[comp.sys.next] Noisy Hard Drives

lastole@athena.mit.edu (Lars A Stole) (06/12/91)

I recently purchased a 400MB slab from University of Chicago's Campus Computer Store.  Unfortunately, as others have warned, the drive makes a very high-pitched whirring sound.  I also have a 200MB slab, and there is a noticeable diference!  

I was under the impression that NeXT was replacing these noisy
drives for something a bit quieter -- which is why I didn't
hesitate to buy the 400MB machine.  In fact, in a posting not too
long ago, I remember someone saying that they returned their
machine to NeXT and had the drive replaced with the new quieter
model at no charge.  I tried to do this, but my campus rep said
that NeXT wouldn't replace the drive, and furthermore, that NeXT
never had such a policy in the past!  They did say, however, that
they were working on some sort of sound baffle to place on the
drive, which would be ready in about a month.  At that time, I
could return my machine and get the baffle installed.  

Has anyone else heard anything about this?  It seems very odd to
me.  Is NeXT's approach of convincing people to wait and not send
in their machines just a way for NeXT to avoid the problem. 
Although I've been very happy with NeXT and their products,  when
NeXT says it'll be ready in about a month I don't believe them. 
[I'm still waiting on the extended floppy set which was due to
ship in Janurary!]

Lars Stole
MIT, Dept. of Economics

eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (06/12/91)

In article <1991Jun11.195443.11592@athena.mit.edu>
	lastole@athena.mit.edu (Lars A Stole) writes:
>                                    In fact, in a posting not too
>long ago, I remember someone saying that they returned their
>machine to NeXT and had the drive replaced with the new quieter
>model at no charge.  I tried to do this, but my campus rep said
>that NeXT wouldn't replace the drive, and furthermore, that NeXT
>never had such a policy in the past!

We received a machine with one of the bad drives, and our
tech support people said "they're all like that, replacing
it won't change anything."  We told them we didn't believe
them.  So we sent the machine back, and our local support
person said he couldn't find anything wrong with it!  But
it was still as noisy as ever.  It turned out that he
actually couldn't hear the particular frequency the
drive was squealing at, even though we all could.  So we
sent the machine back with instructions to replace the
drive anyway.  Know what?  It came back QUIET.

All I can suggest is, "be persistent."

					-=EPS=-