i6minos@vax87.aud.auc.dk (05/08/91)
A friend of mine has a very noisy PC. Installing a No-Noise did not help much since it is the harddisk that is making the noise. Is there a program which will stop the HD when it has not been in use for some time (e.g. 1 minute) ???? Please E-mail to: i6minos@vax87.aud.auc.dk Thanks in advance .... Jens Peder Ulfkjaer Institute of Building Technology and Structural Engineering University of Aalborg DK-9000 Aalborg Denmark
john@telesoft.com (John Atkinson @lone) (05/10/91)
Software to stop the hard disk? I'd be very surprised if that were possible. I do remember reading about an expansion card for PCs that would automatically power down your hard disk after a specified period of time, and leave it powered down until it was next accessed. It occured to me that such a product is just what I'd need if I wanted to leave my PC powered up all the time. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the product. I do remember seeing it advertised in PC Magazine, about 2 years ago, in the small ads in the back of the mag. Hope this jogs some other reader's memory, because I'd like to get one of those boards myself, now that I think about it! ;^) --John Atkinson telesoft!john@ucsd.edu
campbell@dev8j.mdcbbs.com (Tim Campbell) (05/10/91)
In article <543.282803bc@vax87.aud.auc.dk>, i6minos@vax87.aud.auc.dk writes: > > A friend of mine has a very noisy PC. Installing a No-Noise did > not help much since it is the harddisk that is making the noise. > > Is there a program which will stop the HD when it has not been > in use for some time (e.g. 1 minute) ???? > -- Jens No program that I'm aware of - I don't think it's a possible. The drive motor has no switch - it's simply connected to the power supply. A lot of original IBM PC/XTs with the 10Mb drive were famous for this. There was a semi-simple fix... Near the hub of the hard drive and (usually) visible from the outside of the drive (nothing has to be dissasembled on the drive itself, but the drive must be removed from the computer) is a metal contact which is touching the axle of the hard drive - the contact is held in place by a spring. The purpose of this is to keep the drive grounded thus helping to insure integrity of the magnetic data. After a while, this contact will begin to wear a dimple into the axle of the drive and start to squeal - the irritating noise which you hear. You may _carefully_ bend the contact & spring over to one side of the dimple and it will stop squealing. Try to move it just a small amount - if the contact is too far to one side it will drag excessively and just accelerate the wear. I have not attempted to apply a lubricant to this point so I don't know what results it might yield. Short term it might fix the squeal, but long term it might spread the oil (to the fast spinning rate) to other components and attract dust -- probaby not desirable. -Tim --------------------------------------------------------------------------- In real life: Tim Campbell - Electronic Data Systems Corp. Usenet: campbell@dev8.mdcbbs.com @ McDonnell Douglas M&E - Cypress, CA also: tcampbel@einstein.eds.com @ EDS - Troy, MI CompuServe: 71631,654 (alias 71631.654@compuserve.com) P.S. If anyone asks, just remember, you never saw any of this -- in fact, I wasn't even here.
ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) (05/12/91)
>Software to stop the hard disk? I'd be very surprised if that were >possible. I do remember reading about an expansion card for PCs that >would automatically power down your hard disk after a specified period >of time, and leave it powered down until it was next accessed. It Hmmm... remember it takes a minute or two for the drive to spin down, and about 20-30 seconds to spin up again.... -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Iskandar Taib | The only thing worse than Peach ala Internet: NTAIB@AQUA.UCS.INDIANA.EDU | Frog is Frog ala Peach Bitnet: NTAIB@IUBACS ! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ecwu61@castle.ed.ac.uk (R Renwick) (05/13/91)
In article <1991May11.225043.10706@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) writes: >>Software to stop the hard disk? I'd be very surprised if that were >>possible. I do remember reading about an expansion card for PCs that >>would automatically power down your hard disk after a specified period >>of time, and leave it powered down until it was next accessed. It > >Hmmm... remember it takes a minute or two for the drive to >spin down, and about 20-30 seconds to spin up again.... > Not on my Compaq SLT it doesn't! When the machine is running from the battery, it powers down the drive after n minutes and when it does this, the drive stops almost instantly or at least within 1-2 seconds. When you next access the drive and it is re-started, it only takes about 5-6 seconds. So there is no need for the long delays suggested above, but whether it is possible to obtain fast shutdown and re-start on an ordinary drive, I don't know. Rik
mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir) (05/16/91)
In article <1991May11.225043.10706@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) writes: >>Software to stop the hard disk? I'd be very surprised if that were >>possible. I do remember reading about an expansion card for PCs that >>would automatically power down your hard disk after a specified period >>of time, and leave it powered down until it was next accessed. It > >Hmmm... remember it takes a minute or two for the drive to >spin down, and about 20-30 seconds to spin up again.... > > > > > >-- >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Iskandar Taib | The only thing worse than Peach ala >Internet: NTAIB@AQUA.UCS.INDIANA.EDU | Frog is Frog ala Peach >Bitnet: NTAIB@IUBACS ! >------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * * * * * * * ======================= Meir Green * * * * * * * * ======================= mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu * * * * * * * ======================= N2JPG
mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Meir) (05/16/91)
In article <10212@castle.ed.ac.uk> ecwu61@castle.ed.ac.uk (R Renwick) writes: >In article <1991May11.225043.10706@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) writes: >>>Software to stop the hard disk? I'd be very surprised if that were >>>possible. I do remember reading about an expansion card for PCs that >>>would automatically power down your hard disk after a specified period >>>of time, and leave it powered down until it was next accessed. It >> >>Hmmm... remember it takes a minute or two for the drive to >>spin down, and about 20-30 seconds to spin up again.... >> > Not on my Compaq SLT it doesn't! When the machine is running >from the battery, it powers down the drive after n minutes and when it >does this, the drive stops almost instantly or at least within 1-2 >seconds. When you next access the drive and it is re-started, it only >takes about 5-6 seconds. So there is no need for the long delays >suggested above, but whether it is possible to obtain fast shutdown and >re-start on an ordinary drive, I don't know. I would guess that the smaller the drive, the lower its inertia. A 3.5" would probably spin up/down faster than a 5.25". Possibly, the number of platters, full size vs half-size, etc could also affect this. * * * * * * * ======================= Meir Green * * * * * * * * ======================= mig@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu * * * * * * * ======================= N2JPG