draper@cpsin3.uucp (Patrick J Draper) (07/19/90)
My hard drive (65 Meg ST277R-1) started making a whining noise, very high pitched. I remember reading about a static dissipator or something like that, but I don't know what that is, or even if it could be causing my problems. Can somebody help me out? Patrick Draper ---- Michigan State University
harper@convex.com (David Harper) (07/19/90)
In article <1990Jul19.052138.18577@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> draper@cpsin3.uucp (Patrick J Draper) writes: >My hard drive (65 Meg ST277R-1) started making a whining noise, very >high pitched. > >I remember reading about a static dissipator or something like that, but >I don't know what that is, or even if it could be causing my problems. > >Can somebody help me out? > >Patrick Draper ---- Michigan State University There is nothing at all unusual about a hard drive making a buzzing sound - many of them do it sooner or later. The problem (almost always) is the static grounding strap on the bottom of the drive. If you will turn the drive over (so that you are looking at the side with the PC board) you should see where the shaft sticks out of the housing. Sitting on top of the shaft should be a small piece of flexible metal with a carbon button which actually makes contact with the shaft. The other side of the metal should be soldered to ground on the PC board. The purpose of all this is to bleed off any static charge that may build up on the rotating shaft. This approach has been used on almost all (winchester) drives ever made and there is still a raging debate as to whether it is even necessary. Some people even remove the straps when they start getting noisy and report no problems afterwards. I personally like the idea of having the straps there (I'm an EE with a deep respect for the damaging effects of static). The solution I have used on a couple of different drives with great success is to bend the metal slightly to one side so that the shaft makes contact with a slightly different part of the carbon. I have also heard that just pulling up on the strap a few times and letting it snap back into position will also work. With any luck this should fix you up for quite some time - I have yet to have a repeat on either of my drives and even the most recent was better than two years ago. Dave Harper - Convex Computer Corp. E-mail address: 3000 Waterview Pky. Richardson, TX 75081 harper@convex.COM (214) 497-4525 (W) (214) 727-4206 (H)