espen@well.UUCP (Peter Espen) (11/19/89)
> In fact, MicroNet has put a freeze on purchasing ALL Quantum drives > until the problem is 100% fixed. The drive mechanism problem on the P-40S and > P-80S has replicated itself on the P-105S, but to a much lesser extent, so > before the 105's got really bad, MicroNet just basically told Quantum "call us > when it's fixed, we're not selling anything made by you until you do." > Well it's been over 5 weeks since the new ROM "fix" was installed on my 80 meg Quantum drive, and contrary to what Apple and Quantum are trying to tell us, my drive is still going thru these noisy exercise routines that slow the drive response down by at least 4 times. In fact, my drive is doing it right at this moment. To bad Apple and Quantum can't just be honest and try to come up with a REAL solution. Maybe they could even let people like me trade up to a 105 drive for a small fee. Peter Espen (espen@well)
eacj@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Julian Vrieslander) (11/19/89)
In article <14618@well.UUCP> espen@well.UUCP (Peter Espen) writes: >> In fact, MicroNet has put a freeze on purchasing ALL Quantum drives >> until the problem is 100% fixed. The drive mechanism problem on the P-40S and >> P-80S has replicated itself on the P-105S, but to a much lesser extent, so >> before the 105's got really bad, MicroNet just basically told Quantum "call us >> when it's fixed, we're not selling anything made by you until you do." >> > > Well it's been over 5 weeks since the new ROM "fix" was installed >on my 80 meg Quantum drive, and contrary to what Apple and Quantum are >trying to tell us, my drive is still going thru these noisy exercise >routines that slow the drive response down by at least 4 times. In fact, >my drive is doing it right at this moment. > To bad Apple and Quantum can't just be honest and try to come up >with a REAL solution. Maybe they could even let people like me trade up >to a 105 drive for a small fee. I have had a SuperMac XP100i up and going for a couple of days now (after finally getting the correct power connector). I believe this is a Quantum Pro 105 drive. I do notice that the drive will occasionally exercize its swing arm when there is no read/write going on. Every few minutes there is a very brief sound, as if the arm makes one stroke and stops (I have not timed it). It was a bit disconcerting at first, but the activity is barely audible and does not interfere with the subjective responsiveness of the drive. In fact, most folks are pleasantly surprised at the speediness of this disk (of course, the IIci gets some of the credit here). Is the spontaneous activity on the 40 and 80 meg Quantums much more frequent and noisy? -- Julian Vrieslander Neurobiology & Behavior, W250 Mudd Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853 UUCP: {cmcl2,decvax,rochester,uw-beaver}!cornell!batcomputer!eacj INTERNET: eacj@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu BITNET: eacj@CRNLTHRY
jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) (11/20/89)
eacj@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Julian Vrieslander) writes: >In article <14618@well.UUCP> espen@well.UUCP (Peter Espen) writes: >>> In fact, MicroNet has put a freeze on purchasing ALL Quantum drives >>> until the problem is 100% fixed. The drive mechanism problem on the P-40S and >>> P-80S has replicated itself on the P-105S, but to a much lesser extent, so >>> before the 105's got really bad, MicroNet just basically told Quantum "call us >>> when it's fixed, we're not selling anything made by you until you do." >> >> Well it's been over 5 weeks since the new ROM "fix" was installed >>on my 80 meg Quantum drive, and contrary to what Apple and Quantum are >>trying to tell us, my drive is still going thru these noisy exercise >>routines that slow the drive response down by at least 4 times. In fact, >>my drive is doing it right at this moment. >> To bad Apple and Quantum can't just be honest and try to come up >>with a REAL solution. Maybe they could even let people like me trade up >>to a 105 drive for a small fee. > >I have had a SuperMac XP100i up and going for a couple of days now (after >finally getting the correct power connector). I believe this is a Quantum >Pro 105 drive. > >I do notice that the drive will occasionally exercize its swing arm when >there is no read/write going on. Every few minutes there is a very brief >sound, as if the arm makes one stroke and stops (I have not timed it). >It was a bit disconcerting at first, but the activity is barely audible and does >not interfere with the subjective responsiveness of the drive. In fact, >most folks are pleasantly surprised at the speediness of this disk (of course, >the IIci gets some of the credit here). > >Is the spontaneous activity on the 40 and 80 meg Quantums much more frequent >and noisy? From my understanding, yes, the problem is exponentially worse on the P-40S and P-80S. I would not get a P-105S either. The only reason I have them is because they were the only ones that didn't seem to have the problem. I know the ones on our SPARCstation 1 don't have the problem, but the other two are pretty new (we ordered them eons ago), so I can't say. I have not worked with a drive with the ROM fix, I have only found drives that do freeze up that have the infamous defect. Until I am sure that the problem is corrected, I am following in MicroNet's footsteps and have froze all purchase orders for Quantum period. All Sun workstations that use the P-105S internally we just buy diskless now and put in a purchase order to Artecon for an external 327 Mb or 636 Mb SCSI hard drive. Besides, 208 Mb is barely enough just to turn on the machine and put SunOS on. :) Get a clue Apple and Quantum, we are tired of this bull(*bleep*)! /*--------------------------------------------------------------------------* * Flames: /dev/null (on my Minix partition) *--------------------------------------------------------------------------* * ARPA : crash!pnet01!jca@nosc.mil * INET : jca@pnet01.cts.com * UUCP : {nosc ucsd hplabs!hd-sdd}!crash!pnet01!jca *--------------------------------------------------------------------------* * Apple Computer, Inc. is really the Anti-Christ! *--------------------------------------------------------------------------* * Note : My opinions are that...mine. My boss doesn't pay me enough to * speak in the best interests of the company (yet). *--------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
spector@brillig.umd.edu (Lee Spector) (11/20/89)
In article <9323@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> eacj@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Julian Vrieslander) writes: > >I have had a SuperMac XP100i up and going for a couple of days now (after >finally getting the correct power connector). I believe this is a Quantum >Pro 105 drive. > >I do notice that the drive will occasionally exercize its swing arm when >there is no read/write going on. Every few minutes there is a very brief >sound, as if the arm makes one stroke and stops (I have not timed it). >It was a bit disconcerting at first, but the activity is barely audible and does >not interfere with the subjective responsiveness of the drive. In fact, >most folks are pleasantly surprised at the speediness of this disk (of course, >the IIci gets some of the credit here). > >Is the spontaneous activity on the 40 and 80 meg Quantums much more frequent >and noisy? The post-ROM-"fix" problem on the 80 meg Quantum is far worse than what you describe. In fact, my 80 meg Quantum has ALWAYS displayed the symptom which you describe, and I am under the impression that periodic occurences of brief (< 1 second), spontaneous activity are perfectly normal for these drives. I've seen various explanations for this activity - some have described it as a sort of "re-allignment" - and I don't think it's anything to worry about. The NEW problem (post "fix") is a rattling sound that continues for a long time - usually until the user explicitly causes a subsequent read/write to the disk. Sometimes it takes several read/writes to stop the sound, and it usually comes back fairly soon (at least this is my experience with my IIcx). I've heard that the problem is supposed to fix itself within a few weeks, but as has been mentioned in previous posts (by myself and others) this does not seem to be the case. When this rattling sound is occurring there IS noticable slowdown of drive accesses. -Lee (spector@cs.umd.edu)
tempest@wet.UUCP (Ken Lui) (11/21/89)
In article <9323@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> eacj@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Julian Vrieslander) writes: >I do notice that the drive will occasionally exercize its swing arm when >there is no read/write going on. Every few minutes there is a very brief >sound, as if the arm makes one stroke and stops (I have not timed it). From my understanding, this sound is caused by the internal cache. I have a ProDrive 105S as well, and the literature says that its cache has a look-ahead feature. When the drive's idle, my guess is that it reads the "next" piece of data from the drive and stores it in the cache. Or so the tech support says who sold me my 105S. Ken -- _____________________________________________________________________________ Kenneth K.F. Lui | UUCP: ...{ucsfcca|claris}!wet!tempest tempest@wet.UUCP | Internet: cca.ucsf.edu!wet!tempest@cgl.ucsf.edu | -or- claris!wet!tempest@ames.arc.nasa.gov
espen@well.UUCP (Peter Espen) (11/22/89)
In article <9323@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, eacj@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Julian Vrieslander) writes: > > I do notice that the drive will occasionally exercize its swing arm when > there is no read/write going on. Every few minutes there is a very brief > sound, as if the arm makes one stroke and stops (I have not timed it). > It was a bit disconcerting at first, but the activity is barely audible and does > not interfere with the subjective responsiveness of the drive. In fact, > most folks are pleasantly surprised at the speediness of this disk (of course, > the IIci gets some of the credit here). > > Is the spontaneous activity on the 40 and 80 meg Quantums much more frequent > and noisy? > > -- > Julian Vrieslander > Neurobiology & Behavior, W250 Mudd Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853 As far as I know, most of the Pro series 105 drives have been immune from the "stiction" problem that has been killing the 40 and 80 Meg Quantums. I'm not sure why your drive is doing what it is, but it sounds to me like a part of normal operation. I've always noticed that my Mac II and also the MacIIcx at work does this occasionally. I think it depends on what programs you're running etc.. What happens if you have the ROM fix installed on a Quantum is a random exercising of the head arm that can last for several minutes and is quite noticable. This exercise routine drastically degrades the performance fo the drive when it is occurring. Peter Espen (espen@well)
thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com (Ken McLeod) (11/26/89)
In article <20837@mimsy.umd.edu> spector@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Lee Spector) writes: >The NEW problem (post "fix") is a rattling sound that continues for a long >time - usually until the user explicitly causes a subsequent read/write to >the disk. Sometimes it takes several read/writes to stop the sound, and >it usually comes back fairly soon (at least this is my experience with my >IIcx). I've heard that the problem is supposed to fix itself within a few >weeks, but as has been mentioned in previous posts (by myself and others) >this does not seem to be the case. When this rattling sound is occurring >there IS noticable slowdown of drive accesses. Oddly enough, the problem does seem to have "fixed itself" after approx. 1 month of hyperactive, rattling, performance-degrading accesses on my IIcx. When I first got the drive (with the new ROM), the performance was horrible. Now that the drive has been "broken in," the hyper-access problem seems to have gone away. Possibly it takes a while for the lubricant to spread evenly, or achieve some kind of magic viscosity level? Or am I just lucky? -ken -- ========== ....... ============================================= Ken McLeod :. .: UUCP: ...{spsd,zardoz,felix}!dhw68k!thecloud ========== :::.. ..::: INTERNET: thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com //// =============================================
Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Adam Frix) (12/01/89)
Ken Lui writes: . >I have a ProDrive 105S as well, and the literature says that its cache >has a look-ahead feature. When the drive's idle, my guess is that it >reads the "next" piece of data from the drive and stores it in the >cache. > >Or so the tech support says who sold me my 105S. . . (from a gentleman by the name of Eric Pepke) Do you know what the acronym MIPS stands for? Meaningless Information from Pushy Salescreature. . 'Nuff said. . --Adam-- . (sorry, I just HAD to...) +--- Export 2.6 -- Adam Frix via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH UUCP: ...!osu-cis!n8emr!cmhgate!200!Adam.Frix INET: Adam.Frix@f200.n226.z1.FIDONET.ORG