jacobson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (09/06/90)
This reply was sent to me in regards to my comments about quantum drive problems after the eprom "fix". The person sending it asked that I post it here since he did not have normal access. From MYJAK@TITAN.KSC.NASA.GOV Wed Sep 5 10:41:47 1990 Date: Wed, 5 Sep 1990 11:40:43 EDT From: MYJAK@TITAN.KSC.NASA.GOV Subject: RE: Quantum Hard Drives To: jacobson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu X-Vmsmail-To: SMTP%"jacobson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu" (you may post this... I have no access.:-() I too, am having problems with my quantum (a PD-170s) hard disk. The random failures that I am getting are related to pop-up windows particularly those from OPEN and TRANSFER operations. The response I get is that the first character of each window is displayed, albeit in the wrong font. The rest of the characters do not display at all. This problem is inconsistent, in that it does not occur every time. (it also breaks boomerang) Secondly, I ahave also found some applications and folders opening very slowly. To further compound this scenario, occasionally, my machine will lock while trying to open a folder. What happened to me is slichtly different from the problem that you described; to wit: my machine locks without ever opening the window, or even displaying the "zooming" rectangle. The machine just locks; the mouse is wedged, the clock stops, and waiting for periods of 1 hour (overnight in one case) has no effect. What did I do about it? I got the bright idea that the desktop file was corrupted. So the next time I rebooted the machine, I held down the option/command chord. I got the standard reply: " are yous sure tha tyou want to rebuild the desktop on ..." and I said OK. The disk ratteled for about 5 minutes and then the system locked. (no mouse, no clock, nothing.) I did find that I could mount the disk if: 1) I booted from a floppy running only finder (not MF) and if I mounted the disk (via DA) while I was in the TapeBackup (40sc) utility. However, the moment I quit the Tape backupt program... I would get the message "the disk xx needs minor repairs. DO you want ..." and when I say OK, the machine ratteled the disk for 5 minutes and locked. If I select cancle, then the hard drive doesn't mount. This is becomming very frustrating... All the apple service guys tell me that I need to update the system. How do you update the system on a disk with a corrupted desktop? THe apple startup disks won't allow you to do it. The only solution I found is to reformat the disk and reload the system. (I tried clearing the disk directory last time this happened.) Well, last night I reloaded my system amd other software from tape and continued... until I ran tetris.... then my problems started showing up in menu items again. Perhaps these are unrelated problems... perhaps the common factor is the drive... perhaps I overfilled the disk (accounting being what it is) This last configuration is using 70meg of 158 meg drive. Another note, when I backed up my system, the drive accounted for 156 meg of "stuff." When I down loaded my software off of tape, I had used only 72meg of disk. (where did the "other" stuff go?) Since then, I played a few games, ran a few applications, and sorted some more stuff. I generated no-new files, and only added a few words to an MS word file. Yet according to the top-level window, my disk now contains 79meg worth of stuff. Anybody have any idea as to what is going on here? Gatekeeper shows no record in its log file of corruption, and the SUM recovery is active. Is it possible that some init or cdev is causing this problem? maybe a bad font? I don't know. I am open to suggestions... Thanks, --Michael D. Myjak -- Always mount a scratch monkey --