FW: [CUBE] Sonnet Encore processor upgrade

[sthub at abox7.so-net.ne.jp]

----------
From: sthub at abox7.so-net.ne.jp
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 08:35:48 +0900
To: <Cube at lists.themacintoshguy.com>
Subject: Re: [CUBE] Sonnet Encore processor upgrade

on 6/11/03 7:59 pm, Andra and Reid at arflock2002 at ybb.ne.jp wrote:

> I believe that I have to do some back peddling here.
> 
> I didn't believe you when you told me the story of the man in Nagoya.
> I too have had the power problem recently.  However, the system would
> start up and run 9.2.  Unfortunatley today, while still trying to run
> X, the dc dc board "popped".
> 
> I have no logical explanation as to why it happened.
> 
> Both OWC and Sonnet know that I ordered an upgrade for my cube in
> Japan.  I don't believe that they wouldn't know about international
> power concerns.
> 
> 
> At this point, I don't know what my next step is.
> 
> ...
> 
> 
> Reid
> 
> On Saturday, Jun 7, 2003, at 07:48 Asia/Tokyo, sthub at abox7.so-net.ne.jp
> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> I didn't think that either Sonnet or Powerlogix allowed its CPUs to be
>> exported overseas to private persons.  I thought that one had to buy
>> their
>> products through an Apple dealer, here in Japan.  Of course they are
>> much
>> more expensive buying them from an Apple dealer, as you probably know.
>> Thank you for the information.  However, regarding the Sonnet CPU
>> upgrades,
>> the man at the Apple dealer here in Nagoya informed me one day that
>> Apple
>> dealers throughout Japan are not permitted by the Sonnet head office in
>> Tokyo to install or otherwise service the Sonnet CPU upgrade for the
>> Cube.
>> The Nagoya man told me that the man at the head office of Japan Sonnet
>> had
>> tried to install the upgrade for the Cube and the Cube caught on fire.
>> The
>> man here in Nagoya further informed me that if I were to obtain a
>> Sonnet
>> upgrade for the Cube and installed it myself that no Apple dealer here
>> in
>> Japan would be authorized to service my Cube.  After this conversation
>> with
>> the Apple dealer, I looked at the Powerlogix and Sonnet CPUs that were
>> on
>> display in his showcase, and sure enough on the outside of the box of
>> the
>> Sonnet upgrade, the Cube icon which otherwise showed that that product
>> was
>> made to fit into the Cube had been crossed out.  I shall be interested
>> to
>> learn whether your new Sonnet 1.2 Cube will handle the increase in
>> power
>> that it it is bound to draw.  All the best.
>> 
>> sthub
>> 
>> 
>>To Reid,

    I am sorry to hear that you lost your Cube.  When the technician at the
Apple dealer here in Nagoya told me about the Sonnet upgrade causing a fire
in a Cube, I was hesitant, too, in believing him.  After all, there have
been many posts from Cube owners in the U. S. A. saying that they had been
successful with their Sonnet upgrades.  I thought maybe the Sonnet man in
Tokyo had just installed the upgrade, wrongly, that his incompetence had
caused the fire.  Yet, we know that there is a difference in the electrical
current between here and in America, and that the Japanese are a scrupulous
people, so when they decided to prohibit the Sonnet upgrade in Cubes
nation-wide for maybe that reason, I decided to wait.  You say that your
Cube ran well with OS 9.2 and that the DC-DC board "popped" as you started
using OS X.  I wonder whether OS X had anything to do with it, or whether
the board would eventually had burned out anyway had you continued running
your Cube with OS 9.  Actually, I am running my Cube with OS 9.2, and I do
not plan to upgrade to OS X.  I use my computer mainly for e-mail, surfing
the internet, word processing, and for playing the occasional game.  It
seems that if one stays with OS 9, then having a more powerful CPU is
unnecessary.  However, I was thinking that perhaps the Sonnet 800 MHz
upgrade would be adequate, and safe, to help speed up the scrolling speed in
word processor programs, to speed up the loading time for certain games, and
specifically to help this GeForce 2 video card that I have installed to
allow me to play "Medal of Honor" with more options.  However, after hearing
of your catastrophe, I am hesitant in installing even an 800 MHz upgrade.
About Other World Computing and Sonnet America not knowing about the Sonnet
policy here in Japan, and of the difference in the electrical current
between that of America and Japan, and failing to warn you, maybe neither
party knows about Japan Sonnet's policy of prohibiting Sonnet upgrades being
installed in Cubes here in Japan.  There is always that language barrier.
Or maybe O. W. C. was just too pleased to make a sale to double check with
Sonnet America, again, or maybe Sonnet America just hasn't bothered to tell
O. W. C. about the Sonnet policy in Japan.  Regardless, I hope that you will
be able to get your Cube repaired, somehow.  If not, and if your heart is
set on sticking with the Cube, I don't know about in Tokyo, but here in
Nagoya in two or three Apple computer shops there are used Cubes for sale
for less than a hundred thousand.  I know, that is still much money.  All
the best to you.  Thank you for the note.

sthub