Very Computer

Hello-

I saw your post on usenet, so I thought I'd start a little mail list
relating to some common experiences.

I have not yet bought this machine, but I am close, now that I know
there is an X server available.  Have you found the Xig product
reliable?  How would you rate it?

What other problems have you had?  Have you resolved the PCMCIA
problem?  Did any of you go with the 3Com Ethernet/33.6modem combo, or
separate cards?  What about ULTRA ATA?  I thought Linux was INCOMPATIBLE
with ULTRA ATA.  FAT version should not matter at all.

Thank you for sharing your experience-

Robert Walker

On Mon, 02 Feb 1998 23:55:41 -0600, Robert Walker

Ron Pellegrino

I just ordered my Inspirion 3000/266/48/3.2.  I also saw on the website
that BOTH the 4.0 and 3.2GB drives are ATA-33.  Linux is not supposed to
be ATA-33 compatible.  Do any of you have the 3 or 4GB drives?  Do they
work?

Thanks,

Robert Walker

Hello Peter,

You said you've been having problems with the save-to-ram mode.  Have
you had any success fixing them.  I saw this article on the inspiron at
Dell's site, pertaining to SAVE-TO-DISK, which I thought others might
want.  If you've done some fdisk-ing, you'll probably have to do this:

Save-to-Disk Suspend Mode

Save-to-disk suspend mode copies all system data to a reserved area on
the hard-disk drive and then
turns off all power to the computer. When you resume normal operation,
the same programs will be
running and the same files will be open that were loaded before you
activated this mode.

    NOTES: Save-to-disk suspend mode helps preserve system data by
quickly saving it to the
    hard-disk drive if you are about to run out of battery power.

    Place the computer in save-to-disk suspend mode if you intend to
store the computer for longer
    than 40 days. Save-to-disk suspend mode preserves the configuration
information stored in
    NVRAM. The reserve battery maintains this information, but may run
out of energy after 40 days.

To activate save-to-disk suspend mode immediately, press <Fn><a> (or
<Fn> <Q> on the French
keyboard). You can also tell the computer to enter save-to-disk suspend
mode automatically after no I/O
activity occurs for a specified length of time. To program this feature,
use the Suspend Time-Out option in
the Power Menu of the Setup program.

To resume using the computer after activating save-to-disk suspend mode,
press the power button. It
takes a few seconds for the computer to return to its previous state.

Some PC Cards may not operate correctly after resuming from save-to-disk
suspend mode. If you
encounter problems with a card, remove and reinsert it.

    NOTE: Save-to-disk suspend mode requires a special file on your
hard-disk drive that sets
    aside enough disk space to store all system data. Dell creates an
appropriately sized
    save-to-disk suspend file before shipping the computer to you. If
you remove the file or add
    memory to the computer, or if your hard-disk drive becomes
corrupted, you must recreate the file
    before you can again use save-to-disk suspend mode.

The save-to-disk suspend file on your hard-disk drive can be accessed by
the operating system or
application programs. When save-to-disk suspend mode is activated, all
system data is stored in this file.

Use the following instructions to create a save-to-disk suspend file if
you are about to install a new
hard-disk drive, if you removed the file, or if you are rebuilding a
corrupted hard-disk drive. You might
want to print these instructions before you begin this procedure.

   1.If you have not done so already, use the Dell Program Diskette
Maker in the Dell Accessories
     folder on your hard-disk drive to create a program diskette set of
your system utilities and drivers.
     You need the System Utilities diskette to perform this procedure.
If you installed your own
     operating system, the utility is in the program diskette set you
received separately from Dell.
   2.Insert the System Utilities diskette into the diskette drive.
   3.Restart your computer and boot from the diskette drive.
   4.At an MS-DOS prompt, type a: and press <Enter>.

         NOTE: If you installed memory modules to increase system
memory, delete the
         save-to-disk suspend file before continuing with this
procedure. To delete the
         save-to-disk suspend file, type:

         PHDISK /DELETE /FILE

         at the MS-DOS? prompt and press <Enter>.

   5.Type PHDISK /CREATE /FILE and press <Enter>. The utility calculates
the size of the file
     based on current system requirements. The size of the file is
calculated in kilobytes. The file should
     be equal to the amount of system memory in the computer, plus 2 MB
to handle video memory and
     additional system requirements.
   6.Follow the instructions on your screen to create the save-to-disk
suspend mode file. To check the
     size of the save-to-disk suspend mode file, type PHDISK / INFO at
the MS-DOS prompt and
     press <Enter>.