userNQNF@mts.ucs.UAlberta.CA (Dale A. Ulan) (11/11/90)
I've got a Miniscribe 3053 (44 meg 28ms voice coil positioning). A while back I was having problems with the drive not spinning up. A gentle tap (and I mean gentle) on the analog board would get it going. I removed the IDC connector (attached to a small ribbon cable and going to the middle of the hard drive, where the motor should be), used some rubbing alcohol on the pins and connectors to clean them up a bit, then put the connector back on and it worked. This is the course of action I would first suggest. My best guess is that there is a loose connection on one of the phases on the platter motor. What I mean is that the platter motor is no more than a 3 or 4 phase motor electronically controlled. If one phase is dead, then it won't start, but once spinning, it will continue to run fine. This is what makes a brushless DC motor. The problem is most likely in a connection, or in a part of the board. I would not open up the hard drive case at all-- ever. Unless the drive crashed and I wanted to see what was inside. Oh, the motor is controlled by a servo-feedback system of some sort, so the speed shouldn't change much, even though a quarter or a third of the motor isn't running properly. -------------------------------------------------- My opinions may or may not be correct, and may or may not reflect the opinions of this University. --------------------------------------------------