tchi@sal-sun54.usc.edu (The Answer Company) (03/12/91)
Hi everyone. I almost had a heart attack today when I flipped on my hard disk and all I got was a click. About a minute later and after flipping the on/off switch like a madman, the drive powered on. Is this another one of those spindle lubrication problems? The drive is a Cutting Edge Wedge 30 and I think the mechanism is a Seagate ST138N(?), the one everyone has on their IBMs because it's capacity is 32MB. Has anyone else had this problem with Seagate mechanisms? I'm well aware of the Quantum and Sony problems but I haven't heard anything about Seagates with the same problem. The drive is almost three years old. Another note on the Wedge drives... My fan stopped working about a year ago. I have a small 5" fan on my desk pointed at the drive to keep it cool. On the back, there's a black and a red wire running to the fan. I've been too chicken to snip them and attach a new fan and I can't get the fan housing off. My question is can I cut them, ie. those wires don't affect the power supply? My voice mail messages to Cutting Edge has been unanswered and I'm tired of calling long distance to Wyoming. Am I better off just getting another (read larger too) hard disk? Thanks! Tony Chi tchi@usc.edu
3IU4TOB@CMUVM.BITNET (03/14/91)
I too, am having a startup problem with a Cutting Edge drive, Seagate mechanism . Sometimes the drive starts up on the first try, but often it requires a secon flick of the switch to get going. It may be my imagination, but it seems that t he drive is noisier (higher pitched and lounder) after starting when the second click is required. This drive has a replacement mechanism which I was given af ter my first one went bad. My experience with calling Wyoming has been that it is hard to get their attention and then hard to get them believe that you under stand anything. The attitude seems to be that the user must be at fault for any drive problems. Since my drive can be made to work, should I worry?
chai@hawk.cs.ukans.edu (Ian Chai) (03/14/91)
In article <15707@chaph.usc.edu> tchi@sal-sun54.usc.edu (The Answer Company) writes: >Hi everyone. I almost had a heart attack today when I flipped on my hard >disk and all I got was a click. About a minute later and after flipping the >on/off switch like a madman, the drive powered on. Is this another one of >those spindle lubrication problems? The drive is a Cutting Edge Wedge 30 and >I think the mechanism is a Seagate ST138N(?), the one everyone has on their Welcome to the club. The same thing happened to me last year with my Ehman (a.k.a. Cutting Edge) 30 Meg. It kept struggling along for a few months and then finally died, but fortunately *after* I had gotten a TEAC tape backup system so I didn't lose any data. >My voice mail messages to Cutting Edge has been unanswered and I'm tired of >calling long distance to Wyoming. Am I better off just getting another >(read larger too) hard disk? I had *exactly* the same problem with them. I sent my drive for repair and every time I tried to call them I got transferred and put on hold, ad infinitum, and then somebody would hang up on me. Finally, they told me that "the power supply is dead" and wanted $325 to fix it! I could buy a new 30 meg for a bit more than that, so I said, hecque with it, and they wanted $25 for just looking at it... sigh. Then when I got it back, I asked the local hardware guru (which I should have done so in the first place) and he said power supplies were no problem -- they were pretty cheap and you could order one mail order and attach it -- or at least, *he* could attach it -- for not much difficulty. So I think that's what I wanna do. Mainwhile, I have bought another, bigger, HD (from someone other than Ehman/Cutting Edge, of course...) (BTW, yeah, the 30 meg was out of warranty, of course -- it was 2 years old. This new HD I got, I have a 3 year warranty on it... It's a MacDirect Fujitsu 135 meg I got for $600.) Ian Chai chai@cs.ukans.edu 2fntnougat@ukanvax.bitnet
stanfiel@testeng1.misemi (Chris Stanfield) (03/15/91)
In article <15707@chaph.usc.edu> tchi@sal-sun54.usc.edu (The Answer Company) writes: >Another note on the Wedge drives... My fan stopped working about a year ago. >I have a small 5" fan on my desk pointed at the drive to keep it cool. On the >back, there's a black and a red wire running to the fan. I've been too chicken >to snip them and attach a new fan and I can't get the fan housing off. My >question is can I cut them, ie. those wires don't affect the power supply? The wires are unlikely to affect the power supply in any way. The major thing you have to watch for is the voltage of the fan. A lot of systems use DC fans (usually 12v, because it is available) rather than 115v AC fans. I believe this is because the DC brushless fans produce less electrical noise, and they are also usually smaller. Chris Stanfield, Mitel Corporation: E-mail to:- uunet!mitel!testeng1!stanfiel (613) 592 2122 Ext.4960 We do not inherit the world from our parents - we borrow it from our children.