Seagate ST-251 problems

[Clarence Dold]

>From article <591 at rpi.edu>, by woody at pawl.rpi.edu (Chris A. Widmann):
> 
>   I just installed a Seagate ST-251 40 meg hard drive in a 20MHz AT clone.
> The drive works great for a few minutes and then it starts to squeel like 
> crazy. The problem will disappear and reappear after a few more minutes. It
> doesn't affect the performace of the drive at all, and seems like only a 
> part in the drive is vibrating but doesn't affect anything else. I am worried
> that it might actually be something rubbing at the spindle and creating the
> load squeel. Is it actually destructive to the drive? I will probably end up
> taking it in to get it serviced. BTW: it was brand new!

You'll probably get tons of mail on this one.
The squeal is almost certainly the spindle grounding brush.
Aggravated by vertical mounting, this is a flat copper piece with a small
piece of carbon that goes from the PC board to the spindle in the center
of the drive.  Most of them chatter or squeal.
One fix is to remove the PC board, or at least loosen it up for working
room.  bend the tab TOWARD the spindle, so that it increases the pressure.
This will eliminate the squeal.
Another fix is to put a dab of RTV silicone on the copper piece, dampening 
out the oscillations.  both of the above are approved fixes by Seagate.
another fix you will hear, but that I wouldn't recommend, is to take the tab
off, and throw it away.  I doubt that it would have been installed if it
wasn't part of the design.

-- 
Clarence A Dold - cdold at starfish.Convergent.COM         (408) 434-2083
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