laptop harddrive Load_Cycle_Count issue

[luismanson]

Wird, i overwrited all files to the originals and did:

hdparm -I /dev/sda|grep ower
Advanced power management level: disabled
* Power Management feature set
Advanced Power Management feature set
Device-initiated interface power management

and the drive spins down after a few seconds...
i think im gona have to give som heavy use the weekend and see the count...

[luismanson]

I got this from Fujitsu support:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/6209343/Fujitsu-APM
They also toldme:

We don't support the program, nor do we use it

We only support 3 APM settings on our drives
We have no idea what he will get if he uses any of the 127
values with this program.

Attached are the details of our 3 settings
beyond this I suggest he find out who wrote HDPARM and
ask them what the program is actually doing

any ideas?

i did not make any tests yet, but converting hex to dec i got:

FR = 05h : Enable APM = 5?

SC = C0h - FEh : Mode-0 Active Idle Low Power Idle =SC = 192- 254
SC = 80h - BFh : Mode-1 Active Idle Low Power Idle (Default) = SC = 128 - 191
SC = 01h - 7Fh : Mode-2 Active Idle Low Power Idle Standby = SC = 1 - 127

FR = 85h : Disable APM (Set Mode-0) = 133

[Digz]

Is this a Hardware problem or a Software problem caused by linux ?

[david_e]

AFAIK this is an hardware issue (a problem in the drive firmware) exposed by Linux.

[Digz]

Is there a Windows fix for those that dual boot ?

[david_e]

Some manufacturers makes some utilities to tune the firmware settings (for example Hitachi does), using bootable dos-based cds or, maybe, windows based applications. You can try checking your hard disk maker web page for these tools (read carefully the documentation before doing anything to avoid damaging your drive), but the hdparm Linux solution is recommended as this won't make any permanent modification to your drive firmware. I think that there is something similar to hdparm under windows too.

[Digz]

Thanks

[TigPT]

I hade the same problem in my ASUS F3KA and sloved it with this tutorial.

Good luck to everyone with a ASUS F3KA.

[-Tauren-]

i like the head parking settings in vista (parks are set just right), is there anyway to mimic these in ubuntu? how can i do that? cheers

[gin_ger_ale]

Below is the Load_Cycle_count output.
193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x001a 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 295079

The load cycle count after an hr is as below.

193 Load_Cycle_Count 0x001a 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 295177

It seems to increase by about a 100. My laptop is 8 month old. I have been using it more or less for about 10-12 hrs a day. Do I have to implement the fix? If I do will it increase the temperature? Please suggest.