WD Blue HD constantly spinning up + down
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From: Ben Shimmin on 11 May 2010 07:33 Tim Hodgson <thnews(a)poboxmolar.com.invalid>: > I have a new 500GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue HD in in my 2009 MBP, > and it's all fine, except for the continuous spinning up and down. It > sounds like the 'click' problem I remember being reported last year > (which ISTR was fixed in a firmware update?), except there's no actual > clicking, just the soft whine of the disk, up and down and up and down > and... about once every 4-5 seconds. And of course the hiccups in > responsiveness when it happens to be spun down. You can stop the disks spinning down using pmset(1): $ pmset -a disksleep 0 (Or something like that; I forget the exact syntax.) I can happily endorse hdapm (<URL:http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/>) to solve the clicking problem for anyone who's suffering from that. b. -- <bas(a)bas.me.uk> <URL:http://bas.me.uk/> `Zombies are defined by behavior and can be "explained" by many handy shortcuts: the supernatural, radiation, a virus, space visitors, secret weapons, a Harvard education and so on.' -- Roger Ebert
From: Jaimie Vandenbergh on 11 May 2010 07:39 On Tue, 11 May 2010 12:33:13 +0100, Ben Shimmin <bas(a)llamaselector.com> wrote: >Tim Hodgson <thnews(a)poboxmolar.com.invalid>: >> I have a new 500GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue HD in in my 2009 MBP, >> and it's all fine, except for the continuous spinning up and down. It >> sounds like the 'click' problem I remember being reported last year >> (which ISTR was fixed in a firmware update?), except there's no actual >> clicking, just the soft whine of the disk, up and down and up and down >> and... about once every 4-5 seconds. And of course the hiccups in >> responsiveness when it happens to be spun down. > >You can stop the disks spinning down using pmset(1): > > $ pmset -a disksleep 0 > >(Or something like that; I forget the exact syntax.) > >I can happily endorse hdapm (<URL:http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/>) to >solve the clicking problem for anyone who's suffering from that. Me too - though I can no longer remember if it was a Seagate Momentus or a WD Blue 500gig that was clicky at me. Tch. Cheers - Jaimie -- "the first successful time machine will be used to retrieve lost Doctor Who episode footage." - KKC, ugvm
From: Ben Shimmin on 11 May 2010 15:38 Tim Hodgson <thnews(a)poboxmolar.com.invalid>: > Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> wrote: >> >I must say though that this HD is decidedly noisier than the stock >> >Samsung it replaced. And it's higher frequency, and therefore more >> >intrusive (obtrusive?). >> >> That's very surprising to me - the four WD Blues (250 and 500gig) I've >> had here have all been almost inaudible. My hearing range goes up past >> 17kHz and things like CRTs bug me with their high-pitched flyback >> noise, so it's not that I'm deaf to them... > > 'Higher frequency' was probably a misleading way to put it - I don't > mean a high-pitched whine, it's broader-band than that - more like a > gentle hiss. And now that it's not constantly stopping and starting, I > can probably live with it :) I have a WD Scorpio in mine too (32GB, 7200rpm, I think Black rather than Blue), and I can attest it certainly does have a quite audible buzzing sound which is certainly louder than the stock drive it replaced (which was, I think, totally silent). Once I sorted out the clicking sound with hdapm, though, I learnt to live with it. That said, I'm sorely tempted by an SD. I think it'd be worth it for me, given how long the bastarding Adobe CS apps take to load. b. -- <bas(a)bas.me.uk> <URL:http://bas.me.uk/> `Zombies are defined by behavior and can be "explained" by many handy shortcuts: the supernatural, radiation, a virus, space visitors, secret weapons, a Harvard education and so on.' -- Roger Ebert
From: Ben Shimmin on 11 May 2010 17:54 I wrote: [...] > > I have a WD Scorpio in mine too (32GB, 7200rpm, I think Black rather 320GB, too. > than Blue), and I can attest it certainly does have a quite audible > buzzing sound which is certainly louder than the stock drive it > replaced (which was, I think, totally silent). Once I sorted out the > clicking sound with hdapm, though, I learnt to live with it. > > That said, I'm sorely tempted by an SD. I think it'd be worth it for > me, given how long the bastarding Adobe CS apps take to load. Then again, looking at the prices of SSDs, they're still ridiculous. An iPad is cheaper than a 256GB SSD! b. -- <bas(a)bas.me.uk> <URL:http://bas.me.uk/> `Zombies are defined by behavior and can be "explained" by many handy shortcuts: the supernatural, radiation, a virus, space visitors, secret weapons, a Harvard education and so on.' -- Roger Ebert
From: Rowland McDonnell on 11 May 2010 18:14
Tim Hodgson <thnews(a)poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote: > Jaimie Vandenbergh <jaimie(a)sometimes.sessile.org> wrote: > > > >I must say though that this HD is decidedly noisier than the stock > > >Samsung it replaced. And it's higher frequency, and therefore more > > >intrusive (obtrusive?). > > > > That's very surprising to me - the four WD Blues (250 and 500gig) I've > > had here have all been almost inaudible. My hearing range goes up past > > 17kHz and things like CRTs bug me with their high-pitched flyback > > noise, so it's not that I'm deaf to them... > > 'Higher frequency' was probably a misleading way to put it - I don't > mean a high-pitched whine, it's broader-band than that - more like a > gentle hiss. That's still high frequency - but with energy spread over a broad band rather than a narrow band. That means the peak amplitude is lower than it'd be if the design didn't spread the energy over a broad band (when it's whining, it's narrower-band), so it's less intrusive than it'd otherwise be. Thinking in terms of energy is often very useful. btw, Jamie, I can still (just about) hear up to 20kHz with one of my ears, but I find at the age of 43 that flyback noise doesn't bother me anything like as badly as it did when I was 16 (I could hear 20kHz with both ears in my early 20s; one ear could just about detect 22kHz then, and I *had* seen Motorhead more than once. And experienced the 1812 Overture with field artillery accompaniment). So I was wondering: how old are you, and surely it's less bad than it used to be? [snip] Rowland. -- Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org Sorry - the spam got to me http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking |