response 1 of 36:

Aug 13 14:32 UTC 1992

There is no switch on the system board to disable the test, and no key
to press to bypass it.  One possible solution is to purchase a third party
BIOS that is compatible with your XT.  I know that they exist, but have
no experience with them - I assume they follow the "Press <ESC> to bypass
memory test" trend.

response 3 of 36:

Aug 13 19:34 UTC 1992

No, I get a memory count as it's testing.  I don't want to buy a BIOS
chip for it, so I guess I'm stuck. 

response 5 of 36:

Aug 16 00:51 UTC 1992

yep.

response 7 of 36:

Aug 18 20:35 UTC 1992

How do you turn the spindle?  I rotate the whole thing quickly to have the
disk spin.  It doesn't happen often though (once a year?)

response 9 of 36:

Aug 19 17:30 UTC 1992

If it is an ST-1x8 you have to stick a screwdriver between the circuit
board and the sealed chamber of ther drive and turn the spindle.
The ST-2x8 has an "E" clip on the bottom of the spindle that can be
used to rotate the spindle.

response 11 of 36:

Aug 20 13:51 UTC 1992

I just leave it turned on.

response 13 of 36:

Mar 16 15:36 UTC 1993

You might try a different park utility? whose/which one are you using?

response 15 of 36:

Mar 24 04:32 UTC 1993

Then, I would ADD a park utility that works with full power applied,
your current park utility works as the Power Supply DIES and the PS
may be dying too fast now for the auto-park to work right upon
power-down!

response 17 of 36:

Mar 25 15:58 UTC 1993

Perhaps, perhaps not. Thoeretical consideration - old PSs and old capacitors
and/or increased load on PS (since new) cause the voltage to die off
much faster. How much faster I don'T know. Anything that uses the
voltage die-off time is subject to that time slice and rate of decrease
of voltage. 
 
And there is another time element required to move the head to the
park position, a time which is variable. It is quite posible that the
head moves *near* the anticipated park position, either undershoot or
even overshoot. I woould suspect overshoot myself, initially, so that
on power up, the head is not wehre it's supposed to be, and needs
a mechanical nudge ("jiggled out of PARK position") to get going
again. 
  
The otehr consideration is that upoon power up, there is a small
"initiating pulse" to "kick" the head out of park, which is designed
into several varieties of electro-mechanical hardware. If the "kick pulse"
is absent or too small, head stays "stuck." 
 
Another problem I've run into, and solved, occurs when there is a
"bumper pad" at the extreme end of travel. The pad deterioriates over
time and, while acting as a bumper, also becomes sticky - just sticky
enough to require more of an "initiating kick" than is available. This

condition is most often associated with "arm overshoot," btw.
  
There are probably other situations which could cause the head to fail
to move, but the above are the ones I've run into, and solved, most
often, in all sorts of electro-mechanical actuating systems, large and
small.

response 19 of 36:

Mar 26 15:40 UTC 1993

Those Seagates make good pie filling. Mmmmm.

response 21 of 36:

Apr 1 23:05 UTC 1993

Yes, and if you're really lucky you won't rip the heads off the actuator
arms when you do this, either.

response 23 of 36:

Apr 11 02:45 UTC 1993

   The sad thing about these drives is that there are so many of them
out there doing this!  Yucko.  I just gave some phone support to an
old friend whos ST-251 was doing just this.  The old rotate trick did
the job, at least this time.
   And no, the power supply can't be blamed for the sticktion problems.
The damn drives simply wern't made right.  Thanks, seagate, for losing
gigs of important data, all over the world.