nor1675@dsacg2.UUCP (Michael Figg) (10/20/89)
I've got a couple of interrelated questions about an ST277N-1 (Seagate) and
possible problems with external power supply to a B2000.
1. An old St277N died about 6 weeks ago, possibly of a power surge. This
drive was replaced with a newer ST277N-1 (I think it was '-1' but maybe
'-2', anyway it's 28ms). As soon as the new drive was installed it
started to make occasionally sporatic access sounds, usually when the
machine is on, but not being used. The sounds don't sound 'bad' and only
happen approxiametly every 5 or 6 minutes for about 1 second. It seems
like a problem like this was mentioned in the past but I don't
remember if it was the newer ST277N-1. Any help on this?
2. Second problem. About 2 weeks after new HD was installed, the machine
died totally. Specifically the internal power supply died and took
the HD controller with it (an adaptec). The power supply was replaced
and the controller upgraded to the new Kronos 2000. At the same time
I had the Super Agnus and 1.3 rom (for autobooting) installed. Now
that the machine is back together, it is still making the HD sounds.
Another (maybe) related sound is the printer occasionally resetting
for no apparent reason. I noticed that this printer did this also
while I was watching football last Sunday and the Amiga was *NOT* on.
This led me to start thinking about the wiring in my apartment. After
talking to friends about this I bought a little 3-wire circuit tester
and tried it on the circuit my machine was on. It showed the hot/neutral
contacts interchanged on the outlet that I was using. Although other
outlets on the circuit check out ok, I moved the machine to another
circuit anyway. The HD is still making its' sounds, but the printer
hasn't, although I only left the printer on a couple of hours. Even
though I (obviously) am not much of an electrical hacker, I have an
old Volt meter here and checked both the old (bad) and new outlets
and they both swed about 123 V (I assume the meter is off slightly).
I watched the meter as the HD made its' sounds and it didn't move.
Any ideas on the problems here?
The environment here is an apartment building only about 10 - 15 years
old. The top outlet on the bad receptacle had an extension cord with a
lamp, VCR, and cable box plugged in. The lower outlet had an Isobar
surge protector with the B2000, a 1080 monitor (with VCR hooked into,
to use as a very decient TV), the printer, and a modem.
Thanks for any help and sorry about the length but there were lots of
facts to list.
--
"Hot Damn! Groat Cakes Again Michael Figg
Heavy on the thirty weight!" DLA Systems Automation Center
Columbus, Oh.
(614)-238-2446 (Temporarily)roadman@portia.Stanford.EDU (arthur walker) (10/21/89)
In article <749@dsacg2.UUCP>, nor1675@dsacg2.UUCP (Michael Figg) writes: .. > drive was replaced with a newer ST277N-1 (I think it was '-1' but maybe > '-2', anyway it's 28ms). As soon as the new drive was installed it > started to make occasionally sporatic access sounds, usually when the > machine is on, but not being used. The sounds don't sound 'bad' and only > happen approxiametly every 5 or 6 minutes for about 1 second. It seems > like a problem like this was mentioned in the past but I don't > remember if it was the newer ST277N-1. Any help on this? Remember, SCSI devices are intelligent devices. Seagate's idea of what an intelligent device should do in the way of housekeeping evidently involves full range seeks - or track recalibrations - every few minutes. The drive light doesn't go on because it's none of your business, out there on the host end of the SCSI connector. It's easy to come up with reasons to do this, but which were Seagate's principal ones I don't know. My willful drive is a 157N-1, so it's not limited to drives of the 5.25" HH form factor. art walker roadman@portia.stanford.edu