sits 16½ inches tall. Some shims took care ofthe shelf height and the monitor was in place. To my delight, thenew Trinitron tube is much flatter than older designs I haveseen. I knew it was perfectly flat in the vertical direction, butit is also almost flat in the horizontal as well.
Turn on the computer and the image finally comes up. Wow, a bigscreen. Some adjustments for screen size and position are inorder. Pincushion and tilt adjustments are included. Pincushiononly fixes the left and right sides. There is some slightcurvature at the top and bottom which cannot be fixed.
There is also an adjustment for convergence. I have neverneeded to worry about it before. I had always assumed it was notneeded since previous monitors did not show any convergenceproblems. What is that blue and red line doing up in the topright corner? Fiddle with the convergence adjustments to fix itand the top right corner is just fine. Trouble is, the rest ofthe screen is now blurry. Fix the whole screen and the top rightcorner is out of alignment again. I also notice that the screenseems to have some noticeable vertical jitter.
A call to tech support at the vendor (IGC) is in order. Thetechnician asks me to try going into DOS shell and check. Theflicker is still there as is the convergence problem. Theconvergence problems are a normal thing with 17 inch monitors, hetells me, but the jitter is not. In trying to describe thejitter, I start to explain that it looks like magneticinterference. Then I notice that there is a power packtransformer plugged into a power strip next to the monitor. Isthat causing the jitter? I unplug the power pack only to discoverthat I have just disconnected my call to tech support. It was thepower pack for my cordless phone which I was using!
There, the jitter is gone! I would not have thought that themonitor was that sensitive to external magnetic fields, but itis. The convergence problem in the upper right corner is stillthere though. I call tech support and tell them what happened.Jitter gone but still got convergence problems. He can’t help. Itis a normal state of affairs with 17 inches. Not being satisfied with that answer, I call Sony tech support.Telephone rings and rings. Finally a recording comes on to tellme that all lines are busy and I should try some other time,perhaps next century. Not satisfied with this state of affairs, Iwrite a letter to Sony. Three weeks later, still no response.Will let you know later what results from this.
After a month’s experience, I can report that the shadow lineson the Trinitron a slightly annoying, but not obscene. Theconvergence problem is more annoying, but can be tolerated if youjust don’t look up in the top left corner. The screen is brightand steady. I especially like that the monitor is completelyquiet and rock steady when switching display modes. My old MAGMX15F would click loudly and the screen would jump each time amode switch occurred.
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My problems with Parsons Technology’s SuperSketch may beresolved at some point. After some communications failures, I gotto talk with some tech support personnel and was assured thatParsons is interested in providing support for NT. This is incontrast to some vendors (DCA/Crosstalk and Delrina/WinFAX) whohave told me to fly a kite. I have signed up as a possible betasite for Parsons to help in resolving problems under NT.
Microsoft had asked me in December to send my Logitech busmouse to them for evaluation. I had been having problems with NTrecognizing it. Ray, the tech support person I was dealing with,told me that they found no problem and that he was sending themouse back to me. That was on February 1st. By mid February, Istill had not gotten my mouse back. I send an E-mail message toRay through Internet. The message comes back as addresseeunknown. Conclusion; he no longer works at Microsoft.
I sent E-mail to another Microsoft contact and have mysuspicion confirmed. Ray is no longer at Microsoft. A telephonemessage is on my answering machine. It is from Jill at Microsoft.After several rounds of telephone tag (leaving messages on eachother’s voice mail) I get to talk with Jill in person. She ismanager of the NT support team and is apologetic for the mouseproblems. Seems that Ray was wrong. There is a problem with NTrecognizing the mouse.
Microsoft would like to keep the mouse for moretroubleshooting. They can send my mouse back and try to getanother one to test, or they can send me a new Microsoft mouse inexchange. As much as I like the Logitech mouse, why would I wanta mouse that does not work with NT? I quickly agree to theexchange and the matter should be ended. I did sneak in a commentthat I was also very eager to be on the Daytona beta team (nextrelease of NT). Jill says that she will check into that and thatshe will send the mouse out next Monday. It has been a week andstill no mouse, but I will remain patient. Maybe tomorrow it willbe here.
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In an effort to find FAX support for NT, I had ordered theWinComm Suite from Delrina. This package includes WinFAX Pro andthe new WinComm modem software package. There is a money backguarantee, so I ordered the package. It arrived a week later in asomewhat mangled box.
Installation went less than smoothly. Some error messagespopped up and the system hung before completion. I managed tomanually fix what went wrong and tried it out. The comm packageworks ok with NT, although the scripts run a bit slow whencompared to Crosstalk. Writing scripts requires knowledge of theC language. Since I teach C programming, that is not a problem.
What I was not prepared for was that the scripting languagedoes not include many user interface functions. For example, tohave push buttons show up for user choices, you would need towrite a Windows program separate from WinComm. There is noprovision I could find to do that within the WinComm scriptenvironment.
The big disappointment was with WinFAX Pro. It does not rununder NT. It does not even recognize the COM port. The supportprograms do, but not WinFAX Pro itself. Checking the Microsoft NTknowledge base, I found a reference to NT FAX Pro to work underNT. A call to Delrina tech support brought a response thatDelrina does not support NT. They do not plan to support NT. Theydo not even have any plans to have plans to support NT at anytime in the future. In short: don’t bug us!
In addition to the problems under NT, I could not get WinFAXPro to work properly with my Logitech scanner. Although the scanseems to have completed properly, the interface is not intuitiveenough for me to figure out how to send that fax. Perhaps it isbeyond my computer knowledge! After all, I only have 14 yearsexperience with computers and my degree in computers is only aMasters.
After several calls to Delrina customer service, I finally getthrough to a very polite operator who issues a returnauthorization for me. She also suggests that I send in theregistration card so that I would be notified in case Delrinaever gets around to supporting NT. Nice lady, she was. Would buttech support be as nice.
I received an offer in the mail for HiJaak PRO for Windows.Only $49 plus $10 shipping. Was a time that I would have passedit up, but I have started to do more and more with graphics. Itjust so happened that there was a review of graphics programs ina recent issue of Windows Sources. HiJaak came in high in theratings and it seemed to have what I needed. It can convertgraphic file formats and includes a graphics editor. Will let youknow how it works out in my next issue.
That is about all for now. I am pricing out parts to make up anew computer for myself. Irene is needing a faster computer andmy daughter can use one of her own. Don’t be surprised if theremay be some news along those lines soon. Estimate now is about$1700 for what I need. If only I had that much money, thecomputer would be on its way here now!