CompuServe Messages

Steve, I have had a Ricoh Rmovable that worked fine off a GVP HC/8 and original rev their Faastprep and 3.5 omni ROM under dos 1.2. Then I added a GVP 030 combo. Still worked ok. Then I added 32 bit mem to the combo card, upgraded (per thier manuyal) to a later rom rev (4.3) to get the "extended" memory disk access and accessing the ricoh became a crap shoot. Changing termination changed the symptoms, but the problem remained. GVP, for the longest time, hid behind the "oh, 4.1 motherboard – even CBM calls that non-standard – thats your problem." Then my first Toaster would not start-up when I attached a BB to input one. It took 3 weeks of convincing before NewTek issued an RMA to return the board, again stating the the 4.1 MB was the problem. Turned out to be the Toaster as the replacement one worked fine ever since. So, the reason I wanted to upgrade was so I could bypass that 4.1 MB blow-off routine when I needed support. BTW, it turns out that most of the Ricoh problems were due to two things: a component in the ricoh blew, and the GVP software tries to treat it as a SYquest ignoring the sectoring info returned by the ricoh drive. They apparently also handle bernoullies as syquests as well. Consequentley due to differneces in Low Level command parameters, their software logically destroyed 7 ricoh removable at $120 a crack. The only way I found this out was due to the work of a local Ricoh removable OEM/VAR who packages unix based document imaging systems and had lots of diagnostic and repair capacity. They got Ricoh to replace 4 of my carts, they rehabed one and the other two were actually physically damaged and they are trying to get Ricoh to replace those for me too. GVP denied the problems with thier software to the point of telling me they didn't even have the source code to FaastPrep (right, like they are that dumb to toss it or not to own it even tho a contractor built it for them) or a scsi bus analyzer to be able to tell me the parameters their LL Format command sent to the drive. Thier head of tech support was supposed to (after a one hour haranguing phone conversation – basically a GVP litany of dneial) do a simple test and call me back to tell if my problem was unique to my set-up or not. The test was to LL FOrmat a Ricoh cart using FaastPrep expert mode. Its been several months – I've not heard a peep! They are going to be SOOOOoooo unhappy to see me at WOCA Pasedena this year when I walk in with my Ricoh drive and tell them to demonstrate to the nice folks how to LL format a removable following the steps in their docs…. :^} wmc – via Autopilot!