I think 'it's so' Kim. What's worse is, I was getting these little warnings that I didn't listen to. Of course the same few apps were giving me problems, which I now assume pertains to the platter returning to the same point where that app is stored and so it froze machine.
Second and probably most foretelling is that over the last several months I would smell these faint but occasional wiffs of something burning. I could never isolate it and just figured it was a bit of dust landing somewhere hot. It was there and gone and so no alarms went off. But now looking at the bottom of that drive, I can see that was likely the source. I think what I'm going to do is pick up an old Dell side panel and experiment on it with cutting a few slots so I can feed ide, scsi and power supply cables through to outside on my second machine. That way I can keep the covers on and give myself access to these interfaces for temporary testing. That or I may consider Drew's suggestion of mounting several fans to blow over components but I guess I need to hear what others say about splicing extra fans into existing fan wiring? But yes, at least I strongly feel the heat buildup from no airflow is what ruined my drive. It took many many months but it's easy to understand how the bearings (assuming they are somehow filled) or not, slowly dried out or broke down whatever lubricant was inside. Just like in vehicle bearings. Now I'm not sure there is lubricant in these sealed bearings but that's just a guess. Never opened one up but I guess I can put that on the docket for one of these days although some may be different. Even if not, the metal bearing components would still begin to show similar evidence of heat damage, warping, de-tempering, and whatever from long term abuse. I'd also guess that different drive manufacturers may have different tolerances. But this doesn't address all those cards or the mobo. Of course, now that Summer is almost over, risk lessens a little. Dave -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
