Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Scott_A_Dalrymple
From: Scott_A_Dalrymple@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: HELP! ST251 isn't spinning up much anymore
Message-ID: <20197@cup.portal.com>
Date: 7 Jul 89 03:23:14 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 30

Greetings, friends!
I wonder if anyone out there has had a problem I am having with my
Seagate ST-251 40MB hard drive.  Lately it is very difficult to get it
to spin up when I turn on my AT clone.  It first happened probably a
year ago.  Not knowing what else to try, I pulled the cables off the
drive, cleaned the contacts, and reseated the connectors.  To my
surprise, the disk the spun right up when I applied power.  So, about
3 months ago, when the same symptom occurred, I knew what to try, and
it worked then, too.  It happened again again last Wednesday, and I
tried the same trick.  It didn't work right away, but I fiddled with
the connectors and recycled power 2 or 3 times and it spun up.  Then
it didn't spin up Friday, or Saturday, or Sunday.  Each time it required
more and more aimless fiddling to get the thing to spin up.  Sunday it
was about 45 minutes.  I haven't powered down the AT since, for fear
that the disk will die for good then (of course, it is fully backed up).

When it is not spinning up, the little green light comes on when power
is applied to the AT, and if I listen *real* close, I hear a little
click, similar to the routine clicking of a normal start up.  If it were
a car, I'd say, "it won't turn over" or "it needs a little 'kick start'."
 
Can anyone provide any suggestions for me?  I don't want to throw away
a perfectly good car want of a battery (so to speak).  The disk works
*fine* once it comes up.  No problems at all.
 
Thanks for any help.  Post or email.
 
Scott Dalrymple
Computer Sciences Corp.
Scott_A_Dalrymple@cup.portal.com