Aunc.1921 net.micro utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!mhtsa!harpo!chico!duke!unc!dce Sun Feb 28 20:13:42 1982 ZX81 Plea Sinclair Research LTD. One Sinclair Plaza Nasua, NH 03061 Dear Sirs, I recently received my ZX81 computer kit which my father ordered for me. After completing assembly, I found that the unit did not work. The television screen was blanked but no cursor appeared. I immediately turned the unit off and checked for soldering problems and found nothing wrong. I took the unit to my father, who is an electronics engineer and works with computers, and had him try to find the problem. He found that the clock oscillator in the logic IC was not working. At this point I decided to expect the worst and assume that I had broken the IC by not putting the kit together properly. I then located a person that had a working unit, and he agreed to open his computer and try to prove that the logic IC was the problem. We tried each of my ICs out in his working unit and each worked with the exception of the logic IC. We then tried out his ICs in my unit. At this point my case falters somewhat. When the working logic unit was placed into my board, my computer still did not work, but it did not work in a different way. The television screen was covered with black wavy lines, which showed that there was an additional problem. I feel that in this case, I have a defective logic IC, but I am not sure that I would want to send the unit in for repairs. If I send you the unit, I feel that I will be told that the logic IC was broken due to faulty wiring, and that I will be asked to pay $40.00 for a new IC in addition to any other repair costs. The fact is, I can not afford to pay any more for the computer than I already have. If I can get a new logic unit to replace the faulty one, I am sure that I could repair any other problems in the unit. If any other part of the kit is bad, I am sure that I can replace it easily and cheaply, but the logic IC is unavailable through anyone but your company. I hope that you will consider my case and agree to trade a working logic IC for my defective one so that I may finish my computer. Awaiting your reply, David C. Elliott c/o Donald E. Elliott Rt. 7, Box 125 Chapel Hill, NC 27514 This is my plea to Sinclair. Does anyone think it will work? (By the way, it is ALL true.) ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.