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Date:      Sat, 14 Jul 2001 12:59:47 -0700
From:      Ben Lovett <blovett@bsdguru.com>
To:        mobile@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Disk clicking... (Was: Re: Dell Inspiron 8000 and suspend-to-disk)
Message-ID:  <20010714125947.A7983@bsdguru.com>
In-Reply-To: <20010707045013.A1368@sydney.worldwide.lemis.com>
References:  <20010703101035.A1027@bsdguru.com> <3B433888.7020304@quack.kfu.com> <3B4353BE.927522EF@ufl.edu> <20010704210528.A691@bsdguru.com> <20010707045013.A1368@sydney.worldwide.lemis.com>

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I believe I saw Greg Lehey (grog@FreeBSD.ORG) write this:
> On Wednesday,  4 July 2001 at 21:05:28 -0700, Ben Lovett wrote:
> > I believe I saw Bob Johnson (bobj@ufl.edu) write this:
> >> Nick Sayer wrote:
> >>> Ben Lovett wrote:
> >>
> >> I've been using a suspend-to-disk partition for about a year in my
> >> Inspiron 7500, and haven't had any problems.  It's suspend-to-ram that
> >> is unreliable (in Windows and in FreeBSD, and it seems to work better
> >> in FreeBSD).  Suspend-to-disk mostly works fine with Windows 98 also,
> >> except that it is likely to get confused if it wakes up with a different
> >> hardware configuration than it went to sleep with.
> 
> I've been using suspend-to-RAM on my 7500 for over a year, and until
> recently I had no problems.  I think it's related to the version of
> FreeBSD I'm running.  When I get home, I intend to investigate.
> 
> >> A vague description of how I set up my system is at
> >> http://www.afn.org/~afn01750/inspiron.html
> >> It might provide you with some useful clues.
> >>
> >
> > Well.. I followed the directions that Nick Sayer described (phdisk
> > /create /partition), and the Dell BIOS still fails to find the s2d
> > partition :(  I'm thinking of contacting Dell regarding this issue, but
> > that will have to wait until I find out if my disk is infact dying..  I
> > hope not, as I have only had this system for 3 weeks!!
> 
> All the better.  They'll replace it for you.
> 
I got the disk replaced.. It took a while, as the technician I talked
with neglected to request the name on the credit card, and when
Wednesday came without the drive showing up at my door, I decided to
give them a call.  I recieved the drive that they were supposed to ship
on Saturday, the very next day (Thursday), and went about reinstalling
all my apps and data from backup tape.

Unfortunatly, on Friday, while I was doing a compile of Mozilla, I heard
that familiar clicking sound again, and have continued to hear it on
occasion.

> > As to another question that I have that is totally unrelated to
> > suspending to disk..  When I suspend my system, everything works
> > fine and dandy.  But, when I go to close the display, as soon as it
> > latches, the system seems to resume, then suspend again, effectively
> > giving power to the HD, and then killing it almost immediatly.
> 
> Yes, I see this behaviour on the 7500 as well.  I assume it's flushing
> disk buffers or some such.
> 
> > I believe this is the reason behind some strange noises that I hear
> > comming from my disk every once in a while.  It sounds like one of
> > the heads is moving rather abruptly, or something like that.
> 
> Well, the heads all move together.
ok..
> 
> > Has anyone else noticed similar behaviour on Dell i8k's built as of
> > late?
> 
> A lot of us noticed "clunk" noises from the disks of 7500s built
> between 12 and 18 months ago.  I had mine replaced as a result, and
> the new disk has never made any noise.  Mike Smith didn't have his
> replaced, and the disk still goes "clunk" after 18 months, but he
> doesn't have any other problems with it.

Well.. I guess that I am observing this behavior on my replacement disk,
I'll live with it.  Unless I hear different.

On a sort of side note.. I was discussing this issue with my boss
yesterday, and he was explaining to me that when hard drives are
manufactured, because of the nature of the mass-production, the platters
will never turn out without flaws, and thus will have some bad sectors.
So, when the drives go through their low-level formatting at the
factory, those sectors will be marked as "bad" on some part of the
drive.  He was telling me that the reason that the drive may be clicking
is that the heads are comming across one of these sectors that is marked
bad, when it thought there was data there (or something to that effect),
and then resyncing itself.  Does that make sense?  I believe that is
what he was saying.

Thanks again..

-ben
-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ben Lovett                                  printf("Hello world!);
blovett@bsdguru.com                         return 0;
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
   If Bill Gates had a dime for every time a Windows box crashed...
                ...Oh, wait a minute, he already does.

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