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From: mark@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Mark Turner)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Freaky hard disk problems
Message-ID: <870290@hpcilzb.HP.COM>
Date: 3 May 90 18:14:45 GMT
References: <870289@hpcilzb.HP.COM>
Organization: HP Design Tech Center - Santa Clara, CA
Lines: 20

Thanks to all who helped me out on this one.  The general consensus is
that the ROM in the drive is responsible for this strange behavior.  My drive
contains the new ROM, which was supposed to fix the famous "sticky lubricant"
problem.  A side effect of this is random seeking during idle periods.
Unfortunately, mine seems a bit overzealous.

I'm going to try a remedy suggested by phaedrus@u.washington.edu:

>     I'm told there's a fairly-reliable method of making this go into
> remission; get one of those hard-disk checkers that does a random seek test
> (if you tell your dealer about the problem, maybe they'll give you a copy of
> Apple's HD diagnostic program), and leave it running for two or three hours.
> This will thoroughly distribute and loosen up the lubricant; the ROM can sense
> this somehow, and stops doing the head-thrash.

If this doesn't work, I'm going to scream like hell at Apple and the
dealer (who did nothing about the problem when it was under warranty)
until I get some satisfaction.  The computer is only six months old.

Mark