Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!mcsun!ukc!acorn!moncam!Elbereth
From: Elbereth@moncam.co.uk (Dave Emmerson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Hard drive problem
Summary: a little light...
Keywords: Avoiding (curing) disk problems.
Message-ID: <606@marvin.moncam.co.uk>
Date: 6 Mar 90 04:19:45 GMT
References: <267@menno.UUCP> <1427@chansw.UUCP>
Organization: Monotype ADG, Cambridge, UK
Lines: 42


It's one of those topics which won't go away, right?
Doubtless this has been said before, but while people keep asking
the same questions, I suppose they'll keep needing the same answers.

We thermally tested our 68020 VME system a couple of years back,
basically what we found was that all our boards (CPU's LS/F/HCT TTL,
PALs, GALs, LSI, R's and C's, Xtals - the lot) all worked fine up to
and beyond 70 Centigrade - plenty hot enough, you won't want to hold
them at that temp. The hard disks though were another story, NOT ONE
of the 24 assorted makes/models would continue to run reliably in an
ambient atmosphere of 40 Centigrade.

So what does this mean to you? Well look at the cooling system in your
machine, and see how well the most sensitive part of it is catered for:
in most cases it isn't, there's just an extractor fan on top of the
power supply- a good idea, but it only does half the job. Very little
of the air that it moves actually passes over the hard drive. If you've
spare spaces in the disk racking area, try to get the hard drives near
some vent holes, if there are any, or better, try to get a small fan
mounted where it will do some good. DON'T run the machine with the lid 
off! The hard drives will run hotter, not cooler, unless you use a fan.
In any case, check the exising fan for fouling with fluff, especially
if the room is carpeted. Tower style boxes which stand on the floor are
especially prone to gaining an interior fur coat, air intake filters 
don't help much if nobody cleans them regularly either! As a last resort,
if the HD is mounted in the front of your machine, you might try it
with the plastic bezel removed, or take it off, drill some vents in it
and replace it - any of the above will invalidate your warranty of
course.

Given that it is difficult to manufacture a precision drive with a 
wide temperature tolerance, perhaps they should sacrifice a little
height and add some small heatsink fins. 
Having seen the insides of a couple of those 'small footprint' machines,
I don't think I'd want one unless the HD was ultra-reliable. I think
I'll stick with the 'battleship mentality' style a while longer...

We were lucky of course, we remodelled our case before it went into
production, I wouldn't want to test PCs the same way!

Dave E.