eMac screen 'wobble' during hard drive activity.

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cyos

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Has anyone else experienced screen/display 'wobble' after upgrading to a larger/faster hard drive in an eMac?

I have upgraded my (eMac 1Ghz) hard drive to a 160GB 7200rpm Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 from the original 40GB 5400rpm Maxtor Fireball. After using for a while I have noticed the screen now 'wobbles' in the lower and left side only during hard drive read/write activity.
I presume this is Electro Magnetic Interference from the hard drive interfering with the CRT, the new drive is 1cm thicker and so closer to the CRT. Does anyone know if this would cause damage to the screen if left, if someone has experienced this problem and been able to fix with EMI shielding rather than reduce the drive size, or if you have NOT had problems with a larger hard drive what make/model are you using. How does the new revised eMac use 160GB drive without this problem, what harddrive is used?

Any feedback but be much appreciated.
 
I had this problem a couple of month's ago and put it down to vibrations from the built in speakers. I guess vibrations from the harddrive could also cause it. You should make sure the new harddrive is securely fixed in place and there are no wires etc. touching it to cause extra vibrations (there's a better word for that although I can't think of it).

Anyway mine now seems to have stopped now, either that or my eyes have adjusted themselves. :D Good luck.
 
Thanks for your reply mw84. It is a problem like the 'screen wobble' from internal speakers playing too loud, but this happens ONLY during read/write activity. I have made sure the drive is tightly secured, and angled the hardrive in the cage so it sits as far as possible from the CRT. Changing the screen resolution makes no difference also.

What I would like to know from anyone is, will continued use with this problem cause major damage to the phoshors in the screen, or is it just the path of the electrons being disturbed as they are fired?
 
The wobble is caused by the electronmagnetic field of your peripherals.

Let me explain. The eMac creates the screen image by sending charged particles onto a sensitive surface (TV screen). This is achieved by using an electromagnetic field.

Now when you place a peripheral next to your screen, and this peripheral has its own electromagnetic field, you will have some interaction, commonly described by users as wobble.

Generally speaking anything that has a motor (hard drives), an antenna (cellphone) or a magnet (speakers) has an electromagnetic field. So keep these away from you eMac screen.
 
I have no external devices near the emac. The problem is with the new internal Hard Drive and is fixed in a cage to the motherboard, below the back of the CRT.

My new Hard Drive is ATA/133, and I have noticed the new emac 1.42Ghz uses ATA/100 drives. Could the ATA 133 drive create more Electromagnetic Interference that would be causing this screen wobble on read/write activity?
 
Could be and would not surprise me.

Maybe the new emacs have some sort of shielding to ensure no interference happens. Something your emac would not have following a simple hardware upgrade. Shielding normally looks like a sheet of foil, or metal plate. Did you remove any when you made the HD swap?

Taking a step back, the appearance of the wobble after the HD swap could be a coincidence. If this is the case, maybe your CRT needs a technical check-up.
 
Thanks for your reply aicul.

I did not remove anything from the emac when upgrading the Hard Drive, and I have tried adding extra foil shielding to the Hard Drive and I custom cut a sheet metal plate and attatched that to the shielding already between the drive and CRT. This seemed to reduce the 'wobble' slightly, but the problem is still enough to make me worry.

I have now re-installed the original 40Gb ATA/100 Hard Drive after making a clone and the wobble has not happened again, ruling out a CRT problem.

I will buy a new 'ATA/100' drive and see if that results in the same problem. I will reply in this post if anyone is having the same problem and would like to know if it makes any difference.
 
A friend once told me that it was possible to convert an internal HD into an external by buying certain components and casing. That might be an alternative instead of buying another one, if it's possible. I never looked into it. That would also give you the extra advantage of having your old 40gb internal drive added to the space on the one you've just baught aswell.
 
cyos said:
Has anyone else experienced screen/display 'wobble' after upgrading to a larger/faster hard drive in an eMac?

I have upgraded my (eMac 1Ghz) hard drive to a 160GB 7200rpm Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 from the original 40GB 5400rpm Maxtor Fireball. After using for a while I have noticed the screen now 'wobbles' in the lower and left side only during hard drive read/write activity.
I presume this is Electro Magnetic Interference from the hard drive interfering with the CRT, the new drive is 1cm thicker and so closer to the CRT. Does anyone know if this would cause damage to the screen if left, if someone has experienced this problem and been able to fix with EMI shielding rather than reduce the drive size, or if you have NOT had problems with a larger hard drive what make/model are you using. How does the new revised eMac use 160GB drive without this problem, what harddrive is used?

Any feedback but be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

I have one of the newer emacs with a 160GB drive and I am experiancing a simalar problem. When set to the highest screen resolution the lower left hand part of the screen wobbles like you decribed. The effect is more apparent when I play music or sound through through the internal speakers, so I got a pair of external speakers and that seemed to help but did not solve the problem. I decrease my screen resolution all the way down to 1024x768 and that seemed to fix it for a while. But latley the wobble has come back, not much but just starting. My question is will that "wobble" do any harm to my screen or is it just an anoyance. Hope somebody knows because my eMac just droped off the warranty and I dont hav the money to put it back on or have a major fix.
 
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