support

Software & manuals for customers

We supply software & manuals with many of our products. If you need extra copies, please email our sales department.

Technical support

Microbus provides full technical support for all its products. Customers' suggestions often lead to product enhancements as well as solutions for individual problems, and your satisfaction with our products and services is obviously very important to us.

Before you contact us to ask a question, report a problem, or suggest an improvement to a product, please read the manual. We make the books as clear, concise, and complete as possible: they answer many of the questions asked of our technical support staff.

Information you can provide

If the answer is not in the manual, please email, write, fax, or phone us for help. When you phone with a technical question, it is useful if you can provide:

• The board number. This has 6 digits and is shown on the component side of the PCB, usually along the edge opposite the edge bracket. Examples of Microbus board numbers are 840001 and 767002.
• The serial number of the product. This is shown on a bar-code label, usually fixed near the top edge of the PCB on its component side. Examples of Microbus serial numbers are M0041232 and M0036521. From the serial number, we can find out the product specification.
• The BIOS revision number. This is displayed when you start up a system containing a Microbus processor card. An example of a BIOS revision number is 4.05.01.
• The version number shown on the title page of your manual. Examples of these numbers are 0.20 and 1.10.
• The configuration of the product, including details of Setup entries.

If you prefer to contact us by email, letter or fax, it is helpful if you can include as much of this information as possible. We may also need to know:

• what hardware is installed in your system
• what operating system and software versions you are using
• and, on DOS systems, what your autoexec.bat and config.sys files contain.

Support for your customers

When your customers have technical questions, we prefer them to contact you, their supplier, in the first instance. You can then pass on the question to us for a solution if necessary, and we will provide the answer to you, so that you can give it to your customer. This enables us to provide our OEMs with full support, and ensures that you deal directly with your own customers and are fully aware of their concerns.

Copying software

Microbus produces some software, such as the Custom BIOS program, for distribution to our OEM customers. We supply only one copy of each program, free with your first order for the product concerned.

If you would like to make copies of Microbus software, you can obtain copyright permission from us, by completing and returning a software copyright form. Permission is normally granted without charge.

Copying and distributing books

Microbus supplies only one copy of each manual to OEM customers. We supply this copy free with your first order for the product concerned. If you would like further copies, you can:

• Order them from Microbus, at a cost of £5 per copy, including postage and packing. An order form is included in this appendix.
• Obtain copyright permission from Microbus, to make extra copies for your customers. Permission is normally granted without charge, when you have completed and returned a copyright permission form.
• Obtain the source files for the manuals from Microbus. The manuals are produced in Corel&REG Ventura^TM and are provided on 3.5 inch diskette. A completed copyright permission form is required.

Microbus also publishes a range of product leaflets. If you would like copies of these, please contact Sales.

Customer service

If you need information about deliveries, or want to change an order, please contact our sales department.

Microbus products carry a one year warranty from date of purchase subject to Microbus terms and conditions. This warranty applies to the original purchaser of the product.

If you do not install the product properly, misuse it, abuse it, or damage it accidentally, the warranty may not apply. If you modify or try to repair the product, or allow this to be done by anyone except a member of Microbus staff, the warranty is invalid, and Microbus can assume no liability in these circumstances.

We hope that all our products provide reliable service over a long time, and we test all of them extensively before they are shipped to you. If you find that a Microbus product is unsatisfactory, or needs to be repaired, please let us know immediately.

Return notes

To expedite the repair, and clarify a fault or problem, please include a return note which shows:

• The serial number and description of the product.
• The reason for its return.
• The circumstances in which a problem or fault was found, including other hardware in the system and the type and version numbers of software on the system.
• The name of the person whom we can contact to clarify the fault, if this is necessary.
• Your company's name, address, phone and fax numbers.

Repairs in warranty

During the warranty period, repairs are free.

Repairs out of warranty

If you wish Microbus to repair a board on which the warranty has expired, please contact Sales.

You may wish to send the board, with a return note, to us for a free estimate of the repair cost. We will contact you to let you know how much the repair should cost, so that you can authorise the expenditure before work begins. We can also estimate how long the repair is likely to take.

Your comments

We welcome your comments or suggestions of ways to improve our products, web site and books. If you discover any errors or omissions, please let us know what they are, so that we can put them right.