kid@right (Bob Mitchell) (03/22/89)
Over the past several months I have had hard disk problems, and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what could be wrong and how it could be fixed before I went out and replaced it. The problem started when I got back from Christmas vacation and went to power the computer back up. The computer wouldn't boot from the hard disk until it had been on for about an half an hour. At first I just thought it was maybe because the computer was physically cold (the heater in the basement where we kept the computer was broken and it was probably about 50 degrees down there). Then we started getting random, intermittant hard disk failures. These weren't too serious, and never caused any real problems (except listening to the drive seek to track 0). Then, about two months later, we decided to move the computer up stairs. After we moved it, we found out the power supply was shot, as the computer took several minutes just to power up the screen and floppy, let alone the hard drive. Anyway, after getting a replacement power supply from AT&T, the hard disk wouldn't boot at all. After looking at the error messages (with EF=4) I decided for some reason the drive probably wasn't getting enough power. Sure enough, after I disconnected the fans the hard drive worked better, but still worse than it had before the power supply had been replaced (after that I did reconnect one of the fans - the other one was not spinning very freely). I tried everything I could think of, from reformating the disk to cleaning the dust out of the interior of the computer. It finally got to the point where things were starting to crash because of the hard disk problems, at which point I shut it all down. A couple of possible reasons for this occur to me. Could anyone discredit them, provide new ones, or tell me what can be done about them? 1) The new power supply might also be bad. I find this unlikely, because I believe the one they sent me is new, not rebuilt. 2) Something may be draining extra power from the power supply. My best guess as to what this might be is that the disk is not spinning as freely as it should. 3) Something may be wrong with the mechanics of the disk, such as the drive motor, or the seek arm. The latter seems possible, because the disk only seems to have trouble when it must seek. If it does a read straight through the disk it works fine (or did before the problems got really serious - I haven't tested it since then). It's only when the access pattern is more random (e.g. when the system was actually running) that I was having problems. Thanks, Bob Mitchell
kid@right (Bob Mitchell) (03/22/89)
Oops. I didn't include my .signature. You probably want to reply to one of these addresses, as the machine I am posting from is rather local. Thanks again, Bob Mitchell. -------------------------------------+-------------------------------------- God loved you enough to die for you. | uucp: ...!uw-beaver!uw-june!kid Will you live for him? | arpanet: kid@larry.cs.washington.edu -------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
mikebe@i88.isc.com (Michael G. Beirne) (11/19/90)
Hello, I am having problems formatting a MiniScribe 6085 Hard drive. With the enhanced diagnostics it does seem to format the drive,( it clicks for each cylinder and the numbers count down from 1024) but at the end it complains with the message: Test : Hard disk test( Drive 0 ) Subtest : Format. Error : Winchester: Can't Write the new VHB:Response = 10 Enter y [Y] to Abort, Return to continue: If I just hit return it says that VHB write failed. Disk need to be re-initialized. The Disk tests complain about not being able to recalibrate the drive. I have tried these with two different hard drives and used the MiniScribe 6085 in another system with no problems, so it does not seem to be the drive. Should I just stretch my budget and buy someones dead/used system and try to cobble something together? Or does someone know from this description where I should look for bad signals/chips? I am good with a soldering iron and oscilloscope so this is not too daunting a task. -- mikebe@i88.isc.com or beirne@chinet.chi.il.us