SUMMARY: need to locate Quantum - have bad 105 drives (stiction problem)

From: chuck malmsten (ctm@sleepy.boeing.com)
Date: Thu Oct 08 1992 - 03:17:48 CDT


Almost 2 months ago I posted a request for information on locating
Quantum Corp - the original posting:

   I have 29 Quantum 105s that were build between April 1, 1989 and Dec 31, 1989.
   Many past posting to this mailing list have discussed the "stiction"
   problem with these drives. Does anyone have info on how I can contact
   the company (Quantum ??? ) to arrange replacement drives (phone number,
   name, email address, anything)

I received replies from the following folks....many thanks!

millidc!blue!djm@uunet.UU.NET (Drew Montag)
Jeffrey Marans <jeff@erie.irc.nrc.ca>
"Dan Franklin" <dan@diamond.bbn.com>

Answers/info/solution:

1. Many folks replied that Sun takes no responsibility for these questionable drives.
   If you have Sun maintenance (we don't) they will replace a drive that won't
   spin up (i.e. just like any other drive problem). If you don't have sun support your
   out of luck. I confirmed this with a face-to-face meeting at the local sun office.
   Their hardware support manager appeared happy to swap new drives for my suspect ones
   at $600 each (I can buy new ones @$525 each).

2. Here is the response that solved my problem:

        Quantum Corp.
        500 McCarthy Blvd.
        Milpitas, CA 95035
          
        Sales: 1-800-624-5545 <======================= This has been disconnected...ctm
        Tech. Support: 1-900-740-4433 (Yes, it's a 900 number.)

        I was told by a Quantum engineer that the company does not have an
        Internet drop.

        Talking to sales won't do any good. I tried that. Call the 900 number.
        It's a flat $5.00 per call--talk as long as you want for $5.00. On
        several occassions I have spoken at length with a member of technical
        support. In our case, the engineer determined from bar codes numbers
        attached to our drives that the disks had been OEM'd to Sun, thereby
        relieving Quantum of any maintenance/repair/warranty obligation.

        Sun showed no interest whatsoever in helping us solve our ``stiction''
        problem, as you and others (including Quantum) have dubbed the problem.
        But then again, we have a HW maintenance contract with another provider
        who replaced the drives on request.

        Good luck. You may need loads of it to wrestle this issue to the ground.

        -Tom______________________________________________________________________
        Thomas J. Murray tom@cs.clemson.edu

I called the 900 number from home (it was blocked at work by the PBX!). The person that
I spoke with was very helpfull. She didn't require any info from the disk drives. She was
familar with the problem. The solution is to replace the ROM (socketed chip on curcuit
board of the drive) labelled GA104 (on one drive the chip has no label - just a silver
square on top) with new ROMS - GA300. She sent me 30 ROMs which I received in about 3 days (she
even sent them to my home address as I could not remember our office PO box number). She
said that the new ROMS apply more power to the motor on start up, and during idle periods it
exercises the heads to keep the lubricant distributed.

I have 4 drives running with the new ROMs. The jumper setting for the SCSI ID are different with
the new ROMS:

             JUMPER SETTING (A0-A2)
             OLD NEW SCSI Target Drive ID
             GA104 GA300
  
              3 6 3 sd0
              1 4 1 sd1
              2 2 2 sd2
              0 0 0 sd3

By the way, it looks like I have 10-20 extra GA300 ROMS I'll send them to who ever
wants them or I will return them to Quantum. First come-first serve...quantities limited!!!

3. Another reply from "Dan Franklin" <dan@diamond.bbn.com> also noted the "900". He called the
   support folks at quantum and was told:
         
         I explained it was from a Sun system, and he said they couldn't help me;
         since Sun replaces the firmware with their own, I'd have to talk to Sun. He
         gave me another Quantum number to call in order to get the right Sun OEM number
         to call.

This doesn't jive with my experience as noted in (2) above...two drives have been running
26 hours with firmware from quantum (ROM GA300). He also noted:
               
        (according to Quantum) [sun] was given lots of replacement 105s to give
        to their own customers (this was in an internal Quantum memo that found
        its way onto this mailing list awhile back)

I also saw the posting that is referred to, but our local sun reps flatly deny that
Quantum has done anything for them.

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