Article 36588 of comp.sys.amiga.hardware: Path: leela.CS.ORST.EDU!gaia.ucs.orst.edu!umn.edu!spool.mu.edu!agate!dog.ee.lbl.gov!news!network.ucsd.edu!ucsbcsl!mcl!unseen From: unseen@mcl.ucsb.edu (Charles F. Kane) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Another A4000 quick-review... Message-ID: Date: 27 Jan 93 07:05:53 GMT Sender: news@ucsbcsl.ucsb.edu Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc Lines: 69 Xref: leela.CS.ORST.EDU comp.sys.amiga.misc:28671 comp.sys.amiga.hardware:36588 Well, having been using my new A4000 for a few days, I must say that, overall, I love the machine. A few design problems (as someone else mentioned in an earlier posting, so at least I was prepared for them): Mouse input on the wrong side. ACK! Maybe there's a disgruntled Commodore exec board member/'Left-Handers For World Domination' activist responsible for this one. Keyboard cable could be longer, but hey, whaddaya want fer 'only' 2700 bucks, kid?! Sheesh. 3.5" floppy drive is right behind the keyboard. Who knows, maybe there's another Commie exec board member who is the founder and president of the "People Who Don't Kick Back With Their Keyboards On Their Laps Are Wusses" campaign. Actually, a simple solution for this would be to just swap the double 3.5" bays with the unused 5.25" bay above. I mean, unless someone either needs a tape drive or has a hankerin' to relive those good ol' Apple II days.... When I first saw the posts bitchin' about how the HD seemed to spin down for a moment during a three-finger salute, I was laughing at the anal-retents. Well, I guess I'm not laughing any more. That IS annoying!! Unt Shtoopid, too, Herr Commodore.... I like the key-lock. Not that I'll ever actually use it, I just like it. Keyboard: Love it. But going from an old A500 keyboard, how can I not? Mouse: It's a love/hate relationship. I loved the feel of it! Comfy, cozy, and smooth. Then it developed a little squeak... but before flying into a panic, I said "no problem, I'll just get in there with some silicon spray and it will be taken care of, heh heh..." Well, when I opened it up, I saw the same hideous, cheap-crap membrane buttons that have plagued me to death for the last 5 years on my A500, and was instantly thrown into a Vietnam-esque flashback. When I regained consciousness, I realized "okay, no prob, when the buttons fail (a week from now), I'll just rip them out and replace them like before!". I'm okay now, the doctor says I'll be going home soon. BTW, the silicon spray did take care of the squeak. Try it. And now, for something completely different. A review of the 3.0 operating system. Just a few bug-- er, I mean 'FEATURES... (undocumented)': After I got it, I fired it up to make sure it worked okay, then reformatted the HD for a 20m and a 104m partition. No problem. But when I ran the install program for WB3.0, it worked without a hitch, telling me all the files it was copying, where it was putting them, how much fun we were both having, how nice it is to be an '040.... but when I rebooted, the HD was completely empty! So I re-ran the install program, and this time it worked fine. Whatever. I can only open the 'palette' pref once per boot. After that I can double-click it til I'm blue, but it does nothing. If I run the 'Locale' pref, the computer crashes when I click 'use'. (even without changing from the 'United_States' option). In the 'Tools' WB pulldown menu, the 'ResetWB' option takes its job a little too seriously and resets the entire computer. I'm also running the 'NickPrefs' additions (minus the 'WBpicture' pref)... could this be causing some problems?