Xorg@cup.portal.com (Peter Ted Szymonik) (04/28/89)
The best information I can give you is that the lower quality the
drive mech, the more noise it will be bound to make. MicroSciences's
tend to be extermely noisy, Seagates and Miniscribes are your average
drives and can be dead quiet or noisy depending on the manufacturing
and each drives peculiarities, Quatums, Rodimes, and CDC's are the
elite drives and are dead quiet, fast, and stores lots of
information, but they also command a premium price and you're not
likely to find any of them in an assembled drive. (Supra uses
Miniscribes and Fujis, ICD uses Seagates.)
Noise can also be hard to pin down. It could come from poor
grounding at the outlet, the whine of the drive spinning (which I
really hate), or the sound of the stepper motor moving. The noise
could also be caused by a fan rather than a drive. But I'm starting
to run on.
There are ways to quiet a drive. I personally put mouse pads or
thick towels under my drives. Its deadens the noise level and absorbs
any shocks my desk may take - just be careful not to block any fan
vents. ICD drives allow cables up to 6 FEET in length thanks to their
excellent shielding and electronics so you can put the drive under the
table or anywhere else in reach where as with Supras you are limited
to their 16" cable so the drive will be right in your face.
The best advice I can give is to listen to the drive first and see
if you like it, if you don't then send it back and try again. Always
remember that while the company is just looking to sell drives, you
have to live with the drive (and any noise it makes) for the next few
years!
Ok, onto the good stuff.
Before you do anything take youre shoes off, this will prevent static
shocks that can damagae electronics. Clear a nice workspace and put a
towel down to prevent shocks to the hard drive, one nice bump on a
hard table could spell disaster.
** Use Supra's PARK.PRG and park your drive's heads. **
This will prevent damage should the drive slip and bump something.
You may also want to be extra safe and do a backup, can't hurt and
your drive could probably use one anyway <grin>.
What your about to do isn't hard, just remember to work slowly and
keep things in order. Get a small container for the screws, a pad
with a pencil so you can write stuff down (like drawing diagrams of
where the cables are connected to the boards and drives - a MUST do)
and a Philips and flat head screw driver. Oh yes, you also need the
sticky tape.
We're off!
1 - After parking the drive heads and disconnecting the drive bring
it to your workspace.
2- Remove the screws that hold the top of the hard drive case and
SLOWLY lift the top off. The reason I say slowly is because
there are LED wires conencted to the top of the case and if you
yank the top off you will yank the wires off and have to get out
a soldering iron.
3- Lay the top of the case down next to the drive being careful of
the LED wires. If you look down on your drive you will see this:
__________________
TOP /---| | |
VIEW / | A | B | front of drive
# | | |
|______|___________|
---------------------
SIDE ____| power aaaaaaaaa |
VIEW / | ccccccccc | front of drive
/ | supply dmdmdmdmd |
# | dmdmdmdmd |
---------------------
Under the mess of cables you will find the power supply (A) in the
back of the case, and the the adaptor board (a), the controller board
(c) (if an RLL drive), and the drive mech itself (dm). The boards are
screwed on top of the drive and you have to remove these to get to the
anti-static tab.
4- Ok, the best thing to do now is STOP. Get the drive's power cable
and WHILE UNPLUGGED connect it to the drive with the top off. Make
sure that the drive is OFF and plug in the cable being VERY SURE
that NOTHING is inside the case like a screwdriver or your hand.
Most of the electronics run at a mere 12 volts, but there are some
very dangerous currents in the back of the case in the power
supply area.
5- Turn the drive on and carefully listen to it. Is the noise coming
from the drive mech or the fan?? If its the fan then put
everything back together and call Supra to order a replacement
fan, if its coming from the mech then next step.
6- Ok, the best thing to do now is STOP AGAIN and draw pictures of
where the cables connect to the boards, get to know the inside of
the unit so you know where everything goes when your putting it
all back together. This isn't really hard to do. If you have an
RLL drive there will be one 50 pin cable at the front end of the
controller board that is wrapped under the drive and connects to
the back of the adaptor board, and then there should be one 34 pin
cable and one 20 pin cable that connect to the back of the hard
drive and to the back end of the controller board. There should
also be one 20 pin that connects from the back of the hard drive
to the adaptor board on top.
If you have a SCSI drive there will be no controller board and only
one 50-pin cable from the adaptor board to the hard drive. I am
going to assume that you have an RLL. Also notice that I'm working
from a Supra 30meg drive, the 20 may be a bit different, but
regardless your goal is to get to the top of the hard drive
itself.
5- Next step is simple, remove the screws that hold down the adaptor
and controller boards, be careful not to lose any screws and to
keep all the white washers (and remember where they go - drawing
time again!)
6- Now that the boards are free SLOWLY and CAREFULLY remove the all
the ribbon cables (you did draw where they connect right?) using
as little force as possible, a small screw driver may help, but DO
NOT use the circuit board for leverage or it may crack, just try to
get the head of the screwdriver under the edge of the cable
connector and pull up, pliers may help too, just be careful, they
may be hard but they do come out.
7- Working your way down, remove cable connectors until you can pull
the boards far enough away to get to the top of the drive. There
may also be a white card just before the hard drive itself, it is
easily removed, but be sure to RE-TAPE the metal tab part back to
side of the drive when you are done! Right smack in the middle of
the hard drive's circuit board will be your goal, a small copper
tab that sits atop a small hole in the board.
This is the anti-static tab.
8- Cut a piece of sticky tape that will cover the tab and the hole.
Place it directly on the tab and press down firmly but not too
hard. Operation is now complete!
9- Work your way backwards restoring the card and taping its metal
tab, restore the cables and circuit boards, replace the washers
and screws, put the top back on (watch the LED wires so they're
not cut) - YOU'RE DONE!!
10- Reconnect the drive to the computer and give it a shot. You
should notice that any high pitched whine will be gone because
the anti-static tab is doing its job again! If the noise that
was bothering you is still there then there is nothing to be done
except get a new drive, but most Supra drives noises are cured
with this simple operation.
If you need more help or something doesn't look right, then stop and
go back - leave me mail or call Supra, they'll be more than happy to
help as well. I hope this does it for you!
Regards
Peter Szymonik
rbbsuser@bdt.UUCP (HENRY KWAN) (05/02/89)
> > and each drives peculiarities, Quatums, Rodimes, and CDC's are the > elite drives and are dead quiet, fast, and stores lots of information, > but they also command a premium price and you're not likely to find any > of them in an assembled drive. > I agree that Imprimis (AKA CDC) drives are among the 'elite' but quiet they're not. They are very noisy but for that kind of performance, who would mind a few extra decibels? By the way, Jasmine filed suit against Rodime. They are claiming that Rodime was shipping them bad drives in order to reduce the value of Jasmine's stock so a hostile takeover could be started. > > If you need more help or something doesn't look right, then stop and > go back - leave me mail or call Supra, they'll be more than happy to > help as well. I hope this does it for you! > First time I ever heard of a manufacturer encouraging their customers to take apart their products. Doesn't this usually void the warranty (if any is left, of course) that came with the product? Henry Kwan -=- ...{claris!ucsfcca}!wet!logic "I don't know if you can read this but I had to try to reach the net..."
Xorg@cup.portal.com (Peter Ted Szymonik) (05/03/89)
Re: Supra and opening the drive... While its true that opening the case will void the warranty, most drives won't start making noise until the warranty is up anyway and the alternative to the simple sticky-tape procedure is to send the whole drive back and have Supra do it. A lot of noise in a drive can usually also be coming from the fan - which is also a simple plug out, plug in procedure. Pete Peter Szymonik Xorg@cup.portal.com