tin@smsc.sony.com (Tin Le) (11/10/90)
In article <1990Nov9.202105.26802@melb.bull.oz.au> sjg@melb.bull.oz.au (Simon J. Gerraty) writes: >We have just had another 327Mb (WREN-IV) die on one of our 386i's here. >I am wondering whether there is some fundamental problem with >these disks (that would be strange as the Sun sales rep assurred >me the reason they were so expensive was all the >quality testing done... :-) or whether in fact it is a fault in >the SCSI controller or driver in the 386i. Several years ago at another company, I went through 2 WREN-IVs on my 386i (within 6 months). After talking with the Sun Service person who came out to replace the drive, I gather that there is a ventilation problem in the 386i cabinet. I know from experience that when I open up the case, it is very hot inside. The dead drives were hot enough to fry eggs on :< when I look inside (the cabinet) in an attempt to get them working. Both drive were so dead that I could not even get them to spin up, the heads must have "fused" themselves to the platter! Sun might (or might not) have redesigned the cabinet since then, I don't know as I have not used a 386i since I left that company 2 years ago. I'd advise you to find someone to keep the inside of your 386i cool. That would probably help keep the drives from dying. Good luck. -- Tin -- .---------------------------------------------------------------------- . Tin Le Work Internet: tin@smsc.Sony.COM . Sony Microsystems UUCP: {uunet,mips}!sonyusa!tin . Work: (408) 944-4157 Home Internet: tin@szebra.uu.net
sjg@melb.bull.oz.au (Simon J. Gerraty) (11/10/90)
We have just had another 327Mb (WREN-IV) die on one of our 386i's here. I am wondering whether there is some fundamental problem with these disks (that would be strange as the Sun sales rep assurred me the reason they were so expensive was all the quality testing done... :-) or whether in fact it is a fault in the SCSI controller or driver in the 386i. The original WREN-IV in my 386i died less than 12months old. I replaced the disk with a WREN-IV sourced through Bull. It was cheaper than the quote from CDC to have the disk repaired! The WREN-IV in the 386i that died this week was not supplied by Sun but by Bull also. A replacement WREN-IV that was installed in the system gave the same error almost imediately. In all three cases the error(s) were: sense key(0x4): hardware error, error code(0x9): servo error sense key(0x4): hardware error, error code(0x44): unknown error I think my original disk only gave the error code 0x9 servo error. The 386i that lost the disk this week was still running SunOS 4.0.1 I do not recall whether at the time of my disk's death my 386i was running 4.0.1 or 4.0.2. I'd be interested to know how many other folk have had problems with these disk, or whether it is something wrong with the 386i. Although CDC reported my disk as needing to be shipped to the US for repair I am not sure whether they confirmed the fault. If in fact it is just brain death in the 386i, the paper-weight on my desk may actually be useful! Though I have seen nothing in the User Distributed BugList. -- Simon J. Gerraty <sjg@sun0.melb.bull.oz.au> #include <disclaimer> /* imagine something *very* witty here */