Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Scott_A_Dalrymple
From: Scott_A_Dalrymple@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 251 Wierdness (summary)
Message-ID: <20621@cup.portal.com>
Date: 20 Jul 89 03:02:42 GMT
References: <962@hydra.gatech.EDU>
Distribution: na
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 40

Hello, folks;

In article <962@hydra.gatech.EDU> russ@prism.gatech.EDU (Russell Shackelford)
writes:
> couple of weeks ago, i got on the net and whined for help about my
> ST-251 working just fine BUT not booting the machine like it should.
> [...]
> responses indicated that there's LOTS of unhappy st-251 owners in this
> world.
> [...]

    I, too, am an unsatisfied 251 owner.  In fact, I just posted
an article for help myself recently.  My problem (this time) was
that the drive won't spin up at all (without a lot of fiddling).
I got two answers, that the 12V supply isn't sufficient anymore, or
that lubricants from the shaft are leaking and causing "stiction".
I haven't checked the voltages yet, but I suspect the so-called
stiction is the problem.  For now, I'm leaving the system powered
up 24hrs to avoid the problem.  (But next week I leave for a 10-day
vacation...I'll probably turn it off before I go, and I'm afraid what
I'll find after 10 days of downtime; lately I've had problems after
12 hours down!)
    But I also have what sounds like your problem, maybe.  I have
a 6/12 MHz AT, switchable, and the disk never booted up with the switch
set on 12MHz.  Not since the day I bought it.  I never took it back
because the shop was far away, and I could get around the problem by
booting up at 6MHz, waiting about 5-10 minutes before softkeying into
Turbo mode.  A pain, but I lived with it.  Maybe this will work for
you, Russ.

P.S. Russ, I tried to email this to you at russ@prism.gatech.EDU.  It got
     returned as undeliverable, don't know why...
          Please let me know what you find out about getting any
     satisfaction from Seagate directly.  I'm tempted to contact them
     myself, even though my drive is past warranty, about 18 months old.
     Good luck and thanks for any add'l info.

Scott Dalrymple          Scott_A_Dalrymple@cup.portal.com
Computer Sciences Corp.  * DISCLAIMER:  If CSC ever found out what I've *
Hanover, MD  21076       * I've said here, they would probably deny it! *