evan@ndcheg.UUCP (Evan Bauman) (01/14/88)
Perhaps there's someone out there who's had a similar experience and knows how to fix it. The configuration is a PC's limited Turbo XT. It has 2 floppy drives (1 5.25 drive, 1 3.5 drive) and a 20 MB hard disk. At first, I installed a FlashCard 20MB disk-on-a-card. The disk then started developing bad sectors at an alarming rate. I would back up what I could, re-format and re-load the software, but this continued. Since the PC is located in a less-than-ideal location; e.g. smoke-filled secretary's room, I assumed that the environment was destroying the disk. I replaced the FlashCard with my own Seagate ST 251 20MB disk which was in my own Turbo-XT for a year and which gave me no problems. The disk worked well for several months, but lately has been developing problems of the 'abort, retry, ignore' type. The error messages are transient. Sometimes the data is there; sometimes it's not. First I thought the problem might be heat-related. I had them run it with cover off for a while, but this didn't help much. Now I've got them replacing the power supply. Has anyone encountered a similar problem? Do I have to replace the disk with one that is more 'durable'? What is a more durable disk? I should point out that this machine is extremely heavily used. Thanks in advance for any help. Evan Bauman Univ. of Notre Dame ..!iuvax!ndcheg!evan
las@apr.UUCP (Larry Shurr) (01/19/88)
In article <349@ndcheg.UUCP> evan@ndcheg.UUCP (Evan Bauman) writes: >transient. Sometimes the data is there; sometimes it's not. First >I thought the problem might be heat-related. I had them run it with cover >off for a while, but this didn't help much. Now I've got them replacing >the power supply. Evan, Don't know if your problem is head-related or not, but I have found that running with 'skins off' is not necessarily cooler or at least enough cooler. I once had a cantakerous 5 Mbyte drive which WOULD NOT work after warming up (about 20 minutes) when installed even with the cover off. When I unmounted and set the drive atop the power supply (which was just a handy flat place, no special significance otherwise) it would work fine after a few minutes of cool-off time, even if I kept power on through the move from down in the chassis to up on top (yes, I know, dangerous to heads to move spinning disk - it did work, though). regards, Larry -- "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." - Oscar Wilde, James Whistler or George Bernard Shaw depending on who you ask Name: Larry A. Shurr (cbosgd!osu-cis!apr!las or try {cbosgd,ihnp4}!cbcp1!las) Disclaimer: The above is not necessarily the opinion of APR or any APR client.
berger@clio.las.uiuc.edu (01/21/88)
When you run with the cover off, your machine doesn't have the
air circulation that the engineers (ostensibly) designed, so it
may actually cool LESS effectively than if you leave the cover on.
Mike Berger
Center for Advanced Study
University of Illinois
berger@clio.las.uiuc.edu
{ihnp4 | convex | pur-ee}!uiucuxc!clio!berger