Questions from a new X1000 owner and new OS4.x user
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:45 am
Hello all fellow X1000 owners & beta-testers. First let me vent my frustrations against FedEX for their terrible handling of my X1000 package and mistakes made in the Customs Clearance process, which delayed the delivery of my X1000 by an additional day (could have been worse and taken several days). Actually I would have preferred the delivery to take another week or two, if it meant that it would have been taken care of better by the FedEX and/or Customs staff.
My X1000 arrived around noon today, Hurray! The box it arrived in looked like the FedEX employees took turns dropping it off different trucks and dragging it through the dirt, as it no longer had any corners to what must have been at one time considered a "Box". It looked more like a brown cardboard heap that had been re-wrapped in cellophane to keep it from falling apart. The polystyrene foam inserts "Styrofoam" were in pieces from obvious impacts to the once rectangular box. I am amazed that the AmigaOne keyboard that was taped on top of the X1000 case box, survived the trip without being cracked, or crushed.
As I started to unpack the boxes, I knew that something was wrong right away, as tilting the box produced the sound of something loose inside of the X1000 case. Not a good sign and that, coupled with the terrible condition of the outside of the packaging, gave me an immediate sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. First I unpacked the keyboard and the extra RAM simms (a late addition to my order, which is why they were not installed inside the X1000). Everything looked okay so far.
Next I opened the box holding the X1000, the Fractal case box and noticed that the foam inserts were in pieces and something was loose inside the case. The top of the case has two dimples above where the optical drive is located. I removed the side panel and found the video card loose on the bottom of the case. Worse than that, the hard drive and the three caddies below it were dislocated, as if someone had stepped on the hard drive forcing it down into the caddies below it and dislocating three of them as well. It was sitting at an odd angle, but still connected to the SATA cable and power cable. The cage that holds the drive caddies was bent and scratched. My first thought was "how could the X1000 box have been dropped so hard that it could have caused such damage to occur?", but then I realized that it could not have happened that way. The damage had to have been caused by someone with the case open by exerting a great deal of weight, or pressure on top of the hard drive in it's caddie. Like someone stepped on it, or pushed down on it with their hand with a pressure of 75 to 100 pounds, or a sharp blow that imparted as much force. Who ever did it, knew that it had happened, either intentionally, or by accident, but closing the case back up and continuing with the shipping process, was obviously intentional and not an accident.
I am sure no one at AmigaKit would do anything like that, so it only leaves two other possible suspects, one of the FedEX employees, or the Customs Agent that did the clearance procedure.
Enough whining and complaining, but as you can imagine, I am very upset and angry about this situation. I have started the process to file a claim against FedEX and contacted AmigaKit about the problem, so I am sure it will be cleared up in due course.
Now to my questions:
1. Does AmigaOS4.1.5 support the DVI port on any video cards that are supported? When I hooked up my X1000 for testing (after getting over the shock of finding the damage), I first tried the DVI port and found that the initial Splash screen of brushed metal X1000 logo was displayed, but after that the screen went black and the power indicator of the monitor just flashed three times every 10 seconds or so. I was testing it on a 20-inch Apple Cinema Display, that only has one input that is a DVI connector, so I could not use a VGA cable with that monitor. I then turned the X1000 off and hooked it up to a 20-inch Dell widescreen LCD, using a VGA cable and it showed both the Splash screen and OS4.1.5 booting up just fine. I had considered using the X1000 next to my dual 2.7GHz G5 PowerMac, using a DVI KVM switch to share one of the two Apple 20-inch Cinema Displays and a USB keyboard, but if OS4.1.5 only supports VGA output from the included Radeon video card, I will have to re-think my setup.
2. When testing, the default video resolution that OS4.1.5 started up with was a 1024x768 screen size. I went into preferences and looked for a Radeon screen setting that matched the default Dell resolution of 1680x1050, but it was not available. Is there some way to create a new Radeon screen setting, so I can use the optimal screen resolution with my 20-inch Dell LCD monitor? If yes, how do I accomplish this new setting, without blowing up my monitor (I have always been cautious about making new monitor files on any of my computers, as I do not wish to ruin any monitors in the process by having an incorrect frequency setting).
3. I was going to contact AmigaKit while I was testing the X1000, but could not login to my AmigaKit account using either OWB, or IBrowse web browsers, as both of them gave me errors when trying to input my login name and password. The error message said something about California certificates. I tried several times, but could not get either browser to recognize or allow the certificates being used by the AmigaKit website, the USA store version of their site. Not being too knowledgeable about html, or web certificates, I don't know if I was doing anything wrong, or need to set up my X1000 differently. Any ideas?
I am sure I will have tons of questions over the next few weeks or months, so please be patient with me. If you are tired of my questions after a few days, just ignore them and let someone else answer. Thanks.
My X1000 arrived around noon today, Hurray! The box it arrived in looked like the FedEX employees took turns dropping it off different trucks and dragging it through the dirt, as it no longer had any corners to what must have been at one time considered a "Box". It looked more like a brown cardboard heap that had been re-wrapped in cellophane to keep it from falling apart. The polystyrene foam inserts "Styrofoam" were in pieces from obvious impacts to the once rectangular box. I am amazed that the AmigaOne keyboard that was taped on top of the X1000 case box, survived the trip without being cracked, or crushed.
As I started to unpack the boxes, I knew that something was wrong right away, as tilting the box produced the sound of something loose inside of the X1000 case. Not a good sign and that, coupled with the terrible condition of the outside of the packaging, gave me an immediate sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. First I unpacked the keyboard and the extra RAM simms (a late addition to my order, which is why they were not installed inside the X1000). Everything looked okay so far.
Next I opened the box holding the X1000, the Fractal case box and noticed that the foam inserts were in pieces and something was loose inside the case. The top of the case has two dimples above where the optical drive is located. I removed the side panel and found the video card loose on the bottom of the case. Worse than that, the hard drive and the three caddies below it were dislocated, as if someone had stepped on the hard drive forcing it down into the caddies below it and dislocating three of them as well. It was sitting at an odd angle, but still connected to the SATA cable and power cable. The cage that holds the drive caddies was bent and scratched. My first thought was "how could the X1000 box have been dropped so hard that it could have caused such damage to occur?", but then I realized that it could not have happened that way. The damage had to have been caused by someone with the case open by exerting a great deal of weight, or pressure on top of the hard drive in it's caddie. Like someone stepped on it, or pushed down on it with their hand with a pressure of 75 to 100 pounds, or a sharp blow that imparted as much force. Who ever did it, knew that it had happened, either intentionally, or by accident, but closing the case back up and continuing with the shipping process, was obviously intentional and not an accident.
I am sure no one at AmigaKit would do anything like that, so it only leaves two other possible suspects, one of the FedEX employees, or the Customs Agent that did the clearance procedure.
Enough whining and complaining, but as you can imagine, I am very upset and angry about this situation. I have started the process to file a claim against FedEX and contacted AmigaKit about the problem, so I am sure it will be cleared up in due course.
Now to my questions:
1. Does AmigaOS4.1.5 support the DVI port on any video cards that are supported? When I hooked up my X1000 for testing (after getting over the shock of finding the damage), I first tried the DVI port and found that the initial Splash screen of brushed metal X1000 logo was displayed, but after that the screen went black and the power indicator of the monitor just flashed three times every 10 seconds or so. I was testing it on a 20-inch Apple Cinema Display, that only has one input that is a DVI connector, so I could not use a VGA cable with that monitor. I then turned the X1000 off and hooked it up to a 20-inch Dell widescreen LCD, using a VGA cable and it showed both the Splash screen and OS4.1.5 booting up just fine. I had considered using the X1000 next to my dual 2.7GHz G5 PowerMac, using a DVI KVM switch to share one of the two Apple 20-inch Cinema Displays and a USB keyboard, but if OS4.1.5 only supports VGA output from the included Radeon video card, I will have to re-think my setup.
2. When testing, the default video resolution that OS4.1.5 started up with was a 1024x768 screen size. I went into preferences and looked for a Radeon screen setting that matched the default Dell resolution of 1680x1050, but it was not available. Is there some way to create a new Radeon screen setting, so I can use the optimal screen resolution with my 20-inch Dell LCD monitor? If yes, how do I accomplish this new setting, without blowing up my monitor (I have always been cautious about making new monitor files on any of my computers, as I do not wish to ruin any monitors in the process by having an incorrect frequency setting).
3. I was going to contact AmigaKit while I was testing the X1000, but could not login to my AmigaKit account using either OWB, or IBrowse web browsers, as both of them gave me errors when trying to input my login name and password. The error message said something about California certificates. I tried several times, but could not get either browser to recognize or allow the certificates being used by the AmigaKit website, the USA store version of their site. Not being too knowledgeable about html, or web certificates, I don't know if I was doing anything wrong, or need to set up my X1000 differently. Any ideas?
I am sure I will have tons of questions over the next few weeks or months, so please be patient with me. If you are tired of my questions after a few days, just ignore them and let someone else answer. Thanks.
