Confirmed to be fixed with AC power but not with Battery Notebook HP 6720s On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 9:20 PM, Ciso <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Same problem with my Dell XPS M1330. > In windows it works good :( > > -- > High frequency of load/unload cycles on some hard disks may shorten > lifetime > https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/59695 > You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber > of the bug. > > Status in The Dell Project: Confirmed > Status in "acpi-support" source package in Ubuntu: Fix Released > Status in "linux-meta" source package in Ubuntu: New > Status in "pm-utils" source package in Ubuntu: New > Status in acpi-support in Ubuntu Hardy: Triaged > Status in linux-meta in Ubuntu Hardy: New > Status in pm-utils in Ubuntu Hardy: New > Status in "acpi-support" source package in Baltix: New > Status in "acpi-support" source package in Debian: Fix Released > Status in "pm-utils" source package in Fedora: Invalid > Status in "laptop-mode-tools" source package in Mandriva: Confirmed > Status in Suse Linux: Fix Released > > Bug description: > This is not a support forum. Please do not use it as such (even though it > has been used as such already). > > You can scan through the bug for links to the Ubuntu forums where many, > many different questions have been asked, answered, and re-answered. The > temporary workaround is just below. > > See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerManagement for an overview about what is > involved and for a remedy. > > > Following is a summary of the issue: > It is confirmed that some systems are seeing an unusually high number of > load/unload cycles on their hard disks, as evidenced by smartctl. > > It was originally surmised that this was related to laptop-mode being > enabled, but this especially affects systems where laptop-mode is disabled. > In fact, aggressive APM is not a bad idea while a system is not on AC, as > that system is much more likely to encounter a physical impact. > > This is due to disk APM settings that let the heads park or disk spin down > after an idle period that is shorter than the regular disk access patterns > of the OS. > > Then, the heads are only parked for a very short period of time and almost > imediately loaded again. Making impact protection much ineffective and > wearing out the drive. > > It can happen when the disk asumes aggressive APM settings (like many > laptop disks) and the OS does not take care to set the APM settings > accordingly to its current disk access pattern. > > This problem has been confirmed in Ubuntu as well as in other distributions > and on MacOS X and Windows. > > Symptoms of this bug are: > * Frequent HD clicks -- more than one per 3 minutes while idle, louder > than the typical access sounds. Often more than twice per minute. On some > disks, the click is very quiet > * Rapidly Increasing Load_Cycle_Count as displayed in the final number in > "sudo smartctl -a /dev/hda | grep Load_Cycle_Count" (where /dev/hda is > replaced with your own hard disk device) > * Early hard disk failure never stay parked, due to very frequent disk > activity. Thus this cycle occurs often, thus wearing out the drive, and any > comparative benefit is negligible (whereas, if the-- some disks are cut down > to less than a year of actual uptime. > > The problem is only present due to the existence of *all four* of the > following factors: > * Hardware is set (default or otherwise) to aggressive power management, > causing heads to park. (default behaviour of many drives and often the only > user available type of power management) > * Disk is touched often, causing heads to unpark. (default behaviour of > many distributions) > * Drives are spec'd to a limited number of these cycles. (600,000 is the > most common, although some may be spec'd higher or lower). > * The OS not setting disk APM variables according to current disk access > pattern. > > Reasonable Limits / Criteria for a fix: > * There should be fewer than ~15 load cycles per hour, except during heavy > usage while on battery. > * This provides a life expectancy of over four years, which is reasonable > for a hard disk. > > Temporary Workaround: > * Follow the above link. > > Permanent Fix: > * Obtain utility from your hard drive manufacturer to change the default > head parking time if available. > * Contrlolling the APM variables of hard drives according to the current > disk access pattern. (i.e. chunked into blocks with minutes of idle time > (disk-idleing or "laptop_mode") or continous disk access every x seconds > expecting the disks to stay up all the time.) > > Some hardware with this issue: > WD1200VE -- http://www.wdc.com/en/library/portable/2879-001121.pdf -- This > aggressive parking is a feature of this disk, but that feature relies on > behaviour that allows for significant amounts of (truly) idle time without > the disk being touched. Notice the "Load/unload cycles" of 600,000. > > Example Load_Cycle_Counts: > * Thinkpad Z60m/Hitachi HTS541080G9SA00 with well over 7000 load cycles in > only 100 hours. That's >70 per hour. > * Gateway MT6451/Western Digital WD1200VE with 164762 load cycles in 3747 > hours (156 days) of uptime. That's ~43 per hour -- except that the system > was patched during the initial third of its life, which puts it at ~63/hour > since Gutsy was installed (and wasn't patched, as I had done with feisty). > > Please see for yourself how often your drive is load cycling: > smartctl -d ata -a /dev/sda > (This command is for an SATA drive; you'll need to install the > smartmontools package first.) > > You can get the average per hour by the following division: > Load_Cycle_Count / Power_On_Hours > > Old workaround for 7.10 (not working in 8.04): > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/59695/comments/14 > A more extensive description of the workaround: > http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=591503 > > You may need to use '254', or a bit lower, as opposed to '255'. If HD > temperature gets high, you may want to set it all the way "down" to 200 or > so. ~1 click every 2.5-3 minutes is fine. > Note: Some disks are unresponsive to having their APM changed by hdparm, > and therefore the workaround doesn't work. It would be a good idea, in such > cases, to disable APM in the BIOS if possible. > > See also http://paul.luon.net/journal/hacking/BrokenHDDs.html for a rather > dramatic account of the effects the current default values may have. > > -- High frequency of load/unload cycles on some hard disks may shorten lifetime https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/59695 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs