I turned into my driveway, rounded the long winding corner and looked towards the
front of the house.  There it was!  I could clearly see a package resting against
the door.  Sure enough!  Upon closer examination I discovered that the box
contained the long awaited ZipGSX (model 1600).  It was hard to believe that it
had finally arrived.  I'd placed my order back in August and it seemed that the
release date kept creeping further into the future.  But this was reality, wasn't
it?

The Zip GSX was well packaged and protected against killer static.  Actually, the
box contained just a few items:  the board, a chip puller, a 3.5" disk and some
instructions.  What did those instructions say?  I should boot my machine and
open RunMe.Sys16 from the included software in the finder environment.  I can
handle that, or so I thought.

Well there's the finder and what's this?  GS/OS isn't recognizing the disk and
I'm  receiving directions to initialize?  That can't be right.  The disk must be
defective; however, I've got the written instructions right here and I certainly
know how to read.

The documentation was quite clear and if you've installed a Transwarp GS in the
past, then the installation of the ZipGSX does not create a monumental problem.
Carefully take out the original CPU and it fits nicely in a storage area in the
ZipGSX board.  How convenient I thought.  Next, a connector from the ZipGSX fits
into the empty CPU slot.  Better be careful here; those pins look as if they
might be fragile.  Well, this turned out to be foreshadowing.

The ZipGSX may reside in any unused slot (1 to 4) on the Apple IIGS.  I just
happened to select slot three because of the location of other peripheral cards.
Upon completion of the task I snapped the IIGS cover back into place.  Now, the
moment of truth!

I booted the machine and I was taken right into the opening screen of "Wings."
However, there were these annoying tiny rectangular specks scattered about the
screen.  Most of them were blue, but some were black.  I know that isn't right.
Could it be that the connector is not seated properly?

Off can the cover and I worked on removing the connector.  Damn!  One of those
pins just got bent.  I'll just carefully ease it back into position.  Oh no, it
broke off!  But wait a minute, it looks as if pin number 21 isn't connected to
anything.  Then I made my first of many phone calls to technical support at Zip
Technology.  I explained the entire problem and  was assured that pin 21 had no
function at all.

Well, I tried all the suggestions.   I moved a variety of dip switches back and
forth,  I slowed the speed of the IIGS to "normal" using the control panel,  I
made certain that the connector was firmly in place, but it didn't make any
difference.  Technical representative, Tony, indicated that I had a power
problem.  He instructed me to remove as many as the peripherals that I could and
then boot the machine.  It didn't change a thing.

Tony stated that the problem was now beyond his area of expertise and referred me
to Steve.  Steve was much better informed and by using a combination of dip
switch changes and slowing the IIGS to "normal" the problem seem to be alleviated
for the moment.  Then I was feeling much better!

My feelings of contentment were only momentary.  As soon as my IIGS reached
normal operating temperatures the problem surfaced again.  I tried to perform a
backup using Prosel, but I kept getting an error while the backup disk was being
verified.  I check this same disk using the finder and Wings utilities and the
results were identical; no bad blocks.  I called Zip Technology again.

On this occasion it was decided that I should return the entire package for a
replacement.  I was given a return number and shipped the package out today.

Now, I don't want to draw any conclusions at this point in time.  I'm just
presenting my observations.  I know for a fact that I never experienced these
same problems with the Transwarp GS.  Did I make a mistake selling the Transwarp?
You be the judge.