msl5864@ritcv.UUCP (Michael S. Leibow) (04/21/88)
Last summer I bought a 20Mb SupraDrive from Supra Corporation. I was
very happy with its operation for the first 3 1/2 months.
I started to get frequent read/write errors from DH0:. I thought it might
be due to thermal expansion of the platters. I turned the drive off until
the next morning. I reformatted it after making a backup. I restored the
backup but still had read/write errors frequently. After about a week
of this I called Supra.
They told me to send it in. I sent it in and they replaced the hard drive,
but sent me back the same interface. After about two weeks of use, the drive
started to randomly reset or spin down. I called back Supra and they told
me to check for a virus. I had no virus and neither did my hard drive. I
don't use any public domain software unless I can compile it on my own or
get it from USENET (a pretty reliable source). They consented to replace
it again. They replaced the harddrive and the interface card. I have been
using the thing again for about 3 weeks, and it now either has read/write
errors, or loses the partition information.
Upon advice from the guy from Supra, I have Grounded four pals on the daughter
card of my amiga, and installed a fan that he sent me.
After I made the mod to my amiga, I tried it without the hard drive but with
1 Mb (CLtd) of memory on the Expansion bus. The amiga continued to work
perfectly. I then hooked up the hard drive, and it could not mount DH0.
I rewrote the partition information, and the drive worked ok for about 5
minutes and then had a read/write error. I started a reformat with the
map option on. The drive formatted, and then during the verication process,
when the drive got to cylinder 40, 101 errors were registered. The SupraFormat
program stopped and said it could not continue because of the errors.
I am going to call Supra tomorrow and ask them to replace it again.
From the story I have just told, what do you think the problem might be?
1) Ungrounded pals? (I still have problems and they are grounded)
2) Thermal breakdown (neat words for the damn things too hot)
3) Something else wrong with my amiga? (The expansion memory aMega
from CLtd. works perfectly).
4) Maybe the guy never replaced the interface card like he said and
there is somthing wrong with it. It may send flakey signals
to the drive. Could have caused the random resets with drive
number 2? (not number 1 or 3 though).
5) I have a curse against me that says computer equipment will work
flawlessly until the warantee runs out. (My 8520's and
internal floppy went bad on the 91'st day of my Amigas life.
this happened before I ever owned memory or hard drives)
Oh, by the way,
SUPRA has been very nice to me. They only charged me for the initial
repair. Even if their suggestions may have been wrong, they did
replace my drive quickly twice. (and hopefully a third).
I am not complaining about SUPRA and I don't think that their equipment
is trashy. I think I just had bad luck.
--
Michael S. Leibow
UUCP: {allegra,seismo}!rochester!ritcv!msl5864
CSNET: msl5864%rit@csnet-relay.ARPAcjp@antique.UUCP (Charles Poirier) (04/22/88)
In article <409@ritcv.UUCP> msl5864@ritcv.UUCP (Michael S. Leibow) writes: >minutes and then had a read/write error. I started a reformat with the >map option on. The drive formatted, and then during the verication process, >when the drive got to cylinder 40, 101 errors were registered. The SupraFormat ^^^^^^^^^^^ Oh no, it couldn't be, could it? The Delay(0) bug? It is known for trashing floppies' track 40, but could it possibly be nailing hard disks too? That's a horrifying thought! -- Charles Poirier (decvax,ihnp4,attmail)!vax135!cjp "Docking complete... Docking complete... Docking complete..."
braun@thumper.bellcore.com (David A. Braun) (04/22/88)
In article <> msl5864@ritcv.UUCP (Michael S. Leibow) writes: > >Last summer I bought a 20Mb SupraDrive from Supra Corporation. I was >very happy with its operation for the first 3 1/2 months. I've had mine for a similar amount of time and have had no problems since I got i working to start with. Note that I only bought the controller. I already had several SCSI drives laying around (140MB until I get fired!). >I started to get frequent read/write errors from DH0:. I thought it might >be due to thermal expansion of the platters. I turned the drive off until >the next morning. I reformatted it after making a backup. I restored the >backup but still had read/write errors frequently. After about a week >of this I called Supra. Sounds real familliar. Being a little gutsy I asked if it would void the warrantee if I openned the box up and measured the supply voltage. He said no - I did - BAD! They had shipped me a controller with an extra 1MB of ram (one of the options I didn't ask for but ..). This apparently was sucking the power supply dry. Especially when I added my 2MB MEGABOARD II ram expansion! Removing the Supra ram fixed it all. > > ... > >From the story I have just told, what do you think the problem might be? > > 1) Ungrounded pals? (I still have problems and they are grounded) Not a bad idea anyway. CBM did a really lousy job on laying out the power and grounds on both the mother board and the daughter boards. There is a LOT of noise on the expansion port supply lines. I ran the extra grounds all the way back to the connector were the supply connects to the mother board. > 2) Thermal breakdown (neat words for the damn things too hot) who? the drive, the SCSI controller or the main box? By the way, I assume you have an A1000 since your talking about pal grounds etc. > 3) Something else wrong with my amiga? (The expansion memory aMega > from CLtd. works perfectly). sounds familliar. the amiga is probably alright. > 4) Maybe the guy never replaced the interface card like he said and > there is somthing wrong with it. It may send flakey signals > to the drive. Could have caused the random resets with drive > number 2? (not number 1 or 3 though). give 'em a break. until you have real evidence - believe him. Personally I mark stuff I ship back just to detect this kind of horse puckey. > 5) I have a curse against me that says computer equipment will work > flawlessly until the warantee runs out. (My 8520's and > internal floppy went bad on the 91'st day of my Amigas life. > this happened before I ever owned memory or hard drives) my friend and yours - god murphy. > >Oh, by the way, > SUPRA has been very nice to me. They only charged me for the initial > repair. Even if their suggestions may have been wrong, they did > replace my drive quickly twice. (and hopefully a third). > I am not complaining about SUPRA and I don't think that their equipment > is trashy. I think I just had bad luck. > >-- >Michael S. Leibow Same here - they really try to get things working for you. You might try checking the supply voltages. anything less than 4.8V is definitely suspect. There is too much noise for any less. sorry but you'll have to find your own testpoints. I don't want to open my box unless I have too. My living room carpet generates too much static. dave braun
hcmutt@hpcllld.HP.COM (Harry Muttart) (04/23/88)
Since it worked well for a reasonable time, perhaps something in your
environment has changed (like POWER). I have an ISOBAR between my amiga
and the power line at home. This has eliminated many sporadic problems.
Harry Muttart (* I do not work for the company above, but the power in my
house is now mostly scrubbed clean...
*)