Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!dev8j.mdcbbs.com!campbell
From: campbell@dev8j.mdcbbs.com (Tim Campbell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: No-Noise for HD ????
Message-ID: <1991May10.130955.1@dev8j.mdcbbs.com>
Date: 10 May 91 13:09:55 GMT
References: <543.282803bc@vax87.aud.auc.dk>
Organization: McDonnell Douglas M&E, Cypress CA
Lines: 41
Nntp-Posting-Host: dac
Nntp-Posting-User: tdh

In article <543.282803bc@vax87.aud.auc.dk>, i6minos@vax87.aud.auc.dk writes:
> 
> A friend of mine has a very noisy PC. Installing a No-Noise did
> not help much since it is the harddisk that is making the noise.
> 
> Is there a program which will stop the HD when it has not been
> in use for some time (e.g. 1 minute) ????
> 
-- 
Jens

No program that I'm aware of - I don't think it's a possible.  The drive 
motor has no switch - it's simply connected to the power supply.

A lot of original IBM PC/XTs with the 10Mb drive were famous for this.  There
was a semi-simple fix...  Near the hub of the hard drive and (usually) 
visible from the outside of the drive (nothing has to be dissasembled on the
drive itself, but the drive must be removed from the computer) is a metal
contact which is touching the axle of the hard drive - the contact is held
in place by a spring.  The purpose of this is to keep the drive grounded
thus helping to insure integrity of the magnetic data.  After a while, this
contact will begin to wear a dimple into the axle of the drive and start to
squeal - the irritating noise which you hear.  You may _carefully_ bend the
contact & spring over to one side of the dimple and it will stop squealing.
Try to move it just a small amount - if the contact is too far to one side it
will drag excessively and just accelerate the wear.

I have not attempted to apply a lubricant to this point so I don't know what
results it might yield.  Short term it might fix the squeal, but long term
it might spread the oil (to the fast spinning rate) to other components and
attract dust -- probaby not desirable.

	-Tim

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	  In real life:  Tim Campbell - Electronic Data Systems Corp.
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