Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!van-bc!
From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Hard Drive Whine and Dust?
Message-ID: <1992@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 17 Sep 90 11:30:57 GMT
Lines: 51
Return-Path: <lpami!lphillips>
To: van-bc!rnews

In <9009180251.AA01055@astrod>, antunes@ASTRO.PSU.EDU (Sandy Antunes) writes:
>Hello!
>  My hard drive has just started faintly whining.  I noticed it making
>a high pitch whine, so I quickly turned it off and then opened up the
>case, looked at it, checked the screws, blew out the dust, and somehow
>that shut it up.  So I put it back together again.
>  However, minutes later, it started intermittantly making a whining
>sounds, irregardless of whether it is being accessed or not.  It's a
>Supra 64 meg SCSI externally mounted to my A500 in a seperate case with
>two bays (one empty) and a power supply and fan.  I use a CLtd controller.
>  I'm keeping it on to grab all the non-backup recent stuff, hopefully
>someone can help before it dies?  What is wrong with it!
> Email please unless EVERYONE cares about my drive.  :-)

Everyone who owns a drive cares about your drive, and why it's whining, and how
to shut it up. :-)

The most common cause of drive whine is the spindle grounding strap. They
usually have a little carbon button on them that actually contacts the spindle.
After a while, the button wears, and the straps will vibrate. It is not a cause
for alarm, and is nothing more than an annoyance (a big annoyance, of course).

What needs to be done is one or more of the following:

1. Change the tension on the strap... more or less pressure on the spindle.

2. Put some silicone rubber on the strap to change its resonant frequency.
   NOTE: NOT on the spindle or the carbon button!

3. Remove the strap. This will only work on some drives. If you don't know if
   it works on your drive or not, don't do it, or remember how you did it so
   you can put it back together. If your drive is not one that will allow this,
   the symptoms will be random read/write errors after a few minutes of
   operation, more so on dry days.

4. Smear a _small_ amount of conductive grease on the carbon button where it
   contacts the spindle.

All this at your own risk of course. Know what you are doing, or consult
someone who does.

-larry

--
It is not possible to both understand and appreciate Intel CPUs.
    -D.Wolfskill
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
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