Hello,
If you have a laptop, I would highly suggest reading this:
I began using Ubuntu a lot just about two weeks ago. After installing, I noticed that my laptop hard drive was making a strange noise at least a few times per minute. As it turns out, that "noise" is the same as a load cycle. When I used Windows as my primary operating system, I don't recall ever hearing the noise.
So here's the problem: Hard drives are rated for a certain number of load cycles before they are considered "dead". Most hard drives are rated for 600,000 +/- load cycles before they die, but I'm sure there are many that have exceeded that number and lived. Since I was hearing that "noise" quite a few times per minute, I was getting concerned.
After doing some research, I found that laptop mode is disabled by default, which is understandable. I don't know if Ubuntu is primary for desktops or not, but that "laptop mode" setting is critical. Aggressive power settings, either by Ubuntu or through the system BIOS, can cause a massive influx of load cycles.
So here in the forums there is a fix for the load cycles, otherwise known as "the ugly fix". Well, that "fix" doesn't really work too well in my opinion. It has you creating some file, then saving it to three different places. The fix has no guarantee of fixing anything, really.
I would say, after all the internet research I've done, that 15 cycles or less per hour is probably normal.
All I did to stop the constant load cycles was enable laptop mode, which can be done like this:
1. Open Terminal
2. Type in: sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda | grep 193
Underneath Load_Cycle_Count is the total number of load cycles the hard drive has done. If you are getting an excessive number of cycles per hour, then continue reading.
3. Type in: sudo gedit /etc/default/acpi-support
4. Scroll down and find: ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE= (true=on, false=off)
5. Set ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=TRUE to enable laptop mode (if applicable), and save the document
6. Reboot
Note: If enabling laptop mode did not decrease the number of load cycles you have per hour to a minimal amount, then you might want to look for other solutions. You can easily revert back by following the instructions again and setting the value to FALSE. Before I enabled laptop mode, I had one hour where I had OVER 100 load cycles (bad).
You can also use the code:
sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda | more
That code will tell you everything about your hard drive. Scroll down to find "SMART Attributes", and underneath that will be values for Load_Cycle_Count. The closer your "WORST" value is to "THRESH", the more likely it is that your hard drive will fail soon. You can also check back with that page periodically to see how the load cycle counts are affecting the "WORST" value.
UPDATE: Now with laptop mode enabled, I had 6 cycles over a period of two hours.
ADDED INFORMATION:
Originally Posted by tommcd
I would like to add that you can check if laptop mode is enabled by running in terminal:
Code:
cat /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode
If it returns 0, laptop mode is not enabled. A result of 2 = enabled.
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