Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!hc!lll-winken!uunet!portal!cup.portal.com!Xorg From: Xorg@cup.portal.com (Peter Ted Szymonik) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Quieting a noisy Supra HD - the whole shibang. Message-ID: <17683@cup.portal.com> Date: 28 Apr 89 01:00:10 GMT References: <8904270526.AA24999@cs.wm.edu> Organization: The Portal System (TM) Lines: 168 The best information I can give you is that the lower quality the drive mech, the more noise it will be bound to make. MicroSciences's tend to be extermely noisy, Seagates and Miniscribes are your average drives and can be dead quiet or noisy depending on the manufacturing and each drives peculiarities, Quatums, Rodimes, and CDC's are the elite drives and are dead quiet, fast, and stores lots of information, but they also command a premium price and you're not likely to find any of them in an assembled drive. (Supra uses Miniscribes and Fujis, ICD uses Seagates.) Noise can also be hard to pin down. It could come from poor grounding at the outlet, the whine of the drive spinning (which I really hate), or the sound of the stepper motor moving. The noise could also be caused by a fan rather than a drive. But I'm starting to run on. There are ways to quiet a drive. I personally put mouse pads or thick towels under my drives. Its deadens the noise level and absorbs any shocks my desk may take - just be careful not to block any fan vents. ICD drives allow cables up to 6 FEET in length thanks to their excellent shielding and electronics so you can put the drive under the table or anywhere else in reach where as with Supras you are limited to their 16" cable so the drive will be right in your face. The best advice I can give is to listen to the drive first and see if you like it, if you don't then send it back and try again. Always remember that while the company is just looking to sell drives, you have to live with the drive (and any noise it makes) for the next few years! Ok, onto the good stuff. Before you do anything take youre shoes off, this will prevent static shocks that can damagae electronics. Clear a nice workspace and put a towel down to prevent shocks to the hard drive, one nice bump on a hard table could spell disaster. ** Use Supra's PARK.PRG and park your drive's heads. ** This will prevent damage should the drive slip and bump something. You may also want to be extra safe and do a backup, can't hurt and your drive could probably use one anyway . What your about to do isn't hard, just remember to work slowly and keep things in order. Get a small container for the screws, a pad with a pencil so you can write stuff down (like drawing diagrams of where the cables are connected to the boards and drives - a MUST do) and a Philips and flat head screw driver. Oh yes, you also need the sticky tape. We're off! 1 - After parking the drive heads and disconnecting the drive bring it to your workspace. 2- Remove the screws that hold the top of the hard drive case and SLOWLY lift the top off. The reason I say slowly is because there are LED wires conencted to the top of the case and if you yank the top off you will yank the wires off and have to get out a soldering iron. 3- Lay the top of the case down next to the drive being careful of the LED wires. If you look down on your drive you will see this: __________________ TOP /---| | | VIEW / | A | B | front of drive # | | | |______|___________| --------------------- SIDE ____| power aaaaaaaaa | VIEW / | ccccccccc | front of drive / | supply dmdmdmdmd | # | dmdmdmdmd | --------------------- Under the mess of cables you will find the power supply (A) in the back of the case, and the the adaptor board (a), the controller board (c) (if an RLL drive), and the drive mech itself (dm). The boards are screwed on top of the drive and you have to remove these to get to the anti-static tab. 4- Ok, the best thing to do now is STOP. Get the drive's power cable and WHILE UNPLUGGED connect it to the drive with the top off. Make sure that the drive is OFF and plug in the cable being VERY SURE that NOTHING is inside the case like a screwdriver or your hand. Most of the electronics run at a mere 12 volts, but there are some very dangerous currents in the back of the case in the power supply area. 5- Turn the drive on and carefully listen to it. Is the noise coming from the drive mech or the fan?? If its the fan then put everything back together and call Supra to order a replacement fan, if its coming from the mech then next step. 6- Ok, the best thing to do now is STOP AGAIN and draw pictures of where the cables connect to the boards, get to know the inside of the unit so you know where everything goes when your putting it all back together. This isn't really hard to do. If you have an RLL drive there will be one 50 pin cable at the front end of the controller board that is wrapped under the drive and connects to the back of the adaptor board, and then there should be one 34 pin cable and one 20 pin cable that connect to the back of the hard drive and to the back end of the controller board. There should also be one 20 pin that connects from the back of the hard drive to the adaptor board on top. If you have a SCSI drive there will be no controller board and only one 50-pin cable from the adaptor board to the hard drive. I am going to assume that you have an RLL. Also notice that I'm working from a Supra 30meg drive, the 20 may be a bit different, but regardless your goal is to get to the top of the hard drive itself. 5- Next step is simple, remove the screws that hold down the adaptor and controller boards, be careful not to lose any screws and to keep all the white washers (and remember where they go - drawing time again!) 6- Now that the boards are free SLOWLY and CAREFULLY remove the all the ribbon cables (you did draw where they connect right?) using as little force as possible, a small screw driver may help, but DO NOT use the circuit board for leverage or it may crack, just try to get the head of the screwdriver under the edge of the cable connector and pull up, pliers may help too, just be careful, they may be hard but they do come out. 7- Working your way down, remove cable connectors until you can pull the boards far enough away to get to the top of the drive. There may also be a white card just before the hard drive itself, it is easily removed, but be sure to RE-TAPE the metal tab part back to side of the drive when you are done! Right smack in the middle of the hard drive's circuit board will be your goal, a small copper tab that sits atop a small hole in the board. This is the anti-static tab. 8- Cut a piece of sticky tape that will cover the tab and the hole. Place it directly on the tab and press down firmly but not too hard. Operation is now complete! 9- Work your way backwards restoring the card and taping its metal tab, restore the cables and circuit boards, replace the washers and screws, put the top back on (watch the LED wires so they're not cut) - YOU'RE DONE!! 10- Reconnect the drive to the computer and give it a shot. You should notice that any high pitched whine will be gone because the anti-static tab is doing its job again! If the noise that was bothering you is still there then there is nothing to be done except get a new drive, but most Supra drives noises are cured with this simple operation. If you need more help or something doesn't look right, then stop and go back - leave me mail or call Supra, they'll be more than happy to help as well. I hope this does it for you! Regards Peter Szymonik r