Re: Exploding HD Enclosures! ME-910U2F

[Dan K]

Jim wrote:
>Dear Listers,
>
>Imagine plugging your nice, shiny external firewire drive into your 
>computer, and moments later hearing an explosion and seeing a jet of 
>smoke shooting out the back of your enclosure!  This is exactly what 
>happened to me THREE TIMES.


How embarrassing to be at a jobsite and have your portable drive explode? 
Geez, heh heh heh, just glad it wasn't _me_!

And the exploding "great(!!) drive" demonstration must have been a laugh 
riot too . . . NOT!

I've got 4 of the ME-910F model and I've recommended the same to tons of 
folks just as did you. I sure hope those pyrocapacitors didn't find their 
way into this model. I haven't plugged one into an iMac or eMac however 
and if I do I'll now be _un-surprised_ if mine go bang too.

Nice that at least Triumph got back to you with an explanation. Based on 
that communication you should have the Geeks replace those with a 
different model or simply refund your costs.

That said, digikey.com (among others of course) has the part should you 
decide to repair it yourself.

I'm curious what sort of voltage those iMac/eMacs are pumping out of 
their FW ports. It sure sounds like a very poorly regulated PS putting 
out an excessively high voltage. Can you measure some voltages, on both 
the exploder i/eMacs and the non-exploders?

Thanks for the heads-up in any case!

Dan K


.
http://macdan.n3.net/
carracho://dankephoto.dhs.org:9700
hotline://dankephoto.dhs.org:9500
.


-- 
G-Books is sponsored by  and...

 Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com  | Refurbished Drives |
 -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks  |  & CDRWs on Sale!  |

  Support Low End Mac 

G-Books list info:  
  --> AOL users, remove "mailto:";
Send list messages to:  
To unsubscribe, email:  
For digest mode, email: 
Subscription questions: 
Archive: 



---
>The Think Different Store
http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com
---

Exploding HD Enclosures! ME-910U2F

[Jim]

Dear Listers,

Imagine plugging your nice, shiny external firewire drive into your 
computer, and moments later hearing an explosion and seeing a jet of 
smoke shooting out the back of your enclosure!  This is exactly what 
happened to me THREE TIMES.

I post here because I had previously recommended this product to people 
on this list, owing to the nice design, and apparent quality.  I now 
feel obliged to report my horrendous experience to you all, in the 
hopes that you will be able to avoid the trouble.  I also submit my 
sincere regret to anyone who had this problem because of my prior 
recommendation.

Way back in March, I wrote:
Jeff wrote:
I picked up a refurb 20GB IBM model 40GNX from
consumerdepot.com for just $69 this week.
I also suggest you investigate the external housing options by 
triumph technologies, for your surplus drive? (specifically, the model 
me-910 series)  They make dual USB2, dual Firewire, and combo 
USB2/firewire enclosures, which ARE Mac compatible (and use the oxford 
911 bridge for the firewire part).
The following experiences involve the ME-910U2F (combo firewire/USB) 
enclosure only.  It is for 2.5" hard disk drives, typically the size 
used in laptop computers, not the larger 3.5" drives used in desktop 
systems.  Several months ago, I purchased a pair of these enclosures, 
and was so happy with them that I promoted them on this list.  Two 
months ago, I had to return one for replacement, and last week had to 
return the second one as well (vendor: "Computer Geeks", of Oceanside, 
CA, who issued RMA's for replacement equipment).  Today the initial 
replacement from several months ago also went up in smoke.

These enclosures worked fine on an Apple Powerbook G3 "firewire" for 
several weeks, bus powered, and also on an Apple PowerMacintosh 7200 
with USB PCI card, also bus powered, and also on two Dell computers, 
USB bus powered.  They contained different brands of working hard drive 
mechanisms.

In April, the first enclosure exploded several seconds after plugging 
it into an iMac DV G3/450MHz computer firewire port at a job in New 
York (loud "bang", with smoke shooting out the back of the enclosure).  
It appeared that a capacitor (1 cm tall, black cylindrical component on 
the board inside the enclosure) blew up, releasing smoke and brown 
fuzz.  The IBM drive mechanism was undamaged, and worked fine in the 
replacement enclosure provided by "Computer Geeks" on a Powerbook.

Last week, the second enclosure similarly exploded several seconds 
after plugging it into a separate, working, external firewire drive, 
connected to my personal iMac DV G3/400MHz computer, at home.  In this 
instance, the ME-910U2F was not directly connected, but rather chained 
through another external firewire hard drive (3.5" style, from OWC, 
housed in a MacAlly enclosure.

Today I attached a third ME-910U2F enclosure (the replacement, above) 
containing an IBM mechanism to the firewire port of an academic G4 
eMac, only to hear the same BANG and see the same smoke shooting out 
the back.

Different computers and different drive mechanisms; the only things in 
common were the ME-910U2F enclosures connecting to a firewire bus, and 
with the same capacitor exploding.  Ironically, the second one exploded 
when I was *trying* to demonstrate to a friend how great this enclosure 
is.

The eMac and both iMac computers continue to work properly with other 
brands of external firewire drives and equipment attached to them.

I wrote to Triumph Technologies, with this information, inquiring if 
this was a known problem.  They replied as follows:

There was one batch of them with bad capacitors, hence your "explosive"
problem.
This have been fix in later productions.
Most ibook/PowerBook user will never encounter this problem due to the 
lower
Amp.
The higher Amp on the iMac/eMac/PowerMac doesn't agree with the bad
capacitor.
I guess I have sufficiently bad luck to get THREE of the early ones.  I 
doubt I'll be able to get Computer Geeks to accept the third one back 
for replacement, and I'm about to try replacing the "bad" capacitor 
myself, if I can find the part.  Anyone know where to buy components 
like this on the www?  Radio Shack doesn't seem to carry the one I need 
(220uF, 6.3V, radial, 105 degree C, electrolytic).

If you've got an ME-910U2F, I would suggest that you NEVER plug it into 
an iMac or eMac; if you're shopping for an enclosure, I suggest you 
avoid this one.  Google it on the WWW to get a picture of it so you 
know what to avoid if buying on ebay or from another vendor.  OWC 
formerly carried this enclosure, but does not list it anymore.  Neither 
do the Geeks, in fact.  I will remain afraid--very afraid--to use ANY 
hard drive enclosure from this manufacturer on my eMac or iMac systems.

I hope this helps someone.

--Jim.

--
G-Books is sponsored by  and...
Small Dog Electronicshttp://www.smalldog.com  | Refurbished Drives |
-- Check our web sit