Riddle me this. After Castle released details of their stability fix for Iyonix users, the hardware developer company quickly confirmed that they'll do the necessary modifications free of charge. The motherboard modifications required users to cut tracks and solder patch wires to solve problems with the Iyonix sound and reset sub-systems. Not for the faint hearted but nevertheless, Castle will take care of it as well they should.
But Advantage6, aka Stuart Tyrrell Developments, have other ideas. For a mere fifty quid, which doesn't even include carriage, they'll do the hardware fix for you. Yes, that's right, pay nothing or pay fifty pounds sterling. Witness the power of choice in our modern democratic market.
Ad'6, who are working with Simtec Electronics, promise to test of your Iyonix prior to the rework, strip down the machine, fit the PCI 32-bit jumper and the reset line modification, plus reassemble your machine, test it thoroughly and presumably post it back. Which is basically what we'd expect Castle to do too, funnily enough.
We'd be very interested to hear if STD fiddling with Iyonix motherboards invalidates users' warranties, which is a very real concern. Having said that, a Castle employee told Iyonix users this weekend that the Simtec team would be "very competent" at carrying out such modifications and that any manual work around the stability fix 'area' wouldn't invalidate your warranty - although the situation appears to be unclear.
It was also revealed that it'd take no more than 40 minutes tops to complete all the stability modifications, for one machine.
Clearly we're missing something here so feel free to correct us - until then, we'll have to recommend that users stick to Castle for any official modifications.
Update at 16:33 3/2/2004
Having had a chat with the Advantage6 gang, it all seems clear now. According to Advantage6, it boils down to this: On the Iyonix support list, some users complained about having to ship their machines to Castle to get the modifications put in place. Castle responded by suggesting that they ask their local dealer for help and also named Simtec as a company that should be able to carry out the fixes. Except, it appears they didn't really check this with Simtec, who then faced a flood of enquiries. Advantage6, being a more RISC OS facing company, then arranged to take care of the matter and sort out the issue of payment because people need paying for their time, which is fair enough.
AdvantageSix also pointed that they're making a loss on the 50 quid a machine pricing.
Links
Ad'6's Iyonix Stability Motherboard Update
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