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From: deg@hq.demos.su (Vladimir U. Degtyarev)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: TURN COMPUTER OFF OR LEAVE ON
Message-ID: <1991Jun9.195502.18858@hq.demos.su>
Date: 9 Jun 91 19:55:02 GMT
References: <1991May24.160414.3552@rodan.acs.syr.edu> <1991May25.150948.542@monu0.cc.monash.edu.au>
Organization: DEMOS, Moscow, USSR
Lines: 39

In <1991May25.150948.542@monu0.cc.monash.edu.au> ins845b@monu4.cc.monash.edu.au (mr  k.l. lentin) writes:

>In article <1991May24.160414.3552@rodan.acs.syr.edu> ldstern@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Larry Stern) writes:
>>I also apologize for bringing back this somewhat tired thread, but I do have a
>>question for the above poster. What is the problem with Seagate drives that
>>warrants keeping them, in particular, on all night?

>I am not the poster you refer to but I am the one who started this seagate
>stuff. The problem turns up in the ST251 and ST250R and 2 others. Its
>apparently called STICTION (like friction but worse :-) and its simply that
>when you turn the drive oiff and leave it for more than a few minutes, it
>won't start up again. The solution is to shake the drive in a flat circular
>motion - thus causing the platters to rotate to jar them loose. Bumbing them
>around sometimes fixes them The solution: leave it on (it takes me 20 minutes
>to disassemble my machine to get the driveout, get it going and rebuild the
>computer. I sent it to get repaird and $280 later its the same! The repairers
>never detect the poblem 'cos they move the drive around too much and try it
>too often! So far the only suggestion to fix this involved opening the drive
>and oiling the surfaces of the p[latters. (I shall say no more :-)

Kelvin (mr. k.l. lentin) you (and others) will owe next $280 to me, for I'm
familiar with the ST25X problem a.r.. The STICTION problem has (excuse me,
Kelvin) nothing to do with FRICTION. In fact, driver's heads STICK for some
unknown to me reason. One can clearly observe the phenomenon during the
POST - normaly, when BIOS initializes the drive, the drive's LED flashes
and sound like Tuk-tuk-tuk can be heard. When the STICTION occured, the
LED flashes OK, but that's all - heads STUCK. Later on, a pleasant message
goes up on the screen: 'Error initialize Drive 0(1) ' - depends on BIOS
manufacturer. The solution is as simple as that: get the drive out so, that
you can reach heads axle (it's in the nearest right corner of the drive -
face to you, belly down). Use a screwdriver to turn the axle 1 or 2' clock
and conterclockwise. Be careful not to turn it more- you can spoil the
track nearest to the parkin' one. It's 100% fixup for ST25X - I fixed tens of
them. ST25X are very popular here in the Soviet U.
And one more thing. Maybe I'm late, but Larry, for God sake DON'T YOU EVER
OPEN THE COVER. To say nothing about oiling the main axle.
Sorry guys for being late - was out.

Vladimir