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    NF310 netbook, high hdd load cycle and start stop counts

    Discussion in 'Samsung' started by PinkUnicorn, Nov 17, 2010.

  1. PinkUnicorn

    PinkUnicorn Newbie

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    Hello!

    I'm having a bit of a problem with my Samsung NF310 netbook and would be very grateful if someone more knowledgeable than me could help me out.

    I just purchased this netbook a few weeks ago and now noticed something worrying: S.M.A.R.T. tells me the power on hours are 88, with start stop count 697 and load cycle count 3517 at the moment of writing this. And it's going up steadily, hour by hour, based on my observations during the past few days.

    With battery, the hard drive makes almost a constant clicking sound, the read/write head parking about every other second. This happens with every default power saving mode available (Samsung Optimized, Balanced and Power Saver)

    Plugged in doesn't make a big difference, regardless of the power settings.

    I've tried to set the hard disk turn off settings to "never turn off", but this would appear to make no difference whatsoever to the default plugged in power settings.

    I'm a bit puzzled and frankly scared I'll have a hard disk failure within a few months of buying a brand new laptop at this rate. OK, so there's always warranty, but waiting for repairs isn't something I'm looking forward to.

    The OS is Windows 7 Starter, and I've installed the recommended updates and drivers.

    I guess it's illustrative that during the 10-15 minutes I spent writing this post (Samsung Optimized, plugged in) the start stop count incremented to 710 and load cycle count to 3530. Also, spin up time appears to be 1, if it makes any difference (it was 0 10 minutes ago).
     
    PinkUnicorn, Nov 17, 2010
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  2. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    1. What is the model number of the HDD (check in Device Manager)? I recently came across a Samsung netbook which didn't have a Samsung HDD.

    2. Some HDDs appear to periodically park the heads as part of their calibration process.

    3. Run ActiveSMART and see whether it thinks that the HDD is dying.

    HDDs may have a mean time to failure of 100,000 hours but some do die an early death and you are correct to be worried by the excessive noise.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Nov 17, 2010
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