Can we clear some things up here? I've got an A1G3SE direct from Eyetech, and from the dates given, I'd guess it's from the same batch that the OP got his from. There are no particular hardware problems, and I find it unlikely that his board was actually physically defective either. Software problems, yes, but that was to be expected, and this was explicitly stated.
Some people who are trying to confuse the issue should be reminded that, at the time, you could *only* get these things from Eyetech. There was no way to avoid knowing about the potential problems. None, no excuses. You had to work a bit to order one at all--it's not like you could walk into just any computer store and have them shoved in your face. That's still the case, and the software problems seem to be gone now.
Since my Amiga motherboard died a few weeks ago, I've had to use the AmigaOne as my main machine. (I do have an A1200, but it won't work with my accelerator so it's not much use to me at this point for anything other than old games. Which is fine, but it doesn't get any work done!) The worst I can say is that Konquerer has bombed out a few times. Since it's *only* Konquerer, and nothing else, that rather rules out hardware issues, wouldn't you say?
As has been pointed out, having a clue was in fact required for the early buyers, and to a lesser extent is still required now. You *can* and will mess things up by screwing around with stuff you don't understand. This does not mean that the hardware is broken or defective. What's kind of pathetic is that physically removing the ROM chip probably wasn't even necessary. I'm 99% sure that it could have been flashed, like I did mine. This is a fairly easy procedure, but again, it requires at least a small clue. I suppose in this case, they couldn't or didn't want to do it for whatever reason.
For the people saying, "the customer is always right"...well, yes, that's why this guy got the board in the first place, isn't it? Apparently against Eyetech's better judgement. What would you have them do, refuse to sell to certain people they think might be too stupid? Do you have any *IDEA* the screams of outrage that would provoke? And rightly so!
I suppose Eyetech probably isn't the very best company in the entire world, but it's *miles* above the situation we had with Phase 5. (Who delivered to me a non-functional CyberstormPPC, took months and months to repair it, and then had the nerve to charge me for repairs to a board that was defective when I got it.) Anyone who has a problem with Eyetech in this situation *obviously* only has an axe to grind and no logical reason for it.
--Eric
