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Gateway MT6451 Power Management - Disc Spin Up/Down Problem

Posted on May 29, 2008 in the Driver Issues, Hardware category

Well, since my IBM Thinkpad decided to explode and die on me a few weeks ago, I obtained my fiance’s almost new but broken Gateway.  The main problem with this computer was that the computer could not charge or operate on AC power.  I fixed the issue by simply taking the computer completely apart and re-soldering the power port on the motherboard.  After doing so, the computer now takes a charge and works off of AC.  This was not the issue of the this topic though. (However, if you would like any help or guidance on performing this yourelf, please feel free to contact me.)  The issue after repairing the computer was a slight clicking noise 2-3 times per minute coming from the inside of the computer.  The only issue I could come up with would be the power management for laptops being set too aggressively and spinning the hard discs up and down too often.  This can cause an extremely short life for your hard drive and in my case, higher than normal temperatures in your laptop.  This fix is for Hardy Heron with hda.  Substitute sda if you had a SATA drive.  Here’s the fix:

Create a configuration file to manage hdd power management.  In Terminal type:

sudo gedit /etc/pm/config.d/disk

Within this file, create the following:

# Configure the hdd power management settings to ensure
# long disk life and acceptable power management.
#
# Space delimited list of disk devices this affects.
#
DEVICES_DISK_PM_NAMES=”/dev/hda”
#
#
# Power management modes
#
# Powersave mode off
# Disable APM and spin-down - Not completely disabled
#
DEVICES_DISK_PM_POWERSAVE_OFF=”hdparm -q -B 254 -q -S 242″
#
# Powersave mode on
# Enable APM to conservative 200 and set spin-down for 21 minutes
#
DEVICES_DISK_PM_POWERSAVE_ON=”hdparm -q -B 200 -q -S 252″

Now create the Power Management script.  In terminal type:

sudo gedit /etc/pm/power.d/disk

Within this file, create the following:

#!/bin/bash
. /usr/lib/pm-utils/functions
. /etc/pm/config.d/disk

if test -z “${DEVICES_DISK_PM_NAMES}”; then
        exit 1
fi

case “$1″ in
true)
                echo “**enabled pm for harddisk”
                for DISK_NAME in `echo ${DEVICES_DISK_PM_NAMES}`; do
                        ${DEVICES_DISK_PM_POWERSAVE_ON} ${DISK_NAME}
                done ;;
        false)
                echo “**disabled pm for harddisk”
                for DISK_NAME in `echo ${DEVICES_DISK_PM_NAMES}`; do
                        ${DEVICES_DISK_PM_POWERSAVE_OFF} ${DISK_NAME}
                done ;;
esac

And now make this script executable.  In terminal, type:

Sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/power.d/disc

Voila!  That is it.

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