[comp.os.vms] ra81 problems

george@vax1.UUCP (05/11/87)

Andrew Duggan writes in the DEC Professional (via the ARIS message system)
of May 1987, p22, that "... 68 degrees is too warm for 81s; try 60.". Mr.
Duggan was answering a query about HDA failures, a problem that anyone
with RA81s knows is a real pain. How many people agree that 68 is too warm
and could be a cause of trouble? I will summarize...

mangler@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu (System Mangler) (05/21/87)

In article <365@vax1.ccs.cornell.edu>, george@vax1.ccs.cornell.edu (George R Boyce) writes:
> Andrew Duggan writes in the DEC Professional (via the ARIS message system)
> of May 1987, p22, that "... 68 degrees is too warm for 81s; try 60.".

There is actually some sense to this.  Supposedly the RA81's reputation
for head crashes comes from a glue that vaporizes and recondenses on
the heads and platters, gumming them up until they finally crash.  The
vapor pressure of glue (or anything else) is higher when it's warmer.
(This should have been caught at "burn in" time, I would think...)

Since the glue problem is supposedly fixed, this may no longer apply.

Don Speck   speck@vlsi.caltech.edu  {seismo,rutgers,ames}!cit-vax!speck