gordon@island.uu.net (Gordon Kio) (05/02/89)
Hey Netters, Sorry for the disgusting string of acronyms in the subject line. Well, I went to work on my nice, new, SE30 yesterday and low and behold it just couldn't find the hard disk. Every time I restarted it or turned it on and off, the HD access light would start blinking and then slowly fade away. (Poor thing, it was really trying to find it.) I called a friend and he mentioned that discussions on problems with the SE30's 40 meg hard drives have been discussed here. One of the things he recalled was that some folks encountering the same difficulty found that letting their machine heat up helped. I left my machine on all day, checking it intermittently, and after about 15 hours it recovered. If anyone can give me info on similar or related problems they have heard of with this setup I would appreciate it. Also, does anyone know what Apple dealer's are doing to solve these problems? My mac is still under warranty and I would like to make sure it gets repaired correctly the first time. Thanks in Advance, Gordon Kio -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Gordon Kio || Island Graphics Corp - sun!island!gordon || (415) 491-1000 + + "Gosh, you got a lot of nice toys here" + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) (05/04/89)
In article <732@island.uu.net> gordon@island.uu.net (Gordon Kio) writes: >Well, I went to work on my nice, new, SE30 yesterday and low and behold it >just couldn't find the hard disk. Every time I restarted it or turned it on and >off, the HD access light would start blinking and then slowly fade away. >(Poor thing, it was really trying to find it.) I called a friend and he >mentioned that discussions on problems with the SE30's 40 meg hard drives >have been discussed here. One of the things he recalled was that some folks >encountering the same difficulty found that letting their machine heat up >helped. I left my machine on all day, checking it intermittently, and after >about 15 hours it recovered. I have an SEx with an 80MB internal drive, and yeah, this happened to me quite a bit when I first got the machine. Since I've got 5 Megs RAM in it, it takes a while to run through the memory check sequence; during the morning boot-up, after the RAM check finished, the drive would just blink, unable to find the drive. I would use the programmer's switch to reboot, and then it would boot up fine, no problem. Later restarts or boot-ups would work fine later in the day. As the weather has gotten warmer, this seems to have gone away; the SEx rarely "loses" the drive in the morning. I put it under the heading of "minor inconvenience", and let it go at that. "You're just absolutely right, and I'm absolutely wrong. It must be NICE to always believe you know better... to always think you're the smartest person in the room." "No, it's *awful*." --- Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, hplsla, thebes, microsoft}!fluke!moriarty CREDO: You gotta be Cruel to be Kind... <*> DISCLAIMER: Do what you want with me, but leave my employers alone! <*>
vogelei@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Todd Vogelei) (05/04/89)
In article <8070@fluke.COM> moriarty@tc.fluke.COM (Jeff Meyer) writes: >In article <732@island.uu.net> gordon@island.uu.net (Gordon Kio) writes: >>Well, I went to work on my nice, new, SE30 yesterday and low and behold it >>just couldn't find the hard disk. Every time I restarted it or turned it on and >>off, the HD access light would start blinking and then slowly fade away. >>(Poor thing, it was really trying to find it.) I called a friend and he >>mentioned that discussions on problems with the SE30's 40 meg hard drives >I have an SEx with an 80MB internal drive, and yeah, this happened to me >quite a bit when I first got the machine. Since I've got 5 Megs RAM in it, >it takes a while to run through the memory check sequence; during the >morning boot-up, after the RAM check finished, the drive would just blink, >unable to find the drive. I would use the programmer's switch to reboot, >and then it would boot up fine, no problem. Later restarts or boot-ups >would work fine later in the day. Well I thought it could never happen to me but this morning I went to fire up my mac II and low and behold it couldn't find the hard drive. Trying to run HD installer get me the "nothing in the SCZI slot" message. I popped the hood on the box to look at the drive and it was blinking its light a lot at start up but it would go out in about a minute and that would be that. Apple 40 M internal drive was about 6 weeks out of warranty. I tore the cords out of the back and raced to my nearest Computerland (90 miles away) and explained it is finals week and I'm stuck big time. They got me an extension on my warranty because of earlier service they had done (power supply and main board @ 87 days into a 90 day warranty) and chunked in a new drive in about 3 hours. Great guys these Computerland techs. I got lucky, I had done a full HD backup using Apples utility that comes with the machine only 9 days previously and laborously restored my files. It took about an hour. One floppy out of the 40 failed to restore properly the first time and only on one file that I recovered on a second try. I figure when the electronics go, not even Symantic can save you but I do want to get a good backup program and wonder what people are using and recommend. Also, it occurs to me that the guy who wanted the electronic equivalent of a postit, that would be a cool thing to have 'cause you could have it bug you every two weeks to back up the hard drive. Anyhow, I just thought I'd take this opportunity to remind you all to BACK UP YOUR HARD DRIVE *TODAY*! You'll be glad you did :) Todd vogelei@nmtsun
jwg1@bunny.gte.com (James W. Gish) (05/10/89)
I too, came in the other morning and my Mac II failed to see my internal Apple 40MB HD. My machine is less than a year old. We do much of our own maintenance here at the Labs, and the repairman was able to align the drive so that he could get off the few files that had changed since my last backup. He ran it all night without a hitch, but when he popped it back in my machine it failed again. So, it was sent back to Apple for repair. The repairman told me that the 40MB drives go out all the time. The 20MB and the 80MB seem to be much more reliable. He likes the Jasmine drives; he says they are very solid. -- Jim Gish GTE Laboratories, Inc., Waltham, MA CSNET: jgish@gte.com UUCP: ..!harvard!bunny!jwg1