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From: spector@brillig.umd.edu (Lee Spector)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Quantum ROM fix report
Message-ID: <20837@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 20 Nov 89 15:09:27 GMT
References: <14618@well.UUCP> <9323@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Sender: nobody@mimsy.umd.edu
Reply-To: spector@brillig.umd.edu.UUCP (Lee Spector)
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 35

In article <9323@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> eacj@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Julian Vrieslander) writes:
>
>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?

The post-ROM-"fix" problem on the 80 meg Quantum is far worse than what you
describe.  In fact, my 80 meg Quantum has ALWAYS displayed the symptom which 
you describe, and I am under the impression that periodic occurences of 
brief (< 1 second), spontaneous activity are perfectly normal for these
drives.  I've seen various explanations for this activity - some have
described it as a sort of "re-allignment" - and I don't think it's anything
to worry about.

The NEW problem (post "fix") is a rattling sound that continues for a long
time - usually until the user explicitly causes a subsequent read/write to
the disk.  Sometimes it takes several read/writes to stop the sound, and
it usually comes back fairly soon (at least this is my experience with my
IIcx).  I've heard that the problem is supposed to fix itself within a few
weeks, but as has been mentioned in previous posts (by myself and others)
this does not seem to be the case.  When this rattling sound is occurring
there IS noticable slowdown of drive accesses.

  -Lee (spector@cs.umd.edu)