Methods and apparatus for a three-stage ventricular cardioversion and defibrillation therapy that treats ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation at low energy levels. Disengaging force for disengaging each ignition coil and the base member from each other is set to be smaller than disengaging force for disengaging each ignition coil and the corresponding one of the spark plugs from each other. Furthermore, jobs are preferentially processed for important tasks in the event of a failure to reduce deterioration of the host processing performance. The timing reference signal and the position error signal are used by the disk drive for timing and positioning in self writing initial servo wedges to the disk. The amount of fluid dispensed from the needle may be a microliter range volume of a viscous fluid.