Re: quiet down that noizy ProFile

I've got 4 profiles. Of these 3 make the fridge compressor noise. They've all been alive for over 20 years now and still work. Granted, I rarely turn any of them on, and even then, only for a few hours, but they still work.

The Larry Pina book, Macintosh Hardware Repair Secrets describes how to fix this. It's a bit of a rare book to find, and usually around $30-$40, but it's worth getting. Chapter 13 of this book is what you're after:

"Some hard drives tend to be intermittently noisy, likely an annoying loud refrigerator... The fix is to remove the drive and check for a static discharge button. Intermitten strange noises often mean the discharge piece is too close to the media. Bend it back with a soldering aid as shown in figure 13-29 and the noise will be gone. Be careful when you're doing this, but dont' be overly concerned about bending it back too far. Some vendors advise removing the static button altogether. Generally, all you have to do is bend it back a little."

(The figure shows a soldering tool (the usual one with a blade on one end and a hook on the other you used to be able to find at RatShack) pointing to a circular knob in the middle of the board on the bottom of the hard drive.) It looks a bit like a spiral and is next to a crystal, a chip that has two large resistors under it, and below a large chip with a sticker on it. You can probably use long, a small head flat screwdriver instead.

But, if you're right and it is the ball bearings, then the problem is indeed severe. I guess go by the type of sound - is it fridge compressor like? Lubricating the bearings might not be so easy.

I've not done this before, nor have I bent back the profile discharge tab - I don't mind the noise since I rarely turn the drives on.

There is some stuff here:
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2004/05/bbspot_labs_whining_hard_drive.html about fixing lubrication problems with hard drives, but it's a joke page, and you're very likely to destroy a hard drive if you do what it says.

Jason Perkins wrote:

>My ProFile is sounding very sick lately. As the drive sits there, the
>bearing will make these horrible pinging sounds... I don't think it
>has long left.
>
>I would like to lubricate the bearings, but I can't see how to get the
>motor apart without breaking it. I got another ST-506 to experiment
>on. I took it to an auto parts store to see if they had a gear puller
>that could pull the motor off, and they said it looked like it
>wouldn't come apart.
>
>Does anyone have any insights on this?
>
>

--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "LisaList" group. To post to this group, send email to lisalist_at_email.domain.hidden To unsubscribe from this group, send email to lisalist-unsubscribe_at_email.domain.hidden For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/lisalist -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- Received on 2006-05-11 16:59:34