Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snjsn1!bilbo!greg
From: greg@bilbo (Greg Wageman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Noisy drives
Message-ID: <985@snjsn1.SJ.ATE.SLB.COM>
Date: 16 May 89 17:38:00 GMT
References: <8905160147.AA16219@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: news@SJ.ATE.SLB.COM
Reply-To: greg@sj.ate.slb.com (Greg Wageman)
Organization: Schlumberger ATE, San Jose, CA
Lines: 42

In article <8905160147.AA16219@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> RIDDCJ@KIRK.ASTON.AC.UK writes:
>On Mon, 24 Apr 89 00:09:18 PST, Dustin Baughman wrote:
>>I have a VERY noisy internal drive in my 1040st which is about 2
>>1/2 years old now.  Is there any way to quiet it?  Will putting a
>>light oil on the "bars" that the head slides on help?  Is this bad
>>for the drive?  The drive also seems to be "sluggish".  Any
>>suggestions?
>
>Hmmm, don't know about oiling the drives, but I definitely have the same
>problem as you.  My 1040 is now about 2yrs old, and makes a *real* racket when
>it uses its floppy.  I got so concerned, I got the thing checked out by an
>Atari registered engineer locally, but she claimed it was fairly normal.  Come
>on, can a 'normal' drive sound like its trying to grind your disks?  Maybe there
>is a batch of machines out there, has anyone had the same problems?  Should
>Atari replace our drives?

My 1040 is the same age, and the internal drive is also much noisier
than my external 314 drive.  Part of this is because of the way they
work; the stepper motor that positions the head moves it in discreet
pulses and is responsible for the buzzing we hear when the head seeks.

The internal drive is hard-mounted to the plastic case, there are no
vibration-damping spacers (at least in mine).  So, the plastic case
acts like a resonator and amplifies the vibrations of the stepper.  If
there is room (and I haven't tried it so I don't know), putting rubber
washers between the drive and its mounting should greatly lessen the
noise.

Other than the annoyance factor, there isn't anything wrong with the
drive itself.

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