HDD problem: high load activates Mobile Data Protection System (hdd light amber/orange & yellow)

Hi,

I have a problem with my HDD in my NW9440:
When under high load (read/writes) the Mobile Data Protection System seems to activate and the HDD light lights up amber (orange) and sometimes yellow (I'm not moving the notebook of course, it is completely still).

The manual doesn't even state the meaning of a yellow HDD light, only normal green and orange when in protected mode (when the sensor registers quick movements like falling, to lock the HDD and protect it).

I've had the notebook for a while (3.5 years, reinstalled Win XP at least once afair) so I'm wondering if the HDD is dying... That's also why I haven't dared to disable the Mobile Data Protection System yet before finishing a full backup (takes a long time with the HDD pausing all the time like that though).

Any ideas/suggestions?

A search in the forums/google hasn't returned any insights.

Thank you very much in advance for any help!

 

Do you know if that data protection system is provided by the hard drive himself or the motherboard ?

 

Make yourself a copy of Ultimate BootCD Ultimate Boot CD - Overview

There's multiple HDD test softwares from all main manufacturers. If you are unsure what to use, Seagate's version works pretty good on all brands.

I'm not sure if drives of that era had built-in protection at all, so It's probably the motherboard feature. At least that laptop has it Also the built-in protection is something that the OS doesn't even see, that also suggests motherboard/software protection.

 

Thank you KLF, I will give Ultimate Boot CD a try.

I don't know whether the protection system is on the motherboard or in the harddrive. I seem to remember reading about it sitting in it's own mount so replacement harddrives have to be compatible to that or they will "lose" that feature. But I couldn't find any reference to that just now.

The problem is probably not like I originally thought load (read/write) related but more like a loose contact/fault of the protection system being too sensitive. After booting it was impossible to work with it because it locked up every couple of minutes while loading programs etc. but after several hours running it seems to be better.
Now I only seem to be able to cause the protection to lock the HDD when typing quite furiously on the keyboard. Also a new behaviour.

I might try deactivating it and see if that helps.

 

The mount is basically just a hard disc cage that has 4 rubber shock absorbers. Any normal 2.5" drive will fit in there.

Your description sounds like the built in motion detector has gone crazy. Right now I don't have information where it would be but disabling it software wise sounds good. Perhaps there is a sensitivity switch too, my nc8430 doesn't have but the sw seems to be v.1.00 from 2006.

If you plan to change drive anyways, take one with internal sensor and leave the motherboard one disabled. Price difference is not much.