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    HDD in optical bay spins down too fast on battery

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Kocane, Jan 8, 2015.

  1. Kocane

    Kocane Notebook Deity

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    I have this 2.5" Hitachi 1TB hdd in my Sony Vaio Z1 optical bay. It's all fine and dandy for the most part but for some reason, when on battery it spins down extremely fast. We're talking 10secs after activity. My Windows HDD settings are set to sleep after 20 minutes of inactivity both on battery and plugged in and it seems to work fine while plugged in but on battery completely disregards this.

    I've used the tool called hdparm, made for Windows too but originally a Linux thing as I understand, where I can control the HDD APM and even force spin down, etc. There I can also set the standby (spin down) timeout to anything, and even if I set it to 0 (disabled) it spins down and if i set it to 180 (15 minutes) it spins down fast too.

    This is a very specific thing, I'm afraid, so I don't really expect too many people ever having ventured into stuff like this, not on Windows atleast because all I can find googling is linux related things, but I hope someone might have some help for me.


    Thanks,
     
    Kocane, Jan 8, 2015
    #1
  2. KLF

    KLF NBR Super Modernator Super Moderator

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    Check if your laptop's bios has some powersaving settings related to this.
     
    KLF, Jan 9, 2015
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  3. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

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    Do you have Intel Rapid Storage installed? (Link power management)
     
    flipfire, Jan 9, 2015
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  4. Kocane

    Kocane Notebook Deity

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    Yup, I did. Nothing there.

    Vaio does have this power management and one could suspect the CD/DVD/BD power management could affect something since the HDD is there where the dvd used to be but setting everywhere are the same as on AC.

    [​IMG]

    Nope, I don't think so... is it needed?
     

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    Kocane, Jan 9, 2015
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  5. StormJumper

    StormJumper Notebook Virtuoso

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    Are you not able to change the power settings on the "Other Devices" I think with the HDD in the OD bay it probably is confusing the software and it thinks it is a OD. And if you can't change that power settings then you most likely will not be able to do so. Also that bay were never intended for a HDD otherwise we would have factory options for it. I think this if it doesn't change will continue to do as though it was a OD not a HDD.
     
    StormJumper, Jan 9, 2015
    #5
  6. Starlight5

    Starlight5 Yes, I'm a cat. What else is there to say, really?

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    Kocayine, is your ODD bay the only slot you can accommodate this HDD, or maybe you can trade places with other drive and see what happens? Anyway, it's a good idea to install RST. Also, I'd delete unnecessary bloatware.

    StormJumper, HDD in ODD bay can't confuse software, it is still is HDD. Moreover that, it definitely has enough power since ODDs have higher power consumption than HDDs.
     
    Starlight5, Jan 9, 2015
    #6