tainter@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Tainter) (01/19/88)
I'm experiencing some odd behaviour with my ATARI SH204 hard disk.
Does anyone recognize these symptoms:
On what seem to be random disk accesses (reads AND writes) my
drive does what sounds like the initialization procedure it goes
through on power up and the disk operation fails. If I then
redo the disk operation immediately it has no problem.
Sometimes I will go for long intervals with no occurence other
times I'll take one of these hits every couple of minutes.
Also, when the disk gets moderately full (3/4) seeks can take as
long as 30 seconds and I think i've had some take considerably
longer though I never timed any longer than 30. Is this
reasonable behavior?
I am trying to get an idea of what the problem may be and if I can fix
it without having the unit repaired. To date I have not opened the unit
to check cable connections and chip seating. I have checked the external
cable and it is firmly connected.
--j.a.taintermed@druhi.ATT.COM (DrapalME) (01/20/88)
in article <4655@ihlpg.ATT.COM>, tainter@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Tainter) says: > > I'm experiencing some odd behaviour with my ATARI SH204 hard disk. > Does anyone recognize these symptoms: > > On what seem to be random disk accesses (reads AND writes) my > drive does what sounds like the initialization procedure it goes > through on power up and the disk operation fails. If I then > redo the disk operation immediately it has no problem. > > Sometimes I will go for long intervals with no occurence other > times I'll take one of these hits every couple of minutes. > > Also, when the disk gets moderately full (3/4) seeks can take as > long as 30 seconds and I think i've had some take considerably > longer though I never timed any longer than 30. Is this > reasonable behavior? > > I am trying to get an idea of what the problem may be and if I can fix > it without having the unit repaired. To date I have not opened the unit > to check cable connections and chip seating. I have checked the external > cable and it is firmly connected. > > --j.a.tainter Well, I would suggest that you open the case and try to re-seat any socketed chips in the drive controller (Atari rule of hardware #1 ;-)). If that fail to help (I really don't think that it will), you may have discovered Atari rule of hardware #2: Never, under any circumstances, allow more (power, buffering, current, memory - you pick one ;-)) than absolutely necessary. It seem to me, after looking at some of the hardware designed by Atari, that they know very little about power supply design. In almost all cases, they have chosen a power supply that will just barely (on a very good day) supply enough current to drive the given hardware. It sounds to me like the hard drive is sensing the power drop-outs, and is attempting to re-initialize. I could be wrong here, but I would try to get a stronger supply and see if the problem goes away (any PC power supply will work fine - I've gotten tired of the Atari power problems and have re-packaged my entire ST - floppies, hard drive, system board into a PC/XT case plus supply. This improved the overal performance of my system markedly - no more unexplained crashes, I don't have to boot it 3 times to get it to come up once, etc.). I hope that these suggestions will get your hard drive back on the right track - no pun intended. Myron Drapal AT&T Denver ..!ihnp4!druhi!med