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From: ejbehr@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Eric Behr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Quantum problems
Keywords: disk, quantum, hell
Message-ID: <1991Mar14.012352.13181@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>
Date: 14 Mar 91 01:23:52 GMT
Reply-To: ejbehr@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Eric Behr)
Organization: Central Illinois Surfing Club
Lines: 19

I guess it's a FAQ...
Certain Quantum drives (mine included) had improper lubricant put in at
assembly time. It was getting too sticky, esp. in higher humidity. Result:
drives sometimes didn't boot, because the actuator couldn't overcome the
excessive viscosity.
Quantum came up with a fix (at the first glance it's silly, but when you
think about it it might be better for all concerned than removing the old
gooey): revise the ROMs so they'll "exercise" the heads when the drive is
idle. This produces the annoying noise. It's not free of side-effects: the
drive sometimes keeps going, and my DiskTimer checks occasionally produce
numbers 4-10 times higher than normal when that happens.
To make your life rosier, I paid an obscure company $750 for my external 40MB,
and the obscure company got even more obscure - i.e. it no longer answers
the phone. I've lived with the occasional clicking for over 2 years now,
and I must admit that the disk hasn't yet dropped a single bit. My advice:
enjoy it and work in headphones. 
-- 
Eric Behr, Illinois State University, Mathematics Department
Internet: ejbehr@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu    Bitnet: ebehr@ilstu