smedley@udel.EDU (Trevor Smedley) (05/30/90)
I have a SuperMac DataFrame 30 which has acted rather strangely on two occasions now. Both times it has sounded like it slowed down and then sped up a few times. The slowing down sound was just like when it gets turned off, and the sppeding up was like when it gets turned on. I don't think the power light flickered, but it could have and I just didn't notice it. The first time it caused a system crash and damaged a few files (it was writing when it went flaky). The second doesn't seem to have caused any damage. The first time was while in Microsoft Works and the second while in Intuit Quicken, so I don't think the problem is with either of those. Is there much chance that this could be a system software problem? Both times were while during rainstorms (no lightning) so I am guessing that it might have been a power fluctuation. The Mac (and it's internal drive) were unaffected (or if they were, I didn't notice). Has anyone else ever noticed this and found out what it was. I guess it's about time I backed up the disk, "just in case." Thanks Trevor Smedley smedley@udel.edu
glf@sppy00.UUCP (HILL GREGORY L.) (05/31/90)
In article <20584@marius.udel.EDU> smedley@cis.udel.edu (Trevor Smedley) writes: > >I have a SuperMac DataFrame 30 which has acted rather strangely on two >occasions now. Both times it has sounded like it slowed down and then >sped up a few times. The slowing down sound was just like when it gets >turned off, and the sppeding up was like when it gets turned on. > [ ... ] >Is there much chance that this could be a system software problem? > [ ... ] >Has anyone else ever noticed this and found out what it was. I guess >it's about time I backed up the disk, "just in case." > Trevor, You didn't say how old the DataFrame is, but ... I had a DataFrame 20 external drive that was about 3 years old. It was doing EXACTLY that same thing. It started slowly, happening only once a month or so. I could never pin it down to anything I (or the weather) was doing. I would also get, not very often at first, a dialog box saying something to the effect of "Can't load the Finder (RESTART)." As time went on, the problems came more and more often. I tried a bazillion things to isolate a software glitch, but the bottom line was that the drive failed. My local 'authorized' service guy guessed that either the controller card fried or the actual drive mechanism itself failed. Since he wanted about $200 (including labor) for a new card, or $350-$400 for a new drive, I figured I could get a bigger, faster, brand new drive with a warranty for about the same money (give or take a hundred or so). So, back up that disk! IMHO, you're about to loose a drive. Sorry 'bout that, Greg F-H -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Greg Feldman-Hill {seismo|cbosgd}!osu-cis!sppy00!glf -or- glf@sppy00.UUCP OCLC - Online Computer Library Center ... Dublin, Ohio "If one studies too zealously, one easily loses his pants." A. Einstein
lewin@zariski.husc6 (Alex `Reaper' Lewin) (05/31/90)
Same thing happened to me, with an Optimal Technologies Optima 30 (Seagate mechanism). I had it fixed once a year ago (under warranty) and now it's doing it again. :-(. Has anyone noticed if this particular problem happens mostly with Seagates? Could it be overheating? I certainly haven't used it for 30,000 hours, or whatever (only had it a coupla years). Alex Lewin lewin@zariski.harvard.edu