Toshiba Satellite hard drive frequent spin down / up problem

[Cluster2k]

Hi,

I recently bought a Toshiba Satellite 1110 laptop. Everything works well apart from the hard drive, which frequently spins down after only 30 seconds of inactivity regardless of the Power Management settings. After a short while the HDD must spin back up, which causes a 2 second pause in whatever I'm doing. This can get quite annoying especially when the pauses occur when typing or flicking through menus (not to mention playing DVDs). This can occur dozens of times a day.

All settings in PM are set to never switch off the HDD. I've tried uninstalling Toshiba's PM software and used WinXP Home's but this made no difference. It also makes no difference if the machine is clean from a fresh install from the recovery CDs, or running with Service Pack 1a and all the latest drivers and updates.

There are no PM settings in the BIOS.

The spin up/down problem is more likely to happen when running the machine on battery power, or after bringing it home and running it on AC while the battery is charging. Even after the battery is full the HDD will keep spinning down. The spin up/down problem occurs for 2 or 3 days but then the next day may be fine with no occurences. I can't pick a pattern to it.

Toshiba tech support and technicians in Australia first claimed the problem didn't exist (it doesn't always happen, therefore demonstrations are a bit difficult), and later when they did witness the problem they just installed a new BIOS (which was already on the laptop) and claimed to fix it. The problem reoccurred the next day at which time the Toshiba techs consulted each other and came back claiming that the frequent 30 second idle spinning up/down of the drive is _a standard feature on all Toshiba laptops_.

I was amazed by their explanation and rejected it outright. First they claim it's a fault, they try to pass it off as a normal occurence? Regardless of that there is no logic in spinning down the hard drive so frequently, especially when running on AC power.

I have been given the run-around for 3 weeks now and am getting tired of it.

Could the forum members please give their opinions regarding:

1) Do you think this is a hardware problem? I'm getting conflicting reports and Toshiba are denying everything in an attempt to prevent a refund

2) Is this frequent spin up/down problem found on other makes and brands of laptops?


Thank you very much,

 

[jschuk]

What HDD is in the laptop? IBM (Hitachi now) has a "Power Miser/Maximiser" utility that can control the HDD.

 

[Cluster2k]

I think the problem has now been solved (no thanks to the Toshiba technicians and tech support staff). The Toshiba hard drive has an Advanced Power Management mode built into the drive itself that cannot be accessed from the standard Windows utilities, the BIOS, or Toshiba's utilities. I grabbed version 2.2.2 of Intel's Application Accelerator and noticed the PM setting in the hard drive's firmware was set to "Minimum Power Consumption Without Standby". I changed it to "Maximum Performance" and so far after a few hours of testing the HDD appears to be behaving itself (fingers crossed...).

This whole issue has dragged on for three weeks (far too long, and too much frustration). I know of at least one friend who returned their Toshiba laptop for a refund (within 7 days) because of the frequent spin down of the HDD. The Toshiba tech support staff on the Toshiba USA website and the local technicians appear to be unaware of this setting (they were no help at all).

Thanks,

 

[Cluster2k]

I spoke too soon... the Toshiba Satellite 1110 laptop is again constantly spinning down, then spinning up it's hard drive.

This issue has dragged on for three weeks between Toshiba and myself. They are unable to find the fault so cannot begin to fix it. I will be asking for a full refund on Monday.