[comp.sys.misc] mystery squeaks

poulin@POLAR.BOWDOIN.EDU (Jeff Poulin) (12/01/90)

My 286 clone just picked up a bad habit.  It started making annoying
squeaks.  Not very loud, but high pitched and certainly audible in a quiet
room.  I can't tell if it's coming from the hard drive or the power source
but it sounds like a drive belt is slipping.  I can't seem to reproduce it
either.  Sometimes it's quiet and other times (like now) it squeaks
constantly starting slow at about 1 squeak/sec then building up to maybe
20-30 squeaks/sec then finally out of my audible range.  After a short
while, this process repeats.  It's not quite this regular.  The buildup is
erratic at times too (slow-fast-slow-slower-fast-slow-etc...)

I've owned this machine for 20 months and I'm just now getting this
problem.  I have a 200W power source spinning 2 hard drives and 2
floppies.  I use a mono monitor.  That's about it for power consumption.
Anyone ever had this problem before?  Any insights would be most welcome.
I'm getting to the point where I'm seriously considering getting extension
cables so I can bury the box in my closet!


-- Jeff Poulin
poulin@polar.bowdoin.edu
jpoulin@bowdoin.bitnet