sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (Scott Sutherland) (07/03/90)
I just got my A3000 Saturday and I have 2 questions of immediate concern. First, I had to go through a dealer 2 hours away from me, and halfway home I realized that after the dealer had finished checking out my system to see if it worked (see below for a small detail), he did NOT do anything to park the HD. When I got home, I read through the section in the manual (real nice job, CBM, but some of the figures cannot be seen properly) on Hard Drives and found NOTHING on parking the drive for transportation. Fortunately no damage seems to have been done during my 2 hour drive. Is there a way to park the HD for any type of transportation? Is this included in WB 2.0 or is there some sort of program (PD or Commercial) which will allow me to do this? IF it is not in WB2.0 or AmigaDOS 2.0, why NOT? IF HD's are to become a standard part of the Amiga computer system, then PARK should be a command in the C directory OR added as a utility (like choosing a printer). Second question. When the dealer turned on my system, I noticed that the 1950 multisync monitor "flickered" or "jumped" a little twice during startup. The whold screen deforms for ~.5 seconds once before and once after the Loading WB 2.X (or something like that) message appears. The dealer said that this was natural, but it doesn't look very natural to me. It does NOT seem to affect the operation at all. Any ideas as to what causes this and if it is normal?? I know my description is a bit vague, but it is hard to describe this. NOW for the little detail. This is for those of you who may be having problems with your power button on the A3000. (I seem to recall seeing a message or two on this on the net) The power button in the front is connected to a metal rod (~6 inches or so in length) which butts up against the black on button of the power supply. Now, when they unpacked my machine and hooked it up, when you pushed in the button, the power started to come on, but when you released it, the power turned off. If we took out the screws to the cover, the problem disappeared. Well, we took about 15 minutes to discover the problem. There is a plastic end to the power button which pushes into the metal bar. The bar was NOT pushed FLUSH against the power button (if you look at it, you will see what I mean) and so was ~.2 inches too long. By butting up the bar and button, the machine now works flawlessly. Hope this helps some of you if you encounter the same problem. Scott Sutherland sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu
lshaw@walt.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw) (07/03/90)
In article <1065@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu> sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (Scott Sutherland) writes: > > I just got my A3000 Saturday and I have 2 questions of >immediate concern. First, I had to go through a dealer 2 hours >away from me, and halfway home I realized that after the dealer >had finished checking out my system to see if it worked (see below >for a small detail), he did NOT do anything to park the HD. When Ah, but what you don't know (and they probably should have mentioned in the manual -- of course, this is a Commodore manual, keep in mind) is that you don't have to worry about parking your hard drive. All A3000's come with a quantum hard drive, and quantum hard drives are auto-parking. (Trust me, I have a 40-meg, probably the exact same drive that's in your machine.) In other words, quantum drives are done _so_ right, you sometimes think there's something wrong. After you have not used the disk for a period of 5 or 10 seconds, the drive will decide to park itself. Thus, you don't have to do it yourself. Sometimes you'll see the little light flash when it does this. Corollary: If you reboot or power off within a few seconds of accessing the disk, the head may not have had a chance to park, and bad things can happen. Usually, you can appease the "Volume dh0: not validated" requestor by hitting [retry] several times (be persistent). If this happens, you'll see the hard disk moving like you never thought it could, trying to figure out life. The light will be on solid for a good 20 seconds or more. Once it's done, everything should be back to normal. >Scott Sutherland >sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu ============================================================================ "The machine minded material man Logan Shaw desperately dreams of a brand new sedan. lshaw@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu Wlll he expect long lasting gain ======================== from a toy that will race then rust in the rain?" - elim Hall, Things Break
schur@venera.isi.edu (Sean Schur) (07/03/90)
In article <1065@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu> sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (Scott Sutherland) writes: > > I just got my A3000 Saturday and I have 2 questions of >in WB2.0 or AmigaDOS 2.0, why NOT? IF HD's are to become a standard >part of the Amiga computer system, then PARK should be a command in >the C directory OR added as a utility (like choosing a printer). > The hard drives are auto-park. Everytime you power down, or the drive isn't running it parks itself. No need for SW to do this. > Second question. When the dealer turned on my system, I noticed >that the 1950 multisync monitor "flickered" or "jumped" a little twice >during startup. The whold screen deforms for ~.5 seconds once before >and once after the Loading WB 2.X (or something like that) message >appears. The dealer said that this was natural, but it doesn't look >very natural to me. It does NOT seem to affect the operation at all. >Any ideas as to what causes this and if it is normal?? I know my >description is a bit vague, but it is hard to describe this. > > It is normal for the screen to jump like that. It is my understanding that since no signal is being sent by the computer initially, it takes a second for the monitor to recieve a signal and sync up to that external signal. Most any computer screen will jump as the machine is powering up. > >Scott Sutherland >sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu ============================================================================== \ / \ \ / / Sean Schur \ \ / / \ \/ / USENET: schur@isi.edu \ /a\mpyr/ Compuserve: 70731,1102 \/ \ / ideo Plink: OSS259 \/ ==============================================================================
thomas@cbmvax.commodore.com (Linda Thomas) (07/03/90)
In article <1065@orange9.qtp.ufl.edu> sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu (Scott Sutherland) writes: > > I just got my A3000 Saturday and I have 2 questions of > immediate concern. First, I had to go through a dealer 2 hours > away from me, and halfway home I realized that after the dealer > had finished checking out my system to see if it worked (see below > for a small detail), he did NOT do anything to park the HD. The Quantum hard drives used in the A3000 automatically park when powered off. You should never need to worry about parking them. > Second question. When the dealer turned on my system, I noticed > that the 1950 multisync monitor "flickered" or "jumped" a little twice > during startup. The whold screen deforms for ~.5 seconds once before > and once after the Loading WB 2.X (or something like that) message > appears. The dealer said that this was natural, but it doesn't look > very natural to me. It does NOT seem to affect the operation at all. > Any ideas as to what causes this and if it is normal?? I know my > description is a bit vague, but it is hard to describe this. In which video port was the monitor plugged? If it was the 23 pin port, you were seeing the monitor re-synchronize to the video when the system changes video frequency. This happens when changing screen modes and when rebooting. > Scott Sutherland > sutherla@qtp.ufl.edu Hope this helps! -Linda -- Linda Thomas, Commodore Amiga Test Engineering UUCP ...{uunet,rutgers}!cbmvax!thomas or thomas@cbmvax.commodore.com
bryan@cs.utexas.edu (Bryan Bayerdorffer @ Wit's End) (07/03/90)
In article <33215@ut-emx.UUCP> lshaw@walt.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw) writes:
[about Quantum drives]
=-
=-After you have not used the disk for a period of 5 or 10 seconds, the
=-drive will decide to park itself. Thus, you don't have to do it yourself.
=-Sometimes you'll see the little light flash when it does this.
=-
Er, no. The hard disk light flashes briefly after a short timeout
(which is more like 3 seconds) because the disk validator is accessing the
drive, updating the bitmap for some partition. This is the Amiga system
software at work, not the drive controller.
=-Corollary: If you reboot or power off within a few seconds of accessing the
=-disk, the head may not have had a chance to park, and bad things can happen.
=-Usually, you can appease the "Volume dh0: not validated" requestor by hitting
=-[retry] several times (be persistent). If this happens, you'll see the hard
=-disk moving like you never thought it could, trying to figure out life. The
=-light will be on solid for a good 20 seconds or more. Once it's done,
=-everything should be back to normal.
=-
Quantum drives ALWAYS park when they lose power. What happens when you
power down or reboot immediately after a disk access is that the disk validator
has not had a chance to update the bitmap. When the Amiga subsequently boots,
the validator runs and discovers that the bitmap is invalid. It then has to
read the entire directory tree to find out which sectors are in use. This is
what all the disk activity is about. If you cause a write to the disk during
this validation interval, you'll get the 'not validated' requestor. Eventually
validation will terminate, and your retry will succeed. None of this has
anything to do with parking the heads. Think about it: what could possibly be
the reason for parking the heads on a warm reboot?joe@cbmvax.commodore.com (Joe O'Hara - Product Assurance) (07/04/90)
In article <198@mohawk.cs.utexas.edu> bryan@cs.utexas.edu writes: >In article <33215@ut-emx.UUCP> lshaw@walt.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw) writes: > > [about Quantum drives] >=- >=-After you have not used the disk for a period of 5 or 10 seconds, the >=-drive will decide to park itself. Thus, you don't have to do it yourself. >=-Sometimes you'll see the little light flash when it does this. >=- > Er, no. The hard disk light flashes briefly after a short timeout >(which is more like 3 seconds) because the disk validator is accessing the >drive, updating the bitmap for some partition. This is the Amiga system >software at work, not the drive controller. Actually, no. The Quantum firmware contains a routine to periodically move the heads to prevent a problem they had earlier experienced with lubricant viscuosity causing the heads to stick after being idle. This was the infamous Apple (Quantum) drive problem. -- ========================================================================== Joe O'Hara || Disclaimer: I didn't say that! Commodore Electronics Ltd || Product Assurance || "I never lie when I have sand in my shoes." Systems Evaluation Group || - Geordi LeForge, Star Trek TNG ==========================================================================