glf@sppy00.UUCP (Hill) (03/25/89)
Hello ...
I was wondering if (and hoping that) one or two of you fine people out
there could help me with an odd problem I've been having?
Background Info
---------------
I have your basic generic 1 meg Mac+, a DataFrame 20 and one of those
Kensington fan/power switches which I bought *used* about 6 months ago. I
believe the units are about a year and a half old at this point. I'm
running System 4.3 (I think... definitely pre 6.0 but late enough to run my
new LaserWriter IISC). And I don't think this is one of the X-series
DataFrame drives, at least it doesn't say so on the front of the unit.
Let's see, what else might be significant? I've got the thing loaded to
about 18.5 meg now, and it's used mostly for small business stuff, as
opposed to major CAD or DTP stuff. It's on almost everyday, 2 to 6 hours
at a stretch.
The Problem
-----------
In the beginning, everything was working fine. I would turn on the
drive and the Mac and the IISC at about the same time with the switches on
the Kensington. The Mac would do its start-up stuff and then wait around
for the drive to come up to speed (while displaying the blinking-question-
mark) and then boot up.
A couple of months ago, it stopped recognizing the drive. The Mac
would just sit there waiting for a valid boot drive. After some playing
around I figured out that if I turned on the drive first, and let it come
up to speed, and wait for the access lights on the drive to stop blinking,
and *then* turned on the Mac, all went well.
Now, however, every third or forth time I turn on the system (using
the new method) the Mac refuses to recognize the drive. I turn everything
off and on again a few times, and eventually it takes. As it takes,
though, the Mac shows the smiley face, and then the drive grinds away by
itself for about 30-45 seconds before it actually starts transferring stuff
to the Mac.
So Now What??
-------------
Has anyone else heard of this kind of slow death for a drive? Does
this mean that my drive is going? That there's a bad controller? Loose
cables (although I've checked that)? Power problems (too little) from the
Kensington? The drive isn't making any nasty noises (although it may be a
bit louder than it used to be).
Any help you could E-Mail my way would be appreciated. And, thanks
for enduring such a lengthy tale.
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Greg Feldman-Hill {seismo|cbosgd}!osu-cis!sppy00!glf -or- glf@sppy00.UUCP
OCLC - Online Computer Library Center, Dublin, Ohio
"I like work; it fascinates me; I can watch it for hours."jdevoto@Apple.COM (Jeanne A. E. DeVoto) (03/28/89)
In article <214@sppy00.UUCP> glf@sppy00.UUCP (Hill) writes: >[...] > A couple of months ago, it stopped recognizing the drive. The Mac >would just sit there waiting for a valid boot drive. After some playing >around I figured out that if I turned on the drive first, and let it come >up to speed, and wait for the access lights on the drive to stop blinking, >and *then* turned on the Mac, all went well. > > Now, however, every third or forth time I turn on the system (using >the new method) the Mac refuses to recognize the drive. I turn everything >off and on again a few times, and eventually it takes. As it takes, >though, the Mac shows the smiley face, and then the drive grinds away by >itself for about 30-45 seconds before it actually starts transferring stuff >to the Mac. A question: when you shut down the system, are you using the Shut Down command in the Finder's Special menu, or just switching off the power? The 30-45 second "grinding away" may be due to the drive's having to recalibrate after a power-off. Another question: are you sure that power is getting to the drive (green light on) during these problems? It's possible that the power supply has a problem (e.g. an under-spec component) that is sometimes preventing the drive from starting up.