stanger@otago.ac.nz (Nigel Stanger) (03/07/91)
Now here's an interesting problem for all you hardware experts out there. I have this SE/30 sitting on my desk. Every now and then, the hard drive (standard Apple 40 meg) throws a fit and makes a rather distressing continuous rattling noise. It sounds very much as if the heads on the drive are moving back and forth continuously, but the activity light flashes not. We have had it looked at twice now, the first time we were told that there had been a bug in the ROM (which part I don't know), and so we told them to replace it. This done, the problem went away for quite a while, but has resurfaced again recently This time, when looked at, nothing wrong could be found. The problem is intermittent, and there seems to be no real pattern to occurrences, except that it always hapens after a disk access. Forcing another disk access usually stops it. It even happens sometimes *after* shutting down, i.e. after it says "You may now switch off you Macintosh safely." Has anyone else had this problem, or know what might be causing it? The data in the drive is intact, and always has been. What we are really worried about is that the drive might wear itself out with all this incessant activity. Is that possible? Help! BTW, an interesting aside: one of our IIci's had the same problem for about 2 months after we got it, then it stopped doing it and has never done it since (at least, not that I know of). I have no idea why... Nigel. /******************************************************************************\ * "If I had a quote, I'd be wearing it." * Internet: stanger@otago.ac.nz * * -- Dylan Thomas (I think) * SnailMail: Information Science, * * * University of Otago, * * "Say no MORE!!!" * P.O. Box 56, * * -- Eric Idle * Dunedin, NEW ZEALAND. * \******************************************************************************/
pevans@umd5.umd.edu (Peter Evans) (03/07/91)
In article <1991Mar7.144304.130@otago.ac.nz> stanger@otago.ac.nz (Nigel Stanger) writes: > >Now here's an interesting problem for all you hardware experts >out there. I have this SE/30 sitting on my desk. Every now and >then, the hard drive (standard Apple 40 meg) throws a fit and >makes a rather distressing continuous rattling noise. It sounds >very much as if the heads on the drive are moving back and forth >continuously, but the activity light flashes not. Yepe, it is VERY discouraging to hear this and not know what is happening!! Symptoms are as you describe and I have noticed no loss of data (I have not gained any either ;-) I am VERY interested in knowing what this is and what I can do about it. Peter
calvin@portia.stanford.edu (Peter Chang) (03/14/91)
In article <1991Mar7.144304.130@otago.ac.nz> stanger@otago.ac.nz (Nigel Stanger) writes: > >Now here's an interesting problem for all you hardware experts >out there. I have this SE/30 sitting on my desk. Every now and >then, the hard drive (standard Apple 40 meg) throws a fit and >makes a rather distressing continuous rattling noise. It sounds >very much as if the heads on the drive are moving back and forth >continuously, but the activity light flashes not. I too have had this problem, and in fact I still have it. The ROM fix that you mentioned did not fix this, and in fact I think that it started after I got this ROM upgrade because my Mac refused to recognize the SCSI devices. I hope somebody out there knows what is going on because the noise does not sound at all healthy. Peter