mark@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Mark Turner) (05/03/90)
The internal Apple/Quantum 40Mb hard disk in my SE/30 is doing some funny things lately, and I'd like to know if anyone else has experienced the same problem. What happens is that when the computer is just sitting idle, the disk will begin making frantic seek noises. It sounds as if the heads are seeking back and forth across the disk at top speed. Even more strange, the amber "activity" lamp never lights up as this is going on. This leads me to believe that the hard disk itself is triggering this activity, rather than a Mac application or virus. I can often make it stop by doing something to make the Mac read from the hard disk, such as launch a program or open a file. But when it really becomes a problem is when I shut down. More often than not the disk decides to freak out when I shut down. I hate to turn off the power when the disk is still seeking, but sometimes I have no choice. The disk works properly in all other ways. No data loss or other problems. One final note: the disk did this occasionally almost from day one, but never when I brought it in to the dealer. Now that it's out of warranty it's gotten worse. I could still qualify for Apple's 1/2 price warranty extension, but now the damn thing is doing it so much I don't think it will pass the manditory health check. Any help would be appreciated. Mark Turner mark@hpcilzb.hp.com
mark@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Mark Turner) (05/04/90)
Thanks to all who helped me out on this one. The general consensus is that the ROM in the drive is responsible for this strange behavior. My drive contains the new ROM, which was supposed to fix the famous "sticky lubricant" problem. A side effect of this is random seeking during idle periods. Unfortunately, mine seems a bit overzealous. I'm going to try a remedy suggested by phaedrus@u.washington.edu: > I'm told there's a fairly-reliable method of making this go into > remission; get one of those hard-disk checkers that does a random seek test > (if you tell your dealer about the problem, maybe they'll give you a copy of > Apple's HD diagnostic program), and leave it running for two or three hours. > This will thoroughly distribute and loosen up the lubricant; the ROM can sense > this somehow, and stops doing the head-thrash. If this doesn't work, I'm going to scream like hell at Apple and the dealer (who did nothing about the problem when it was under warranty) until I get some satisfaction. The computer is only six months old. Mark
ROSS.ROBERTS@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (ROSS ROBERTS) (05/06/90)
I have an SE/30 with the same problem/action. The only thing different I
can tell is that mine started doing it quite frequently after I had the
PROMS in my hard drive replaced- I have one of the questionable Quantum
P40S'. If you hear anything from anyone else, please pass it along! It's
unnerving!!
YO! YO! YO!
Ross R.
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