dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) (04/12/88)
I've got a Priam 60mb disk which is behaving a little strangely these days
upon power-up. Ordinarily, several seconds after turning the power on,
I hear a characteristic "boing" which I assume is the heads retracting,
the BIOS self-test succeeds, and my system boots. These days, it may take
several power cycle attempts for this to happen; more often, I don't hear
anything, the BIOS reports a disk failure, and I fall into cassette BASIC
(this on a 386 souped-up AT!)
Anyone have any idea what's going on? I'm getting wary of having to shut my
machine down for board swaps/upgrades...
--
Steve Dyer
dyer@harvard.harvard.edu
dyer@spdcc.COM aka {ihnp4,harvard,husc6,linus,ima,bbn,m2c}!spdcc!dyerjcmorris@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Joseph C. Morris) (04/13/88)
In article <839@spdcc.COM> dyer@spdcc.UUCP (Steve Dyer) writes: >I've got a Priam 60mb disk which is behaving a little strangely these days >upon power-up. I don't know if it's the same problem as yours, but a few years ago I got a new 20 meg HD (Miniscribe, I think...I don't recall for sure) which worked fine on the dealer's system but wouldn't spin on my machine although the original 10 meg IBM unit worked fine. (The disks are in an expansion chassis on a verrry low serial PC-1.) A few hours on my workbench disclosed that the true-blue power supply was putting out a small but noticable spike when it was turned on, which was causing the disk drive to fail to start. Delaying the application of either +5 or +12 to the drive would result in a good start. A "temporary" bypass was to install a small 12v relay to delay application of +12 to the drive by a few msec. The problem was apparently in the drive, since I've since replaced the 10 meg drive and had no problems with power. Hope this helps...good luck.
abcscnge@csuna.UUCP (Scott "The Pseudo-Hacker" Neugroschl) (04/15/88)
In article <839@spdcc.COM> dyer@spdcc.UUCP (Steve Dyer) writes: >I've got a Priam 60mb disk which is behaving a little strangely these days >upon power-up. Ordinarily, several seconds after turning the power on, >I hear a characteristic "boing" which I assume is the heads retracting, >the BIOS self-test succeeds, and my system boots. My parents have a similar problem on an generic XT clone at home (we are talking truly generic... no nameplates anywhere, the only BIOS signature I can find is "DNA" -- appropriate for a clone, no?). On a cold boot, and ONLY on a cold boot, the system powers up, does the meory test, whirrs for a while, and either hangs, or returns a 1701 (HD) error. A CTRL-ALT-DEL or hitting the big red switch solves the problem, and then it is fine for the rest of the session. Any ideas what this is? I know that 1701 is a HD error, but what exactly does it signify? Incidentally, my parents have the (I think good) habit of parking the disk before powering down. Thanks in advance... -- Scott "The Pseudo-Hacker" Neugroschl UUCP: ...!ihnp4!csun!csuna!abcscnge -- "They also surf who stand on waves" -- Disclaimers? We don't need no stinking disclaimers!!!
las@apr.UUCP (Larry Shurr) (04/20/88)
In article <1142@csuna.UUCP> abcscnge@csuna.UUCP (Scott "The Pseudo Hacker" Neugroschl) writes: >In article <839@spdcc.COM> dyer@spdcc.UUCP (Steve Dyer) writes: >>I've got a Priam 60mb disk which is behaving a little strangely these days >>upon power-up. Ordinarily, several seconds after turning the power on, >>I hear a characteristic "boing" which I assume is the heads retracting, >>the BIOS self-test succeeds, and my system boots. >My parents have a similar problem on an generic XT clone at home... <Hangs or returns 1701 (HD) error on cold boot. Big red switch cures with further difficulty> >I know that 1701 is a HD error, but what exactly does it signify? >Incidentally, my parents have the (I think good) habit of parking the >disk before powering down. I speculate that the BIOS may not be waiting long enough for the initial recalibrate operation to complete before attempting to boot. These small disks have "open-loop" positioning in which the hardware and software can't tell where the heads are over the disk surface unless they are over track (or cylinder if you prefer) 0 where a 'track zero sensor' is activated which gives us a signal we can read on the interface. To know where the heads are, we must keep track after issuing a recalibrate command to get the heads safely to zero. The recalibrate works by stepping the head slowly towards the outer edge until track zero is reached. This is done slowly so that the head assembly and carriage will not ram the stop which keeps them from moving off the working surface of the drive platters, which might otherwise cause mechanical damage to the drive. Since your parents routinely park the heads, they are also maximizing the recal time. Rigging up a reset switch and/or getting a revised BIOS which allows more time for the recal would be a good idea as using the big red switch (I assume you mean powering down and then back up) is negating anything gained by parking the heads in the first place - they might as well not park the heads except when moving the machine as it stands right now. regards, Larry -- Who: Larry A. Shurr (cbosgd!osu-cis!apr!las or try {cbosgd,ihnp4}!cbcp1!las) What: "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." Where: _The Portrait of Dorian Gray_ - Oscar Wilde (thanks Glenn) Disclaimer: The above is not necessarily the opinion of APR or any APR client.