Can't enable "Sudden Motion Sensor" in 13" MBP

My brand new MacBook Pro's "Sudden Motion Sensor" won't seem to enable. I've done the Terminal commands listed on Apple's support page and I get a "1" instead of a "0" next to the results, implying that the system thinks it's turned on, yet under "System Profiler" it says "Disabled." Obviously, either Terminal or System Profiler is wrong, but I can't figure out which one.
I'm not sure if this would influence it but, I do have a WD500GB Scorpio Blue drive inside and was/am suffering from the "Beach ball of death" issues associated with the 3rd party HDD's, so I downgraded from the 1.7 EFI Firmware to the 1.6 EFI. Anyone experienced this issue or have any recommendations?

Hi, got the same problem on a 15" MBP running 10.6.1. Apple support referred me to these discussions for a solution.

Similar Messages

  • Sudden Motion Sensor crash in MBP with SSD

    Hi.  I replaced my 2011 17" MBP's internal HD with one, then another SSD from OWC, going from 240 to 480.
    As indicated in OWC's instructions, the Sudden Motion Sensor no longer applies and should be disabled with this command from the terminal:
    $ sudo pmset -a sms 0
    And using this command, we can see that the SMS is off:
    $ sudo pmset -g
    Active Profiles:
    Battery Power                    -1
    AC Power                    -1*
    Currently in use:
    womp                    1
    halfdim          1
    sms                    0
    What happens all too often though is that my Mac issues an SMS crash while asleep if I am driving home and hit a bump in my car.  Just Monday, I was driving with my Mac open and on, the car hit a bump and I got to watch the Gray Screen of Death as the Mac issued a kernel panic from the Sudden Motion Sensor. 
    But it's off. 
    FYI, I turned it off to try and stop this behaviour

    Download an run memtest to check your RAM. 
    http://osxdaily.com/2011/05/03/memtest-mac-ram-test/
    www.memtestosx.org/downloads/memtest422/Users_Guide.rtf
    Don Montalvo was preventing the crashes by turning off SMS.  However, replacing bad RAM was the ultimate solution.
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3013824?start=0&tstart=0
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3013824?start=45&tstart=0

  • Sudden Motion Sensor - Anyone else hearing it?

    Recently got a new 15" Macbook Pro with the 320gb 7200 rpm hard drive.
    Something that's a bit worrying is that I can hear the sudden motion sensor activating. In my previous MBP, which is about 2 years old, I couldn't hear it activate at all.
    Also, I've got the new MBP on a stand to raise it up. However almost every time I knock the desk it's on, the SMS activates. Sometimes it doesn't need much force to activate at all.
    I'm wondering if this is likely to decrease the life of the hard drive as it's parking the head unnecessarily so often?
    Thanks
    Chris

    My MacBook Pro's Hitachi 320GB 7200 rpm drive also clicks when it parks. I don't worry about it. Hitachi's web site claims a MTBF of 600,000 load/unload cycles (or over 160 load/unload cycles per day, every day, for 10 years).
    The noise itself doesn't bug me at all - my old G4 powerbook used to cycle the optical drive every time it woke up, but it never failed (4.5 years of near daily use). So a servo or some do-hicky clicks when it does what it's supposed to do?
    If it fails, I'll have AppleCare replace the drive for me, and I'll simply restore from my TimeMachine backup or from one of my SuperDuper clones. I'd rather have the motion sensor parking the drives when the machine moves then NOT doing so and having a HD head crash when I carry the machine from one room to another.

  • Sudden motion sensor, should I (or can I) disable it?

    hi there.
    I've just upgraded the hard drive in my MacBook to a Hitachi 250 Gb drive (model number HTS542525K9SA00). I'm really impressed with how quiet it is. Compared to the Seagate Momentus 160Gb drive I've just swopped out, there's no vibration & hardly any noise!
    I use my MacBook for DJing with, & I just need some information about any anti shock systems that this drive may have.
    Now I know that some drives have shock protection built in, & I also know that the MacBook also has it's own shock protection as well. I'm sure I read somewhere that you can have problems if you have two anti shock systems working on your computer (hitachi's system on the drive, & apple's own sudden motion sensor), & that it's best to disable one of them.
    Does anyone have any info about this at all?

    The only problem I have heard with this is with the Western Digital 250 GB drives. That is why I picked the 320 GB WD. If you don't hear any clicking noise you should be OK. If your still concerned contact Hitachi customer service and ask them if it will be a problem.

  • HT1935 In sudden motion sensor terminal it will not let put in my password...can any one help me?

    While recording music was prompt...
    Disk is too slow or System Overload.
    (-10008)
    The Sudden Motion Sensor may have parked the hard drive head, or the disk performance is not sufficient to read or write all audio tracks, or the system was not able to process all data in time
    hard drive to slow...
    followed direction but it would not let me enter password. No keys will work on keypad when trying

    It's normal to see no characters on screen when entering the password for sudo - they're still recognised.
    As Apple say at http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4103
    When typing the user's password after the "Password:" prompt appears, you will not see anything appear in the Terminal window. Just type in the password and press Return. If the password is entered incorrectly, you will see the message "Sorry, try again" and be given another chance to enter the password correctly.

  • Second Hard Drive, Sudden Motion Sensor

    Back in the fall I put a SSD in my 2007 MacBook Pro. It's working perfectly. I found the "OptiBay" product, which basically replaces your optical drive with an adapter for another hard drive. I haven't received it yet, but when I do I plan on installing it with a traditional hard drive. My question regards the sudden motion sensor (SMS). I disabled it because it's not needed for the SSD, but I was planning on re-enabling it for my secondary that I will be installing. I'm still going to boot off the SSD, though. Is there a way, or terminal code, to assign the SMS to a certain disk? I'm assuming it will just disable the root drive in the event of "sudden motion," but would this affect a secondary drive?
    I'd love for there to be an option to change the identifier, from disk0s2 to disk0s3, but I have a feeling it isn't possible or would be infinitely more difficult... thanks.

    Most drives are available with the equivalent of an internal SMS. You just have to check the specs. Drive manufacturers often offer two versions of their drives... one with and one without a SMS. If you get a drive with the SMS built in, you can just leave the MacBook's internal one disabled.
    Here is an example of one of the most popular drives:
    http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/laptops/momentus/momentus5400.6g/
    Seagate's SMS technology is referred to as G-Force. Note the product number: 5400.6_g. The "g" denotes the drive has a "G-Force" sensor.

  • Where is Sudden Motion Sensor data stored?

    Background:
    I replaced my superdrive with an optibay + ssd (OS is stored here) and I left the stock HD (home folder) in it's place.
    Problem:
    I guess I triggered the SMS the other day and now I can't access my HD (basically just hangs / takes forever to load anything) unless I disable SMS. Where would I clear the data / tell it that my HD is safe to use again. Restarted pram and reinstalled OS, but it didn't help.

    Thanks for the responses. Yes, as JoeyR stated, I replaced my superdrive with an SSD and the hard drive is in it's original place so I wanted to re-enable the sudden motion sensor. Thank you for clarifying how the SMS works. I wasn't sure if there was a state that was saved somewhere.
    Well the original issue was that my OS would boot (SSD), but I couldn't get into my login (HD). I have a temporary user on the SSD so I was able to use that to troubleshoot. I swapped my HD with another one and it worked (STOCK HD). Then I tried putting the HD into an external closure and that worked as well. I had a feeling it was the connector, but I did not have spare parts to test this theory. I would swap the HDs back and forth and sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't. It was a hit or miss situation. It worked when I disabled the SMS, but when I enabled / disabled it again it didn't work. Ran diagnostics on the HDs, both drives seem fine and in perfect condition. Tried to format the hard drivers and do various combinations of swapping drives and in the end the problem still persisted so it had to be a connector issue. I brought it into repair and they replaced the SATA cable for me and all is good now.
    Thanks for the help.

  • Drive Upgrade: Sudden Motion Sensor & SMART

    Greetings,
    I have a couple of technical questions regarding a Hitachi HD upgrade I am planning. I purchased the 5K500.B from Other World Computing (OWC) and had some concerns with the Apple Drive Utility when I went to format it.
    I also purchased an external enclosure that I can mount my old drive in after I replace it. When I went to format the new drive (in the external enclosure) with Drive Utility, I noticed some differences between the old drive and the new drive. The original drive is a Hitachi 200 GB 7200 RPM which Apple supplied as an option. I will list my MacBook Pro information after this section. My questions are:
    1) SMART status reads "Unsupported" on the new drive and "Verified" on the old drive. OWC said this is because SMART only works on internal drives and SMART will work after I install the new drive. I just want to check the accuracy of this statement.
    2) My MacBook Pro has a Sudden Motion Sensor for drop protection. Is that built into the laptop or the hard drive? Will Apple's drop protection work with the new drive?
    3) Is the 5K500.B really a direct replacement with all the functionality of the original drive.
    My MacBook Pro information:
    System Software Overview:
    System Version: Mac OS X 10.6.6 (10J567)
    Boot Mode: Normal
    Secure Virtual Memory: Enabled
    64-bit Kernel and Extensions: No
    Hardware Overview:
    Model Identifier: MacBookPro4,1
    Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz
    L2 Cache: 6 MB
    Memory: 5 GB
    SMC Version (system): 1.28f3
    Hardware UUID: 5BCEDD41-1B9B-5311-A21C-3638AEAEE5BB
    Sudden Motion Sensor: State: Enabled
    Hitachi HTS722020K9SA00:
    Capacity: 200.05 GB (200,049,647,616 bytes)
    Model: Hitachi HTS722020K9SA00
    Revision: DC4AC77A
    Medium Type: Rotational
    Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
    S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
    Available: 18.03 GB (18,027,290,624 bytes)
    File System: Journaled HFS+

    I read in one of your posts that the sudden motion sensor can be easily disabled. Could you please tell me how?
    I can be online, or not, and the crazy spinning colored disc starts to spin, then if I pick it up and set it back down usually it stops and the macbook (4,1) continues with it's work. I guess that it is the sudden motion sensor although I could be wrong...Just seems strange that it normally stops when i pick it up, tap it, gently, etc.
    Could you please advise? It shows enabled in 'about this mac' but I can't find anyplace to dis-able it.
    It's almost impossible to stream video, although that may be from something else.
    Model Name: MacBook
    Model Identifier: MacBook4,1
    Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
    Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
    Number Of Processors: 1
    Total Number Of Cores: 2
    L2 Cache: 3 MB
    Memory: 4 GB
    Bus Speed: 800 MHz
    Boot ROM Version: MB41.00C1.B00
    SMC Version (system): 1.31f1
    Serial Number (system): W8833DZ00P1
    Hardware UUID: DE950BF6-E26F-5ACB-984B-5BB4E50816B2
    Sudden Motion Sensor:
    State: Enabled
    On front of 'about this mac' it reads Memory 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM, which I hadn't noticed before. It sounds like something from my old SONY VAIO!
    Much, much appreciated for any help.
    Thanks very much.

  • Sudden Motion Sensor (Mobile Motion Module)

    Okay folks, it's my turn to ask a question this time.
    I worried about upgrading my hard drive, fearing that the Sudden Motion Sensor was built-in to Apple's OEM installed drives. I researched on the web prior to doing the upgrade (myself, by the way) and all sources pointed to the Sudden Motion Sensor being a "software"--for lack of a better term--feature that was independent of the hard drive, and regardless of what hard drive you have installed.
    I trusted that information, and now that I have installed, successfully, a new 160GB Seagate 5400.3 hard drive?
    My Sudden Motion Sensor doesn't work. It doesn't show up in the System Profiler like it used to, and it won't work with VirtueDesktop where there was feature that allowed me to switch desktops by "flipping" the PowerBook (not violently). And the best tester of all was the program, Seismac. It simulates earthquake movement readings, and any type of reading using the motion sensor.
    I just opened up the application, and it says there is a problem detecting the Sudden Motion Sensor feature and will not run.
    My PowerBook is the 1.67GHz/1.5GHz model A1106.
    Thanks for any suggestions, and help. (I put everything back together correctly, I believe, after the installation of the hard drive).

    I don't remember where I read it, but I read that if you put in a hard drive--like the one you mentioned, but that can't work in our PowerBooks or any for that matter--that has its own built-in Sudden Motion Sensor type technology, it will conflict with Apple's "software"-based technology.
    I wonder if Seagate's 160GB 5400.3 drive has it? I haven't read proving this.
    Plus, since my last posting, it shows up, goes away, shows up, goes away. One day two weeks ago, the Sudden Motion Sensor showed up as being enabled in Apple System Profiler. Excitedly, I ran Seismac. It started up, but then?
    FROZE. And the entire machine locked up as well. (PC?).
    Now don't get me wrong, anyone reading this. This Seagate drive is fabulous. It is the conflict with Sudden Motion Sensor that I'm trying to decipher!
    So again, anyone out there with similar findings, be it a similar Seagate drive, or any other hard drive upgrade, let us know your findings. =)

  • Sudden Motion Sensor - Is Mine Missing... Or Broken?!

    Following the demise of my original build internal HDD, it's made me curious about the operation of the sudden motion sensor in my powerbook, or at least, the SMS that I thought was in my powerbook!
    For clarification, it's a late 15" Al model (Apple website refurb), hi-res screen with dual layer SD and my understanding is that it should have an SMS.
    I looked at System Profiler which told me nothing.
    I checked the terminal with pmset -g which also told me nothing.
    Then, I downloaded 'seisMAC' which said it was unable to locate any SMS.
    Now, the HDD is currently absent (I'm running of an external FW) but my understanding was that the SMS should be on the logic board, not the drive. Is that correct?
    Can anyone advise whether my powerbook should indeed have an SMS and/or whether a faulty SMS would show up as 'not found' in 'seisMAC'?
    Many thanks.
    Message was edited by: Zirynx

    I believe the SMS in in the hard drive, enabled by electronics on the logic board. There was quite a thread on this a couple of years back, if you want to scan for it.

  • Sudden Motion Sensor (Mobile Motion Module) Part 2

    OOPS...
    I was trying out a suggestion to manually enable the Sudden Motion Sensor, and instead of typing in the command "pmset -g" I accidentally typed in "pmset =g" and came up with the following:
    Usage: pmset [-b | -c | -u | -a] <action> <minutes> [<action> <minutes>...]
    pmset -g [disk | cap | live | sched | ups | batt
    -c adjust settings used while connected to a charger
    -b adjust settings used when running off a battery
    -u adjust settings used while running off a UPS
    -a (default) adjust settings for both
    <action> is one of: displaysleep, sleep, disksleep (minutes argument)
    or: reduce, dps, womp, ring, autorestart, powerbutton, halfdim,
    lidwake, acwake, lessbright (with a 1 or 0 argument)
    or for UPS only: haltlevel (with a percentage argument)
    haltafter, haltremain (with a minutes argument)
    eg. pmset -c dim 5 sleep 15 spindown 10 autorestart 1 womp 1
    pmset schedule [cancel] <type> <date/time> [owner]
    pmset repeat cancel
    pmset repeat <type> <days of week> <time>
    <type> is one of: sleep, wake, poweron, shutdown, wakeorpoweron
    <date/time> is in "MM/dd/yy HH:mm:ss" format
    <time> is in "HH:mm:ss" format
    <days of week> is a subset of MTWRFSU
    [owner] optionally describes the event creator
    Have I messed up my machine (I rarely use Terminal!), and do I have to do anything to fix this? Rather, what can I do to fix this?
    I haven't logged out of Terminal yet nor have I found any problems yet, but I'm worried...
    Message was edited by: Pismo 900
    Note that that "http" above is not what Terminal reported, but because of the key characters and how the Apple Discussions forums can format things, it turned into a link.

    I was about to help out in my own posting!! (I knew that thread was familiar).
    I have since reformatted the drive and erased everything as I will be selling that 1.5GHz model having since bought a 1.67GHz Double-Layer SD one.
    I didn't find any problems after doing that bit of experimenting.
    However, never did find out why the SMS was malfunctioning, and whether it was due to the drive having its own SMS-type feature installed, conflicting with the Apple SMS, or whether installing the new drive caused some damage (or another conflict), or if the Apple OEM hard drives really do have a firmware or something that marries it to the logic board.
    Thanks for your help.

  • Sudden Motion Sensor -Disabled after fall?

    Hello.
    My Mac Book Pro had a short fall the other day. About a foot onto a carpet. Everything seems to be fine with it other than the Sudden Motion Sensor. System Profiler shows that it is disabled, and SeisMac gets no readings, but the terminal "pmset" shows that is is enabled. I tried turning it off and back on using the terminal commands, but it seemed to make no difference. Thoughts? Is it possible that the fall broke the sensor but nothing else?
    Thanks
    15" 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook Pro   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

    It is possible that the drive was actaully damaged from the fall and it can no longer enable SMS. You can realisitcally do three things…
    1) Replace the drive yourself
    2) Do nothing
    3) Call AppleCare and tell them that your SMS is not working (whether you tell tham about the fall of not is your business although is in part what the SMS is for)

  • Sudden Motion Sensor / Seagate Momentus 7200.4

    All,
    I am trying to check the Sudden motion sensor on my macbook pro unibody 2.8. Reason being i am a seagate momentus 7200.4 500gb (p/n ST9500420AS) drive and i want to make sure it is on. because I dont hear the drive park when I move it.
    I go to terminal and do the following
    When the command line appears, type sudo pmset -g and press Return.
    Type in the administrator password when prompted and hit Return. This command queries the computer for the current setting of the Sudden Motion Sensor, which you can determine by locating the ams entry (in Mac OS X 10.3) or the sms entry (in Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5) and looking to the right to determine its value. The default setting is "1" (turned on).
    But it shows no setting. After I type the password it shows a blank line. How come I can not see this setting?

    The SMS is not a part of the drive itself, it is a separate component normally located adjacent to the drive. It consists of a three-axis accelerometer that reports any motion of the computer to the Operating System. If it exceed a certain threshold, the O.S. causes the drive to park itself, presumably in anticipation to an impact. Some general purpose utilities, such as [MacPilot|http://www.koingosw.com/products/macpilot.php], allow you to enable or disable the SMS, there are also utilities specific for this.
    An interesting application is [SeisMac|http://www.suitable.com/tools/seismac.html], which reads the info produced by the SMS and displays it as a graph, turning your Mac into a seismograph.
    As for the operation of the system, I've found that if you close the lid on your portable and while it is updating the sleep image (before the LED starts pulsing), if you shake it, you will hear and feel the HDD coming to an emergency stop.

  • Sudden Motion Sensor - Where is it?

    I recently bought a PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz 15" (M9677LL/A). Apple specs indicate this model is equipped w/ a "Sudden Motion Sensor" (SMS), however nowhere in its System Profiler can I find any reference to SMS enabled, disabled, or even existing. Do all 15" 1.67 GHz PowerBooks have the SMS feature? How should I investigate further?

    +ATA Bus:+
    +MATSHITADVD-R UJ-835E:+
    +Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-835E+
    +Revision: GAND+
    +Serial Number: +
    +Detachable Drive: No+
    +Protocol: ATAPI+
    +Unit Number: 0+
    +Socket Type: Internal+
    +MATSHITADVD-R UJ-835E:+
    +Model: MATSHITADVD-R UJ-835E+
    +Revision: GAND+
    +Serial Number: +
    +Detachable Drive: No+
    +Protocol: ATAPI+
    +Unit Number: 0+
    +Socket Type: Internal+
    +ATA Bus:+
    +FUJITSU MHT2080AH:+
    +Capacity: 74.53 GB+
    +Model: FUJITSU MHT2080AH+
    +Revision: 81EC+
    +Serial Number: NP0PT522820W+
    +Removable Media: No+
    +Detachable Drive: No+
    +BSD Name: disk0+
    +Protocol: ATA+
    +Unit Number: 0+
    +Socket Type: Internal+
    +OS9 Drivers: No+
    +S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified+
    Volumes:
    +Bry's PowerBook:+
    +Capacity: 74.41 GB+
    +Available: 53.2 GB+
    +Writable: Yes+
    +File System: Journaled HFS++
    +BSD Name: disk0s3+
    +Mount Point: /+
    +FUJITSU MHT2080AH:+
    +Capacity: 74.53 GB+
    +Model: FUJITSU MHT2080AH+
    +Revision: 81EC+
    +Serial Number: NP0PT522820W+
    +Removable Media: No+
    +Detachable Drive: No+
    +BSD Name: disk0+
    +Protocol: ATA+
    +Unit Number: 0+
    +Socket Type: Internal+
    +OS9 Drivers: No+
    +S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified+
    Volumes:
    +Bry's PowerBook:+
    +Capacity: 74.41 GB+
    +Available: 53.2 GB+
    +Writable: Yes+
    +File System: Journaled HFS++
    +BSD Name: disk0s3+
    +Mount Point: /+

  • Sudden motion sensor not working with replacement harddisk?

    I replaced the original harddisk of my Macbook pro (500 GB, 7.200 rpm, model no. HTS725050A9A362) with the retail version of the same harddisk (model no. HTS725050A9A364).
    Now I'm missing the typical "click" when the sudden motion sensor parks the heads and I'm afraid it's not working - although "pmset -g" shows "sms 1".
    Is there anything else I can check, e.g. enable head parking at harddisk-firmware level?
    Thanks
    Juls

    For future reference, here are a couple of kb articles on the sudden motion sensor:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1935
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1934
    As has been said, Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor is not actually built into the hard drive. In fact, some hard drives with their own version of a sudden motion sensor like Seagate's G-Force Protection actually will set up a conflict with Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor.
    I installed the same WD in my Mac as you did, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have been enjoying mine.

Maybe you are looking for

  • Dbms_scheduler error in calling a schell script.

    Hi, I am trying to execute a shell script which is called from a procedure. below are the changes which i have made and after that i am still getting error as below: Please help me as to where i am going wrong: Steps takesm: 1) rdbms/admin/externaljo

  • Apps replaced with question marks?

    I just bought an iPhone 5s from ebay. It arrived with a US plug and US instructions even though i live in the UK and the sender was from the UK. I plugged it into my mac computer and it loaded up on iTunes then instantly chrome had to force quit and

  • Protecting some of the form fields

    I have set up auto-populating of form fields in an Acrobat Pro 9.0 form. A selection from a drop down (a company name) auto-populates the address, phone number fields, etc. How can I lock or protect the address and phone fields so that someone can't

  • Can't start mysql 5.5 on MAC OS X server

    attempting to start MySQL on Mac OS X server 10.6 fails with following error: [ERROR] /usr/local/mysql-5.5.8-osx10.6-x86_64/bin/mysqld: unknown option '--skip-locking' appreciate any advice or help how to fix this problem. thank you.

  • Moving to current record after execute query

    Hi all, I have a form where i can list all db jobs which can be start or stop. for more details, form is having columns like jobs, current db status, action(start/stop drop down) The user will view list of jobs in the screen and he straightly goes to