Well, "amazing" is a signed variable. What do you do when IBM tells you that a machine check after pressing RESTART is a software error? What do you do when you put the 168 in Single Step mode, press RESTART and again get a machine check, without affecting the "software error" fairy tale? Amazing, but not in a good way.
-- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of Tom Brennan <t...@tombrennansoftware.com> Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2019 2:47:38 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Incoming | Computerworld SHARK TANK I didn't notice any unusual sounds even when standing over the unit. I think at the time there was nothing but res packs left on the 3330's, a holdover which allowed us to cheaply have multiple OS level backups. There was a project going on to move res packs to 3380's which had just arrived, so it could be that particular 3330 was never fixed. IBM was often amazing with repairs. I remember one morning my 3278 tube died. I went to lunch and it was fixed by the time I got back. On 4/14/2019 11:20 AM, Seymour J Metz wrote: > What kind of disk dies silently? When our fixed-head disk crashed after > multiple power failures it screamed like all the banshees in Hell, and the > was no doubt about what was happening. IBM said they could have it back up in > two weeks, and I thought they were blowing smokes. They flew in a special > team that did nothing but repair 2305 drives > > Part of the procedure after repair is to hook up measurement equipment and > spin for 24 hours, install the heads and spin for another 24 hours. If the > instrument detects anything out of balance you fix it and start the test from > the beginning, not from where you left off. We had a power while they were > testing, and they still turned over the working drive within the 2 weeks they > had promised. > > I don't impress easily, but they impressed me. > > > > -- > Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz > http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 > > ________________________________________ > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> on behalf of > Tom Brennan <t...@tombrennansoftware.com> > Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2019 1:27 PM > To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > Subject: Re: Incoming | Computerworld SHARK TANK > > Interesting story! The only time I've actually seen a head crash was on > an old 3330 where I had just popped in a RES pack. I walked over to the > hardware console to IPL - the old 3270 where you had to type L1/A2 or > whatever those commands were. The hardware console told me I had an I/O > error, and there was a red light on the device. I pushed the button to > open the 3330 drawer and there were bits of disk head all over the inside. > > On 4/13/2019 9:16 AM, Gabe Goldberg wrote: >> Many years ago I had friends in old DEC building in Maynard, MA. They >> had story of periodic head crashes on monster disk drives with >> vertically spinning platters. They realized cause: trucks backing into >> loading dock hitting and shaking the building -- since platters were >> oriented perpendicular to truck motion. Solution: turn drives 90 degrees >> to align platters with truck motion. At worst, I/O errors but no head >> crashes (I guess heads flew much higher than on today's devices). I'll >> ask veterans I know of that time/place to confirm... >> >> ITschak Mugzach<imugz...@gmail.com> said: >> >> That reminds me another story. ten years ago a client of us installed a new >> hitachi disk array. The technician installed and configured the array, but >> for some reasons, it was not immediately used by the client. few days >> later, the client tried to connect to the array and it was down. it was >> repeatedly don everyday afterwards. investigation showed that the the >> people who cleans the computer room unplugged the power for the vacuum >> cleaner... The array was using a standard power plug. >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >> send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >> >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
