Crawley@ALDERAAN.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (Eric S. Crawley) (05/04/88)
[I'm not one to send messages like this but this irritates me so that I thought I should share it and possibly warn others.] Exactly 92 days after purchasing my SH204 hard disk, it failed to spin up. Of course, the 90 day Atari warranty had just expired along with my drive. The drive would start to spin up and then a relay would click in and spin it down. As usual with this kind of failure, it came at the most inappropriate time. My wife had just put the final edits on several long papers earlier in the day and I was planning to do a backup after she printed them out. So now I'm stuck with a dead SH204 that the repair shop says they might be able to save, the repair bill that follows, and a frantic wife. Regardless of whether I get the data off the SH204 or not, I'm getting rid of it and buying a Supra 20MB drive. At least it is smaller and quieter. Hopefully, it will be more reliable. I still like my ST, I just don't have any faith in Atari hard disks anymore.
singer@XN.LL.MIT.EDU (Matthew R. Singer) (05/04/88)
In article <19880504130143.5.CRAWLEY@FLIGHTLESS-WATERFOWL.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>, Crawley@ALDERAAN.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (Eric S. Crawley) writes: > [I'm not one to send messages like this but this irritates me so that I > thought I should share it and possibly warn others.] > > Exactly 92 days after purchasing my SH204 hard disk, it failed to spin > up. Of course, the 90 day Atari warranty had just expired along with > my drive. The drive would start to spin up and then a relay would click > in and spin it down. As usual with this kind of failure, it came at the > most inappropriate time. My wife had just put the final edits on > several long papers earlier in the day and I was planning to do a backup > after she printed them out. So now I'm stuck with a dead SH204 that the > repair shop says they might be able to save, the repair bill that > follows, and a frantic wife. > > Regardless of whether I get the data off the SH204 or not, I'm getting > rid of it and buying a Supra 20MB drive. At least it is smaller and > quieter. Hopefully, it will be more reliable. I still like my ST, I > just don't have any faith in Atari hard disks anymore. As much as I love to rant and rave about Atari's poor QC and complete/total lack of support (not to mention vaporware), you really can't blame this one on them. I too had an SH204 die (although after a year, not 90 days), but you have to remember that for the hard disk, Atari just buys someone elses and sticks it in their case. The only thing they really make is the DMA line interface. Just out of curiousity, my SH204 had an NEC drive in it. What did yours? Since we know Atari didn't single source it... M. Singer Commnet Systems
rosenkra@Alliant.COM (Bill Rosenkranz) (05/06/88)
In article <19880504130143.5.CRAWLEY@FLIGHTLESS-WATERFOWL.SCRC.Symbolics.COM> Crawley@ALDERAAN.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (Eric S. Crawley) writes:
->Exactly 92 days after purchasing my SH204 hard disk, it failed to spin
->up. Of course, the 90 day Atari warranty had just expired along with
->my drive. The drive would start to spin up and then a relay would click
->in and spin it down.
a very similar thing happened to me...
Gee, a 90 day warranty. how novel! as a "registered developer", i was told
by atari that because i get a "break" on equipment costs (i also buy 3-5
times more equipment than a "typical" user) i get only a 24 hour warranty.
consider yourself lucky. i saved $75-$100 on the initail drive purchase (i
bought 2 SH204 for the 3 1040's and 5 or 6 odd monitors i have) and
after having to pay atari about $250 for a trade-in PLUS cost to ship,
i did not really save ANYTHING, now did i? to top it off, the first replacement
drive was defective as was the SECOND! the third one is still sitting in
a box (i haven't even tried it out...i'm using a borrowed drive which
i know to be reasonably reliable. i can't afford to loose another few
days work).
i wouldn't count on the Supra to be any more reliable than the atari. i know
several people who have had problems with them, also. i have heard that
the astra drives are built "like brick (fill-in-the-blanks)...", being
almost hardened (mil spec)! if they use the same drivr mech and boards,
i can't see how they could be any better, however, unless really packaged
will (cooling, dust, shock mount, etc).
-billDaveFlory@cup.portal.com (05/06/88)
> thought I should share it and possibly warn others.] > Exactly 92 days after purchasing my SH204 hard disk, it failed to spin > up. Of course, the 90 day Atari warranty had just expired along with Just curious, did you try contacting the dealer, or Atari? I have heard a lot of just out of warrantee stuff being replaced while in the vicinity of customer service.
wes@obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes) (05/07/88)
In article <19880504130143.5.CRAWLEY@FLIGHTLESS-WATERFOWL.SCRC.Symbolics.COM>, Crawley@ALDERAAN.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (Eric S. Crawley) writes: > Exactly 92 days after purchasing my SH204 hard disk, it failed to spin > up. This sounds like a problem with the disk itself. You might want to check and see if the drive manufacturer has a long warranty than Atari does. Many hard disk manufacturers have 1-year warrantys. If it is a problem with the disk, the manufacturer will repair it for you if it is still under warranty. > Regardless of whether I get the data off the SH204 or not, I'm getting > rid of it and buying a Supra 20MB drive. At least it is smaller and > quieter. Hopefully, it will be more reliable. I still like my ST, I > just don't have any faith in Atari hard disks anymore. Funny, I sold my Supra hard disk to buy an Atari SH204, becaus the Atari was so much quiter. Have you listened to a Supra lately? Supra makes good products, but don't expect miracles from them, or any other hardware manufacturer for that matter. If you had gotten the same drive in a Supra box, it would have failed there, too. Just out of curiosity, was your SH204 one of the older ones with a Seagate ST225 disk in it? -- /\ - "Against Stupidity, - {backbones}! /\/\ . /\ - The Gods Themselves - utah-cs!uplherc! / \/ \/\/ \ - Contend in Vain." - sp7040!obie! / U i n T e c h \ - Schiller - wes
kevin@kjvw.UUCP (Kevin VandeWettering) (05/11/88)
In article <1718@alliant.Alliant.COM>, rosenkra@Alliant.COM (Bill Rosenkranz) writes: > In article <19880504130143.5.CRAWLEY@FLIGHTLESS-WATERFOWL.SCRC.Symbolics.COM> Crawley@ALDERAAN.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (Eric S. Crawley) writes: > ->Exactly 92 days after purchasing my SH204 hard disk, it failed to spin > ->up. Of course, the 90 day Atari warranty had just expired along with > ->my drive. The drive would start to spin up and then a relay would click > ->in and spin it down. > > a very similar thing happened to me... > I have an SH204 that is 18 mos. old and going strong. It has never crashed of it's own accord. I have always had very good luck with Atari hardware. As with any hard-disk, you can break them really easy, but if you don't bounce them, they seem to be pretty reliable. I don't know anything about Supra drives, but I never heard any complaints from the people I've known that owned them. They "seem" (sound) like better machinery than an SH204. kevin@kjvw "If it ain' broke don't fix it"
Crawley@ALDERAAN.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM (Eric S. Crawley) (05/11/88)
Date: 6 May 88 07:06:42 GMT
From: portal!cup.portal.com!DaveFlory@uunet.uu.net
> thought I should share it and possibly warn others.]
> Exactly 92 days after purchasing my SH204 hard disk, it failed to spin
> up. Of course, the 90 day Atari warranty had just expired along with
Just curious, did you try contacting the dealer, or Atari? I have heard
a lot of just out of warrantee stuff being replaced while in the vicinity
of customer service.
I did contact the dealer and they said it was not possible. I should
have talked directly to Atari though. It turns out that the index
sensor on the disk was dead so the disk could not find out the position
of the heads. The repair shop borrowed a sensor from another disk and
managed to get the data off the disk. A new sensor will be installed
later this week. I picked up a Supra drive last week since I couldn't
wait for the Atari disk to be fixed. It is much quieter than the Atari
drive.
Anybody want to buy a slightly used SH204 drive?btb@ncoast.UUCP (Brad Banko) (05/14/88)
In article <5157@cup.portal.com> DaveFlory@cup.portal.com writes: >> thought I should share it and possibly warn others.] >> Exactly 92 days after purchasing my SH204 hard disk, it failed to spin >> up. Of course, the 90 day Atari warranty had just expired along with > >Just curious, did you try contacting the dealer, or Atari? I have heard >a lot of just out of warrantee stuff being replaced while in the vicinity >of customer service. my original mouse went bad on me at about 4 months... i noticed that it was "made in taiwan"... i ordered another through the mail from B&C on the west coast... it is "made in japan", and is much better made (i opened both of them up.) i also wrote to atari to complain, and they DID send me a replacement mouse (no questions asked), but it is also "made in taiwan", and has some of the same symptoms that my original mouse had before it failed (not moving the pointer the direction that you move the mouse!) when i was in college, i took a statistics course, and, as with other courses, i learned much about the real world through the homework problems... one of them was about "memoryless" distributions, and what i "learned" from that problem was that solid state electronics have "memoryless" failure distributions, which means that if they don't fail within the first 90 days, they won't fail under normal conditions (statistically speaking, of course). i have always taken this as a comfortable justification for the 90 day warranties that we get in consumer electronics products, BUT... there's more than solid state electronics in a hard disk drive... there are electromechanical mechanisms, not to mention the "industrial" abuse factor like IBM builds into their equipment (or used to)... you might be able to drop a PC on the floor and it would still work (not the hard disk, probably, though)... try that with an ST (I still love my ST!) (and treat it gently) -- Brad Banko Columbus, Ohio (formerly ...!decvax!cwruecmp!ncoast!btb) btb%ncoast@mandrill.cwru.edu "The only thing we have to fear on this planet is man." -- Carl Jung, 1875-1961