Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!texbell!nuchat!shell!bauman
From: bauman@shell.com (Evan Bauman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: 40 Mb Hard disk problem
Keywords: SE/30 power up initialization
Message-ID: <1391@shell.shell.com>
Date: 19 Oct 89 13:24:43 GMT
References: <6530@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Sender: usenet@shell.com
Reply-To: bauman@shell.com (Evan Bauman)
Organization: Shell Oil Co.
Lines: 41


In article <6530@pt.cs.cmu.edu> dandb@k.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Dean Rubine) writes:
>    I have an SE/30 with a 40 Mb internal hard drive.  Often, when the computer
>is powered up, the system fails to find the hard drive, instead displaying a
>picture of a floppy disk with a flashing question mark, as if it's waiting for
>me to insert a bootable floppy.  The hard disk light flashes briefly,
>periodically once per second or so.
>
>    If I power cycle the machine (i.e. turn it off and turn it on again) enough
>times, eventually the normal hard disk boot happens, and I can use the machine
>as normal.   Other than this, there have been no problems with the hard disk or
>any other hardware.   
>
>    I've been keeping the machine powered up as long as possible, but
>occasionally I do have to power it down and back up again.  At first, it only
>took a few tries before it would boot properly; however, the last time I tried,
>it took about 50 tries before it would work.  I'm worried that soon it will
>not boot at all from the hard disk.



We've seen the same problem in a 40MB internal drive on a Mac II.  This Mac II
is about 18 months old and has the Apple drive (Quantum?).  The symptoms
are that when you turn on the power to the Mac, the drive doesn't spin
up.  Thus, the Finder does not see the drive and blinks the question
mark at the center of the Mac icon on the screen.  Our solution is to bang on
the side of the Mac right before turning on the power.  A few good shots and
drive powers up and works normally.

Unfortunately, due to sometimes erratic temperature fluctuations in our
building in the evening, the guy who has the Mac II has to turn it off
at night lest it fry.  He's been beating on his Mac every morning and gets
some strange looks from onlookers in the hallway (we're mostly a PS/2 company
and this doesn't help the image of the Mac).

We bought the Mac from Businessland and they have made some noises about
replacing the drive although I don't know the final disposition.
	Evan G. Bauman
	Shell Development Company - Westhollow Research Center
	PO Box 1380; Houston, TX 77251-1380
	bauman@shell.com   or for the uucp types: {sun,bcm}!shell!bauman