Xref: utzoo unix-pc.general:3776 comp.sys.att:7641 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cwjcc!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnewsc!psfales From: psfales@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (Peter Fales) Newsgroups: unix-pc.general,comp.sys.att Subject: Re: sick disk?! Message-ID: <3454@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> Date: 25 Sep 89 22:45:42 GMT References:Distribution: na Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 41 In article , root@nidhog.nidhog.cactus.org (Root) writes: > > HALP! > > The disk works well most of the time but occasionally the hard disk > makes an awful noise ``brrrrrrrr...spriong-griong-griong''. The status > manager(smgr) flickers or dies sysinfo responst /dev/rfp002 can't > read superblock. The disk is gone. Well diagnostics ran and responded > error on check read when ever this happens. The only thing I can think > of is bad power. If any one out there has had a similar experience :*(. > Or has any helpful suggestions Please Let me know. Deja Vu! I had an almost identical experience. Every few days I would come home and find that smgr had died, though the system seemed to be working fine. I was also getting hard disk errors in the unix.log every few days, though I didn't know if the two were related. Finally, I happened to be in the room at the time and I heard the strange noises that you described. I was worried, let me tell you! My first thought was also "bad power." I took the cover off and checked the power supply voltages. Ah ha! Power was going up and down randomly between about 4.5 and 4.8 volts. Then I happened to look at the connector where the cable from the mother board connects to the power supply. Pins on this connector alternate with odds pins as +5 and even pins as ground (or vice versa, I don't remember). In any case, the plastic connector was discolored near each of the five volt connectors, as if those pins had somehow gotten very hot! When I pulled the connector off the pins on the power supply were black (like smoke). As a first try, I polished the connectors and put everything back together. Voila! 5 Volt power solid as a rock. I still don't know what happened to get me into this, but since that time (several months of continuous use) the system has never crashed, smgr has never mysteriously died, and I have had exactly one disk error in the log. -- Peter Fales AT&T, Room 5B-420 2000 N. Naperville Rd. UUCP: ...att!peter.fales Naperville, IL 60566 Domain: peter.fales@att.com work: (312) 979-8031