From: Gerald C. Delsescaux (jd_at_eighthwave.com)
Date: Sat Oct 03 1998 - 12:21:30 EDT
To all those in the group, thanks for the feedback on the various issues I
posted. I'm starting to feel more confident that the minor "annonyances"
that I mentioned are nothing more than that (a good thing!) Just hearing
others confirm the same experiences make me feel like these "issues" are not
pieces of broken glass on a beach just *waiting* to cause a problem later.
Rich posted some good comments on the hard disk issue, which I'll add to
below.
> From: Rich_Chong_at_mail.share.org [SMTP:Rich_Chong_at_mail.share.org]
> Sent: Saturday, October 03, 1998 9:42 AM
> To: Gerald C. Delsescaux
> Subject: Re: New TP600 -- hard disk noise (& other issues)
>
> Your COM1 problem may be because, Com1 and the IR port often conflict. My
> tp560 disables the com1 port if i do a bios reinitialize.
>
This was the first thing I checked... IBM tech support & I went through this
several times and we pretty well wrapped up that the IR port was disabled
properly and COM1 enabled. Win95 Device Manager confirmed this. (I even
checked the settings by booting DOS and confirming everything with the PS2
utility.) But thanks for the advice on BIOS disabling COM1 -- I think I saw
that myself.
> Hard drive noise you are hearing is called thermal recalibration. It is
> the
> hard drive's bios performing a few head seeks every once in a while to
> recalibrate the head positioning voice-coil servo.
>
This is what I am suspecting, so it's good to hear some feedback that
confirms (or at least supports) the idea.
> Now i'm not saying that you don't have a problem. Hard drives are very
> mechanical and sensitive.
>
Ack! You're NOT supposed to say that! <just kidding>
> Post your exact system model,
> or even better, if you can tell us the harddrive model, we can compare
> noises. Random recal tinkling noises
> wouldnt bother me, but thunking sounds (which were normal in my real old
> tp500 700mb travelstar) would bother me.
>
> Rich
>
The ThinkPad (600) is a 2645-51U, dated 08/98 on the case, I believe. The
drive was the standard one that IBM includes: a 4gig Hitachi model DK227A-41
(Cyl 7944 Heads 16, Sec 63).
Something I forgot (which someone else on the mailist asked) is how
repetitive are the sounds. The drive will always "tonk" just once at a time
(never a multiple burst or grouping) and might sound off again within
several (5 to 10 seconds) or wait for minutes. I seemed to notice it the
most while doing some of the COM1 testing under regular old DOS. Perhaps
all power management was off and this was a contributing factor?
Thanks again to everyone for all the feedback. The Memphis repair center
said it should be back here Monday, so I can comment more then. Wish me
luck!
Jerry
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