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Conference akocoa::decpc_portables

Title:DECpc _Portables
Moderator:PCBUOA::GLANTZ
Created:Wed May 08 1991
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2423
Total number of notes:11059

2297.0. "Ultra II strange disk activity with APM" by BRADEC::16.210.0.105::Molnar (NSIS Bratislava) Wed Feb 05 1997 18:51

Hi folks,

sorry if this has been already discussed elsewhere.

I have an UltraII (5100) with 800MB disk running Pan-Euro Win95, APM 
set in control panel. Whenever I set the power mgmt settings in the 
notebook's setup to something different than default (i.e. enabled 
for all instances for every possible timer, regardless of AC or 
battery), I'm getting audible disk punches from time to time, as if 
the heads or the motor would like to jump out from my hard disk. Is 
this expected? Is there some deficiency between APM of W95 and the 
rest of the notebook industry? Some sort of polling?

Any hints, please.

Thank you,

Miro.
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
2297.1BRADEC::lucia.mil.brc.dec.com::MolnarSI BratislavaThu Feb 20 1997 10:1211
Funny,

I thought someone may have observed similar behaviour, becouse I'm 
not the only one in our office with such experience. It just scares 
me, I find it not normal to hear such sounds. There is certainly no 
ordinary "motor" in todays HDAs, simply I didn't know how to express 
myself.

Can anyone help me?

Miro.
2297.2TARKIN::LINBill LinThu Feb 20 1997 10:2811
    re: BRADEC::lucia.mil.brc.dec.com::Molnar
    
    I don't know the answer, Miro.
    
    Perhaps thermal recalibration of the disk is happening?  That would be
    normal in most of today's large drives.  With APM, the drives may not
    reach and stay at a constant temperature...
    
    Just speculation.
    
    /Bill
2297.3Me too...GVPROD::FITZGERALDFri Feb 21 1997 10:2011
    I have this too. It happens about once every 10 days. The HD starts to
    do full-stroke seeks or something else which is very loud and alarming.
    It usually lasts about a minute then stops. It does not appear to have
    anything to do with APM as I have always had it on "Advanced" and this
    problem started about 3 months from new, i.e. about 2 months ago. Mine
    is an UltraII, 1.3GB disk, 40Meg RAM. Checkdisk shows no errors. Win95
    is in US English.
    
    I keep backups of everything.
    
    Maurice