lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (09/17/90)
In <9009180251.AA01055@astrod>, antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) writes: >Hello! > My hard drive has just started faintly whining. I noticed it making >a high pitch whine, so I quickly turned it off and then opened up the >case, looked at it, checked the screws, blew out the dust, and somehow >that shut it up. So I put it back together again. > However, minutes later, it started intermittantly making a whining >sounds, irregardless of whether it is being accessed or not. It's a >Supra 64 meg SCSI externally mounted to my A500 in a seperate case with >two bays (one empty) and a power supply and fan. I use a CLtd controller. > I'm keeping it on to grab all the non-backup recent stuff, hopefully >someone can help before it dies? What is wrong with it! > Email please unless EVERYONE cares about my drive. :-) Everyone who owns a drive cares about your drive, and why it's whining, and how to shut it up. :-) The most common cause of drive whine is the spindle grounding strap. They usually have a little carbon button on them that actually contacts the spindle. After a while, the button wears, and the straps will vibrate. It is not a cause for alarm, and is nothing more than an annoyance (a big annoyance, of course). What needs to be done is one or more of the following: 1. Change the tension on the strap... more or less pressure on the spindle. 2. Put some silicone rubber on the strap to change its resonant frequency. NOTE: NOT on the spindle or the carbon button! 3. Remove the strap. This will only work on some drives. If you don't know if it works on your drive or not, don't do it, or remember how you did it so you can put it back together. If your drive is not one that will allow this, the symptoms will be random read/write errors after a few minutes of operation, more so on dry days. 4. Smear a _small_ amount of conductive grease on the carbon button where it contacts the spindle. All this at your own risk of course. Know what you are doing, or consult someone who does. -larry -- It is not possible to both understand and appreciate Intel CPUs. -D.Wolfskill +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) (09/18/90)
Hello!
My hard drive has just started faintly whining. I noticed it making
a high pitch whine, so I quickly turned it off and then opened up the
case, looked at it, checked the screws, blew out the dust, and somehow
that shut it up. So I put it back together again.
However, minutes later, it started intermittantly making a whining
sounds, irregardless of whether it is being accessed or not. It's a
Supra 64 meg SCSI externally mounted to my A500 in a seperate case with
two bays (one empty) and a power supply and fan. I use a CLtd controller.
I'm keeping it on to grab all the non-backup recent stuff, hopefully
someone can help before it dies? What is wrong with it!
Email please unless EVERYONE cares about my drive. :-)
sandy
------------
Sandy Antunes antunes@ASTROD.psu.edu
"Then we'll be off. But remember, chaps, this is not just a matter of
life and death... this is a matter of style."jmeissen@ogicse.ogi.edu (John Meissen) (09/18/90)
In article <9009180251.AA01055@astrod> antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) writes: >Hello! > My hard drive has just started faintly whining. I noticed it making >a high pitch whine, so I quickly turned it off and then opened up the There is a small metal strap (usually copper-clad) on the bottom of the drive that rests against the drive spindle to bleed static from the spindle assembly. Quite often the action of the spindle rotating against this strap causes a whine or squeal. Extremely annoying,really. The cause is quite harmless, but I sure wish I knew a way to stop it effectively. The only way I know is to make sure the contact point is clean and hold it snug with a piece of scotch tape. -- John Meissen .............................. Oregon Advanced Computing Institute jmeissen@oacis.org (Internet) | "That's the remarkable thing about life; ..!sequent!oacis!jmeissen (UUCP) | things are never so bad that they can't jmeissen (BIX) | get worse." - Calvin & Hobbes
cseaman@sequent.UUCP (Chris "The Bartman" Seaman) (09/20/90)
jmeissen@ogicse.ogi.edu (John Meissen) writes: < antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) writes: < >Hello! < > My hard drive has just started faintly whining. I noticed it making < >a high pitch whine, so I quickly turned it off and then opened up the < < There is a small metal strap (usually copper-clad) on the bottom of < the drive that rests against the drive spindle to bleed static from < the spindle assembly. Quite often the action of the spindle rotating < against this strap causes a whine or squeal. Extremely annoying,really. < < The cause is quite harmless, but I sure wish I knew a way to stop it < effectively. The only way I know is to make sure the contact point is < clean and hold it snug with a piece of scotch tape. When I worked as a technician for AT&T, we had a (semi-)permanent fix for this problem. We used a syringe to place a small amount of graphite (which I believe was suspended in a viscous material) onto the strap. I used a drive which had this problem, and after the graphite application it ran for over two years without so much as a squeal. -- Chris (Insert phrase here) Seaman | o\ /o See cseaman@sequent.com <or> | || "Attack of the Killer Smiley"! ...!uunet!sequent!cseaman | \vvvvvv/ Coming Soon | \____/ to a newsgroup near you!
cs472119@umbc5.umbc.edu (cs472119) (09/21/90)
>sounds, irregardless of whether it is being accessed or not. It's a
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Do you mean not regardless ?ben@servalan.uucp (Ben Mesander) (09/23/90)
In article <42680@sequent.UUCP> cseaman@sequent.UUCP (Chris "The Bartman" Seaman) writes: [stuff about hard drive grounding strap squeal deleted] >When I worked as a technician for AT&T, we had a (semi-)permanent fix >for this problem. We used a syringe to place a small amount of >graphite (which I believe was suspended in a viscous material) onto >the strap. I used a drive which had this problem, and after the >graphite application it ran for over two years without so much as a >squeal. When I worked for Imprimis, we used to pull the strap off the drive. I've never had any problem with this approach. I find the squeal that the strap makes intolerable. What about corrosion due to the graphite lubricant? The reason you don't see graphite used so much as a lubricant anymore, is that it was found to be a major source of corrosion. I obviously cannot take responisibility for anyone pulling the ground strap off thier drive, but I've never had any ill effects. Followups to some hardware group, or by mail. This is _way_ off-topic for c.s.a ben@epmooch.UUCP