Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 06:42:56 -0700 From: Ben Lovett <blovett@bsdguru.com> To: FreeBSD mobile list <freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Disk clicking... (Was: Re: Dell Inspiron 8000 and suspend-to-disk) Message-ID: <20010719064256.A59286@bsdguru.com> In-Reply-To: <20010717150829.P70499@wantadilla.lemis.com> References: <01D4D419B1A4D111A30400805FE65B13070AC38F@nmrusdunsx1.nielsenmedia.com> <3B53C11B.1E692E47@ufl.edu> <20010717150829.P70499@wantadilla.lemis.com>
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I believe I saw Greg Lehey (grog@FreeBSD.org) write this:
> On Tuesday, 17 July 2001 at 0:37:47 -0400, Bob Johnson wrote:
> > David Gray wrote:
> >>
> >> I have an older Toshiba Tecra with a 5G IBM drive that does this. It
> >> runs *extremely* slowly under load. It appears to be re-calibrating
> >> (thats what a seek to home position, then back to the target track
> >> is called) constantly. This is related to the ATA driver. If I use
> >> the WD driver (deprecated), it works just fine. Or, {shudder}, Win95.
> >>
> >
> > Well, you got me curious, so I started paying close attention to
> > what my Inspiron 7500 is doing. I even booted Windows (the things
> > I do for FreeBSD...) and used it for a while.
> >
> > So here's what I think I am hearing:
> >
> > 1) Seeks are a fairly noisy operation on this drive. Activities
> > that only require track-to-track seeks (or at least short seeks)
> > are quiet, e.g. deleting /usr/obj or booting FreeBSD in the first
> > place. Things that move the heads long distances are noisy.
> >
> > 2) The drive parks after 8 seconds (roughly) of inactivity. This
> > operation is fairly noisy and takes about 1/2 second. It is
> > distinguished by the fact that the disk activity light does not
> > come on when you hear the activity. The park operation probably
> > includes a calibration (that would help explain why it takes so
> > long).
> >
> > 3) Because the heads are parked, any new activity begins with an
> > initial seek that covers enough distance to be fairly noisy.
> > It takes long enough that I suspect it includes a calibration.
> >
> > 4) There is not noticable difference in disk activity or the amount
> > of disk noise that I hear in Windows and FreeBSD. There is enough
> > ram in the system that neither needs to be doing swapping. Almost
> > any activity in Netscape causes a noisy disk operation (this may
> > be more prominent in FreeBSD, but if so I think it is a function
> > of the application, not the operating system).
Yes. Originally, I did not notice any similarity in the sounds the disk
made when in Windows as compared to FreeBSD, but after running it for an
extended period of time, I have heard the very same sounds..
Mozilla appears to force my system to swap, so naturally, my disk makes
a little more noise than normal while I'm browsing.
> >
> > 5) The noises are present even in the early stages of a cold boot,
> > when the BIOS is still controlling the system. My system has a
> > boot password set, and when it stops to wait for that password,
> > I hear the drive park, for instance.
> >
> > 6) The sound of the spinning disk seems to be getting louder
> > with time. I hope that's my imagination, because I consider it
> > to be far more sinister than noisy seek operations. It is a sign
> > of failing bearings. Maybe I should see if I can get Dell to
> > replace it before it fails, instead of waiting for it to do so.
>
> Nice analysis. I don't have mine here for comparison, but note that I
> had this problem from new, complained about it and got a new machine
> (it wasn't the only thing I complained about). The new machine was
> about one month newer than the old, came with a faster processor and
> as far as I can see the same drive, but it doesn't make nearly as much
> noise.
>
> It's difficult to describe the sounds it makes; it's quite possible
> we're talking about two different levels of sound here. Certainly
> there wasn't anything as regular about the sounds as you describe.
>
We could very possibly be having different sounds, and I guess the only
way we could determine if it is the same sound, would be for me to try
to record it...
> Greg
> --
> See complete headers for address and phone numbers
>
Thanks for taking the time to do this analysis Bob!
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