ottoh3@CFSMO.Honeywell.COM (Otto Heuer #3) (05/24/91)
Hello,
My Side D4 40 MB Hard Drive (First Class Peripherals) crashed a few
days ago. It had been 2.5 years since it last crashed, so I wasn't too
surprised. I have an Apple IIgs, if that matters.
Here's what I noticed prior to the incident:
* When modeming, the hard drive is never accessed unless I am uploading
or downloading (which I wasn't)
* I was modeming and hadn't typed anything for about five minutes
* The read/write light came on for about a second
* I finished up what I was doing (took about three minutes) and
went to the "park heads" selection from the menu.
* For the first time in three years, it didn't say "heads parked -
power down"; it just went to a black screen and didn't take any input
* I powered down to let it cool down (guessing that might be the problem,
thought I had only been on for an hour or so)
* An hour later, I turned the computer back on, but there was no response
from the hard drive. No whirring of the motor/fan, no lights... nothing.
* I powered back down and brought over a friend with a volt meter - every-
thing checked out ok.
* During one power-on, the hard drive started, but never made it up to
full speed. Something smelled like it was hot, so powered back down.
Now, the questions:
* What do the experts here think is wrong? Power supply, head crash,
other?
* What's the best way to get it fixed? Last time I sent it back to
First Class (or Programs Plus, I don't remember which) and had a new one
in 5 days. All data was lost since they just send out a new unit.
I asked if it were possible to retain the data, no matter what they
had to charge me. They said "no". I assume the answer will be the same
this time.
* I checked a few places in town, but none will service third-party
peripherals, only stuff made by Apple Computer.
* So, is there any way to get the data off of the hard drive? Right
now this is more important than getting the drive fixed.
* On a side note: does any company make internal hard drives for
the GS (obviously it would have to bee on a card since there's no
room in the casing for a traditional internal HD). If so, what is the
largest (most MB), who sells it, and how much is it?
Thanks in advance, for any help you can give.
--
--Otto "HACK-MAN" Heuer
C, Pascal, Fortran, BASIC, Assembly Language, Snobol, Ada, APL, Prolog, LISP
Unix, MS-DOS, ProDOS . . . .... . . . . . . . Audio/Video
ottoh@cfsmo.honeywell.com :..: .:.:. : :.' .. :`.': .:.:. :`. : Star Trek
hackman@pnet51.orb.mn.org : : : : :... : `. : : : : : `: Apple IIgs
------I speak for me and not my boss--Honeywell's gain and Usenet's loss.------tribby@hpindwa.cup.hp.com (David Tribby) (05/29/91)
ottoh3@CFSMO.Honeywell.COM (Otto Heuer #3) writes... >Hello, > My Side D4 40 MB Hard Drive (First Class Peripherals) crashed a few >days ago. > * For the first time in three years, it didn't say "heads parked - > power down"; it just went to a black screen and didn't take any input > * I powered down to let it cool down (guessing that might be the problem, > thought I had only been on for an hour or so) > * An hour later, I turned the computer back on, but there was no response > from the hard drive. No whirring of the motor/fan, no lights... nothing. > * I powered back down and brought over a friend with a volt meter-every- > thing checked out ok. > * During one power-on, the hard drive started, but never made it up to > full speed. Something smelled like it was hot, so powered back down. > > Now, the questions: > * What do the experts here think is wrong? Power supply, head crash, > other? > --Otto "HACK-MAN" Heuer I don't qualify as a Sider expert...just another customer who had a similar problem with an older 10MB drive a few years ago. In my case, something had gone bad in the power supply. A friend with a variable power supply (that could produce a lot more current) brought it over and connected it up and got the drive spinning again. In experimenting with the Sider, we determined that it required maximum current to get the drive spinning at startup. If the power supply cannot deliver the full amount right then, things will start to smoke! My 10MB Sider has two output connectors from the power supply...one to the run the drive and the other to power the electronics. There seems to be a switch that gives all the power to the drive for the first few seconds, then turns on the other output. We figured that switch must have quit working consistently; when it started up, there wasn't quite enough amperage to run both the electronics and the drive, so the drive never started spinning and the power supply destroyed itself. Although your symptoms sound different from mine, there's quite a bit of similarity. I'd suggest trying a different power supply. -- Dave Tribby
grohol@novavax.UUCP (John Grohol) (05/29/91)
ottoh3@CFSMO.Honeywell.COM (Otto Heuer #3) writes: > * On a side note: does any company make internal hard drives for > the GS (obviously it would have to bee on a card since there's no > room in the casing for a traditional internal HD). If so, what is the > largest (most MB), who sells it, and how much is it? AE has been making its Vulcan series of hard drives (I believe in formats of 40 and 80) for internal use in Apple II series of computers. It replaces the Apple power supply (it is NOT a card!) with its own heftier power supply (I forget the difference, but the AE is better), plus it adds a hard drive in pretty much the same amoun of space, PLUS a fan. Nice combo. I think they start at $550 or something similar for the 40 meg version. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- John M. Grohol || Nova University - Ft. Lauderdale, FL Internet: grohol@novavax.nova.edu || Center for Psychological Studies "So when you see a man who's broken, pick him up & carry him." - L. Anderson