sorensen@athena.mit.edu (Alma G. Sorensen) (12/01/90)
I have a MacIIci, with the 80 Mb drive from Apple. (It says quantum on the inside.) I bought it in March 90. Every so often, when I turn the machine on, the disk access light flashes a few times, and then stays on -- but the machine doesn't boot, and eventually the disk icon with the X in the middle comes up. Clearly, it can't find the hard drive. Hitting the reset button to reboot the machine gets things working again; the Mac never misses the second time around. It seems like some kind of a drive-recognition problem secondary to the Quantum starting up late or something. I've reformatted the disk with 6.0.5 (it was doing this with 6.0.4 as well), and since the Mac never gets a chance to load any of the software, I have a hard time thinking its due to some init or another. Is this the problem discussed at length about a year ago about the IIci and the Quantum drives? If so, how do I get my dealer to recognize it as such? I descrivbed the features somewhat to the service department over the phone and they said "sounds like a virus." The drive does get recognized about 70% of the time, so I'm afraid if I haul it in the dealer won't believe me and tell me nothing is wrong. Any advice? Thanks, Greg Sorensen sorensen@athena.mit.edu
greg@cti1.UUCP (Greg Fabian) (12/04/90)
sorensen@athena.mit.edu (Alma G. Sorensen) writes: >I have a MacIIci, with the 80 Mb drive from Apple. (It says quantum >on the inside.) I bought it in March 90. Every so often, when I turn >the machine on, the disk access light flashes a few times, and then >stays on -- but the machine doesn't boot, and eventually the >disk icon with the X in the middle comes up. Clearly, it can't >find the hard drive. I haven't experienced this problem on a Mac, but I have had a similar experience on an IBM PC clone. Turns out the hard disk was not spinning up to speed so the computer would not boot. It was possible to boot the machine off of a floppy, but you could never get to the hard drive. The drive LED blinked three times. SPINRITE for the PC tells you how fast the drive is spinning. If there is a similar utility for the Mac (I'm sure there is) it could tell you if you have enough RPM (usually 3,600 for a hard disk). If your disk is not spinning up, you will more than likely have to replace it. Good luck -- Greg Fabian ////////////////////////////////////|\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ CTI (703) 685-5437 | 2121 Crystal Drive | When the going gets weird Suite 103 | the wierd turn pro Arlington, DC 22202 greg@cti.com | - Hunter S. Thompson \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\|////////////////////////////////////
yourusername@pacvax.UUCP (your name) (12/08/90)
It sure sounds like the dread "Quantum disease"; the symptoms you describe are exactly as those for my much older Quantum 80 external. If you're having trouble with the dealer, I'd explain to them exactly what you've said here. Good luck.