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From: jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Quantum ROM fix report
Message-ID: <736@crash.cts.com>
Date: 19 Nov 89 20:16:07 GMT
Sender: root@crash.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet01], El Cajon CA
Lines: 59

eacj@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Julian Vrieslander) writes:
>In article <14618@well.UUCP> espen@well.UUCP (Peter Espen) writes:
>>>  In fact, MicroNet has put a freeze on purchasing ALL Quantum drives
>>> until the problem is 100% fixed.  The drive mechanism problem on the P-40S and
>>> P-80S has replicated itself on the P-105S, but to a much lesser extent, so
>>> before the 105's got really bad, MicroNet just basically told Quantum "call us
>>> when it's fixed, we're not selling anything made by you until you do."
>>
>>	Well it's been over 5 weeks since the new ROM "fix" was installed
>>on my 80 meg Quantum drive, and contrary to what Apple and Quantum are
>>trying to tell us, my drive is still going thru these noisy exercise
>>routines that slow the drive response down by at least 4 times. In fact,
>>my drive is doing it right at this moment.
>>	To bad Apple and Quantum can't just be honest and try to come up
>>with a REAL solution. Maybe they could even let people like me trade up
>>to a 105 drive for a small fee.
>
>I have had a SuperMac XP100i up and going for a couple of days now (after
>finally getting the correct power connector).  I believe this is a Quantum
>Pro 105 drive.
>
>I do notice that the drive will occasionally exercize its swing arm when
>there is no read/write going on.  Every few minutes there is a very brief
>sound, as if the arm makes one stroke and stops (I have not timed it).
>It was a bit disconcerting at first, but the activity is barely audible and does
>not interfere with the subjective responsiveness of the drive.  In fact,
>most folks are pleasantly surprised at the speediness of this disk (of course,
>the IIci gets some of the credit here).
>
>Is the spontaneous activity on the 40 and 80 meg Quantums much more frequent
>and noisy?

From my understanding, yes, the problem is exponentially worse on the P-40S
and P-80S.  I would not get a P-105S either.  The only reason I have them is
because they were the only ones that didn't seem to have the problem.  I know
the ones on our SPARCstation 1 don't have the problem, but the other two are
pretty new (we ordered them eons ago), so I can't say.  I have not worked with
a drive with the ROM fix, I have only found drives that do freeze up that 
have the infamous defect.  Until I am sure that the problem is corrected, I
am following in MicroNet's footsteps and have froze all purchase orders for
Quantum period.  All Sun workstations that use the P-105S internally we just
buy diskless now and put in a purchase order to Artecon for an external 327 Mb
or 636 Mb SCSI hard drive.  Besides, 208 Mb is barely enough just to turn on
the machine and put SunOS on.  :)
 
Get a clue Apple and Quantum, we are tired of this bull(*bleep*)!

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