hrlaser@sactoh0.UUCP (Harv R. Laser) (08/20/89)
I've had a 20 Meg SupraDrive hooked (thru their 4x4 interface) to my A1000 for a couple years. It has, from time to time, developed read/write errors and if you have a hard drive you know what a pain in the ass that is. At any rate, I moved earlier this year to a part of California that is typically hotter in the summer than where I used to live and it's topped 90 here every day for the last month straight. Even though my home has air conditioning the nearest a/c vent is a good 20 feet from where my hard drive sits so the drive was always very warm when running. The frequency of r/w errors began to increase to the point where it made the drive virtually useless. After reformatting for the 3rd time in 3 days I decided enough was enough. I had purchased a muffin fan from Supra last year but had never installed it. I got the fan out of the drawer, invited over a friend who knows how to solder (I'm not yer basic hardware hacker... would probably have rendered a few of my fingers useless trying to solder the connections myself) and we installed the fan. My SupraDrive contains a MiniScribe 8425 and the external case was already pre-drilled for the fan's 4 mounting screwes, and inside the case we found two taped wires to connect the fan's two wires to. The installation took all of 10 minutes. The drive now runs COOL to the touch and I haven't seen a r/w error in days. The difference is amazing. Sexton bought a 30Meg external SupraDrive last year and his was a Seagate which already had a fan in it so I suspect Supra shifted gears somewhere along the line and started including installed fans. So IF you have an older SupraDrive with no fan and IF you get r/w errors THEN call Supra in Oregon, buy a fan from them and put it in. Worked for me. -- | Harv Laser | SAC-UNIX, Sacramento, Ca. | | Plink: CBM*HARV | UUCP=...pacbell!sactoh0 | | "The human brain is the only computer made of meat" |
barry@eos.UUCP (Kenn Barry) (08/23/89)
In article <1737@sactoh0.UUCP> hrlaser@sactoh0.UUCP (Harv R. Laser) writes: >I've had a 20 Meg SupraDrive hooked (thru their 4x4 interface) to >my A1000 for a couple years. It has, from time to time, developed >read/write errors and if you have a hard drive you know what a pain >in the ass that is. [Harv tells how he solved the problem by installing a fan in the HD case] I had virtually the same thing happen. A1000, Supra interface and box, Miniscribe 8425 drive. I got so disgusted with the errors that I bought a new drive for my A1000, a Quantum 80S, but since there was room for a second drive in the new, large, fan-cooled box, I had 'em put the Miniscribe in there, too. It works like a champ; no errors. The old Supra box was not only fanless, it was rather small, and overheated easily. Anyone having intermittent HD errors with this setup should invest in a fan. - QQQCLC - Kenn Barry ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ELECTRIC AVENUE: {most major sites}!ames!eos!barry ARPA: barry@eos.arc.nasa.gov
noel@uokmax.UUCP (Noel Scott Gorelick) (08/26/89)
In article <1737@sactoh0.UUCP> hrlaser@sactoh0.UUCP (Harv R. Laser) writes: >I've had a 20 Meg SupraDrive hooked (thru their 4x4 interface) to >my A1000 for a couple years. It has, from time to time, developed >read/write errors and if you have a hard drive you know what a pain >in the ass that is. <Stuff about put a fan in it and it works better deleted> Me too. I have put a small external fan on my drive for almost a year now. It cured my r/w errors too. (BTW, when I remove the fan for more than 10 minutes, it starts whining... Bad bearings? -- /* "Can you do something out of this world?" -- Supertramp ----You want it should sing too?------| noel@uokmax | ...!texsun!uokmax!noel <Dis-Claimer, Dat-Claimer, to look at | noel@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu 'em, you'd never know the diff...> | "Great Screaming Yak Snot!" */
billsey@agora.UUCP (Bill Seymour) (08/29/89)
From article <3666@uokmax.UUCP:, by noel@uokmax.UUCP (Noel Scott Gorelick):
: In article <1737@sactoh0.UUCP: hrlaser@sactoh0.UUCP (Harv R. Laser) writes:
::I've had a 20 Meg SupraDrive hooked (thru their 4x4 interface) to
::my A1000 for a couple years. It has, from time to time, developed
::read/write errors and if you have a hard drive you know what a pain
::in the ass that is.
: <Stuff about put a fan in it and it works better deleted:
:
: Me too. I have put a small external fan on my drive for almost a
: year now. It cured my r/w errors too. (BTW, when I remove the fan
: for more than 10 minutes, it starts whining... Bad bearings?
Could very easily be bearings... Most of the early Supra drives
are mounted upside down in the case. That made it easy for them to put
that little interface card in place for the cable. The drives do get
noisy pretty quickly though, and I don't know for sure what the drive
manufacturer says about it, but I'd be tempted to put your case on it's
side. It'll get a lot quieter, and I imagine it'll last longer too!
: --
: /* "Can you do something out of this world?" -- Supertramp
: ----You want it should sing too?------| noel@uokmax | ...!texsun!uokmax!noel
: <Dis-Claimer, Dat-Claimer, to look at | noel@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu
: 'em, you'd never know the diff...: | "Great Screaming Yak Snot!" */
--
-Bill Seymour ...tektronix!reed!percival!agora!billsey
...tektronix!sequent.UUCP!calvin!billsey
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