veve@quads.uchicago.edu (jack lewis vevea) (08/23/90)
I would appreciate any ideas from hardware aces about what might be the problem here. I have a 10-month old AT clone, 640k, 80-meg Seagate, high-density 5-1/4 and 3-1/2 inch floppies. Since I acquired the machine, the floppies have frequently been subject to seemingly random failures (during format, copy, or backup) that require rebooting. The failures occur frequently enough that I have been unable to back up the hard drive, which, needless to say, leaves me a bit insecure. So far, my vendor has tried the following remedies: -replacing the cable from the controller to the drives; -replacing the floppy controller; -replacing both floppy drives; -replacing the motherboard. Now they want to try reformatting my hard drive, which I won't let them do before I back up; I'm proceeding with the backup process dealing with small sections of the disk at a time (i.e., about 4 to 5 megs) and sometimes having to try four or five times before I get through without a drive failure. Any ideas on what might be causing the continuing problem, in view of the fact that in essence most of my computer has been replaced? Thanks, Jack L. Vevea veve@quads.uchicago.edu
mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord) (08/24/90)
In article <1990Aug23.044922.23723@midway.uchicago.edu> veve@quads.uchicago.edu (jack lewis vevea) writes: >I would appreciate any ideas from hardware aces about what might >be the problem here. I have a 10-month old AT clone, 640k, 80-meg >Seagate, high-density 5-1/4 and 3-1/2 inch floppies. Since I >acquired the machine, the floppies have frequently been subject >to seemingly random failures (during format, copy, or backup) that >require rebooting. The failures occur frequently enough that I have >been unable to back up the hard drive, which, needless to say, >leaves me a bit insecure. I once had a machine with similar symptoms. The problem turned out to be the 10Mhz motherboard.. It was functionally ok, but the design ran the expansion bus at 10Mhz also. Since most add-on cards, such as disk controllers etc.. are designed for a 6Mhz or 8Mhz bus, problems would happen every now and then. The floppy disk controller was the ONLY card I had which would not work reliably at the high speed. The hard drive controller, on the same card, worked just fine. Strange, eh. If your machine has a SLOW speed mode (as opposed to the faster TURBO mode), then switch it to slow speed and try again. If everything works, then this may be the problem. A different motherboard DESIGN is required (or a disk controller that can keep up with a fast bus). Have fun. -- ___Mark S. Lord__________________________________________ | ..uunet!bnrgate!bmerh724!mlord | Climb Free Or Die (NH) | | Ottawa, Ontario. 613-763-7482 | Personal views only. | |________________________________|________________________|