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.

Similar Messages

  • 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. =)

  • 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.

  • 2011 MBP - HD in Optibay - Sudden Motion Sensor?

    2011 15" MacBook Pro with BTO Apple SSD.
    Optibay with WD 750GB Scorpio Black.
    What is the correct setting regarding the Sudden Motion Sensor?
    There is conflicting information that this drive does or does not have a SMS - according to WD's website it does have "ShockGuard"
    There are several that have had trouble with motion sensor in a hard drive, in the optibay and in the Mac software. Some have not... and it seems to depend on drive.
    What is the correct setting - should one turn OFF Sudden Motion Sensor in the operating system? or leave it on?
    and either way, does SMS or "Shockguard" work properly when in an optibay?

    Jim,
    I have a similar setup to yours. SSD in main MBP drive bay, and WD 750GB Scorpio Black in the optibay.
    Ok, so we know that:
    SMS doesn't work in the optibay.
    Having the boot drive in the optibay causes hibernation issues, which could be "solved" by disabling hibernation and its creation of the /var/vm/sleepimage file.
    WD has something called ShockGuard on their Scorpio Black drives:
    "WD's ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks during shipping and handling and in daily operation. WD’s SecurePark parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface, resulting in improved long-term reliability due to less head wear and improved non-operational shock tolerance." [http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701275.pdf]
    I'm wondering if, after a few months with your setup, you still consider the WD ShockGuard to be a sufficient reason for leaving the WD Scorpio Black in the optibay.
    My initial instinct is that ShockGuard may not be as effective as SMS. I wonder, in part because whenever the Scorpio Black is accessed (via spotlight usage or what have you), it stays spinning for quite a while before eventually spinning down. Do you experience this? Do you have any more advice from your experience?
    Thanks.

  • Sudden Motion Sensor as input device?

    So, I know this isn't necessarily that practical, but I'd be interested to know if it were possible, just for laughs and novelty. Is there any program, or could a program be made, that would allow the Sudden Motion Sensor to be used as a basic MIDI Controller / input device in GarageBand or Logic?
    I (lightly) drum on the palm rests of my macbook pro when I'm working on drum parts and was thinking that if the SMS is as sensitive as I hear it is, there must be some way where one could actually input drum parts this way...

    Yup. All Mac laptops now have the SMS.

  • Sudden Motion Sensor disabled constantly after Leopard install and upgrade

    Hello,
    After I upgraded Tiger to Leopard my Sudden Motion Sensor is constantly disabled. I have tried alot now, including a complete reinstall of Leopard (which now looks like a waste of time, since it didnt help at all).
    I called Apple support yesterday and the guy i talked to had me doin alot of stuff - botting with a key combination, creating a new account, and now after his advise doing a hardware test and if that didnt work I should try reinstalling Leopard.
    All done, nothing changed. It still shows;
    Sudden Motion Sensor:
    Status: Slået fra (danish, properly says disabled in english)
    AMSTracker and all other software that uses SMS doesn't react on anything.
    I haven't tried installing Tiger again since I have to use this laptop on work by Monday and haven't got the time tomorrow to install it again.
    Has anyone experienced this, and anyone that knows a way to get SMS working again?
    I use my laptop a lot when I ride with trains, but with SMS not working I feel kinda unsecure - dont wanna have a headcrash on the harddrive or something like that :-/

    I contacted Apple today. My last call was apperently not registered in the system (sometimes the calls gets removed I was told... Ehm, what?).
    The lady I talked to had to contact a technical department (and wait in a queue... Exactly as I had in 40 minuttes just to get through to her). After waiting on that, she returned to me and said that it apparently is a hardware failure so I have to bring my MB into a Service Provider (Humac here in Denmark).
    I got a case number from her and is able to call Humac and ask them to get the spare parts home for that case number. When they get the spare parts, they should then call me and tell me. Afterwards I can bring the MB into the store when ever I got the time (as I use it work related, so I can't be without it for a day).
    That is pretty much my 'fix'. Haven't contacted Humac yet, but will do that tomorrow. Gotta get some sleep now.
    And yes, SeisMac and Neverball too is fun

  • Sudden Motion Sensor panics

    I have been having intermittent kernel panics and finally took the MacBook into the Apple Store.
    The Genius took a look at the panic.log and informed me that my Western Digital drive and/or my Sudden Motion Sensor were the cause.
    Here is the panic log for one of my crashes:
    Wed Oct 4 16:58:42 2006
    panic(cpu 0 caller 0x00878D87): ERROR: no valid tag was found!
    Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
    0x25083cb8 : 0x128d1f (0x3c9540 0x25083cdc 0x131df4 0x0)
    0x25083cf8 : 0x878d87 (0x881d40 0x1 0x25083d38 0x399b050)
    0x25083d18 : 0x879813 (0x399b000 0x39af000 0x25083d78 0x1a157e)
    0x25083d78 : 0x879eca (0x399b000 0x8e35dbb6 0x25083dc8 0x13d4c8)
    0x25083dd8 : 0x87de20 (0x399b000 0x39af000 0x1 0x87de5e)
    0x25083e48 : 0x910924 (0x399b100 0x3c86180 0x0 0x0)
    0x25083e88 : 0x89df22 (0x3a70e00 0x3c89be0 0x25083ed8 0x0)
    0x25083f08 : 0x398a1f (0x3c04900 0x3c68500 0x1 0x3828b70)
    0x25083f58 : 0x397bf1 (0x3c68500 0x135ec3 0x0 0x3828b70)
    0x25083f88 : 0x397927 (0x38307c0 0x25083fd4 0x134d5e 0x135ec3)
    0x25083fc8 : 0x19a74c (0x38307c0 0x0 0x19d0b5 0x38247a0) Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0x0
    Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
    com.apple.driver.SMCMotionSensor(2.0.1d1)@0x90f000
    dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleSMC(1.0.2d3)@0x89a000
    com.apple.driver.AppleSMC(1.0.2d3)@0x89a000
    dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily(1.2.0)@0x61c000
    com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage(1.0.3)@0x877000
    dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily(1.5.1)@0x5ea000
    dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily(1.0.2)@0x7c8000
    Kernel version:
    Darwin Kernel Version 8.8.1: Mon Sep 25 19:42:00 PDT 2006; root:xnu-792.13.8.obj~1/RELEASE_I386
    Other World Computing has sold a ton of these drives and has never run into this. The Apple Store kindly swapped in another drive and, after getting the MacBook good and hot (something that seems to trigger the panics), we whacked it around and were unable to replicate it.
    They determined that it is the drive.
    Does this make sense? Has anyone heard of such a problem? The drive shows no other symptoms.

    Got this from Macintouch.com that says that, yes, indeed the Western Digital drives have built in shock protection that is interfering with the Sudden Motion Sensor:
    Upgrading
    Cyrus Bhedwar
    "We swapped in a spare Seagate they had at the Apple Store and tried that. No KPs, but this isn't a definitive test as it doesn't always KP on rapid movement. Called OWC, and they had no reports of such an issue so sent me an RMA. Today I installed the new drive. The MacBook KPs when a decent motion is applied."
    I recently read somewhere (sorry, no reference) that the WD has its own motion protection that interferes with the MB SMS. I have the Seagate Momentus 120 GB (1 week) and have not had any probs.
    Jim Cowing
    Regarding James Ehrler's post on Kernel Panics and Western Digital 120 drives in a macbook - I can confirm. We have a 2.0GHz macbook with a WD120 that KP's on sudden (fairly harsh) motion. Didn't even notice this until I read the post and tried it.
    MacInTouch Reader
    You're not the only one who's encountered this:
    MacBook/Pro Owners Beware
    A light bulb then went off? we started to associate the panics with movement. Then it hit us like 3 tons of bowling balls, the Scorpio has built-in shock protection. The ShockGuard technology that WD employs is interfering with the Macs own head parking technology. We placed another call into Other World and returned the second Scorpio in exchange for the slightly more expensive Seagate Momentus (which does not have built-in shock protection). After installing the Momentus and cloning over the now tired image, we haven?t had a single kernal panic.
    All that said, if you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro, DO NOT upgrade to the WD Scorpio line of hard drives. They are definitely fine drives, just not fine for MacBook/Pro owners.
    Here is the link to the Macspecialist post on this issue:
    http://www.macspecialist.org/content/articles/macbookpro_ownersbeware/

  • 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.

  • Hard drive upgrade on 13" MBP sudden motion sensor compatibility

    Hello,
    I'm planning on upgrading the hard drive in my 13" MBP (aluminium unibody) and I've read a lot of posts regarding the sudden motion sensor conflicts with OS X 10.6.2. I'd like to know if the Western Digital 500GB Scorpio Blue here (http://www.dabs.com/products/western-digital-500gb-scorpio-blue-5400rpm-sata-300 -8mb-58P6.html) would suffer from the conflict (I'm not sure if "Shock Guard" = sudden motion sensor). I don't know if its a simple yes/no or whether its drive / mac specific.
    If it would be a problem does anyone have a suggestion for a guaranteed compatible 500Gb hard drive (5400 rpm is fine)?
    Any thoughts are much appreciated, thanks for your help!

    Western Digital Lists their drive features as:
    * IntelliSeek™ - IntelliSeek technology calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration.
    * SecurePark™ - WD's SecurePark technology parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved shock tolerance.
    * ShockGuard™ - WD's ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks during shipping and handling and in daily operation.
    * Free-fall Sensor - As an added layer of protection, if the drive (or the system it's in) is dropped while in use, WD's free-fall sensor detects that the drive is falling and, in less than 200 milliseconds, parks the head off the disks to help prevent damage and data loss.
    * WhisperDrive™ - WD's exclusive WhisperDrive technology combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms that result in one of the quietest 2.5-inch drives on the market.
    The Free Fall Sensor is the equivalent of the Sudden Motion Sensor. Looking at the specs for the drive you linked to... they list the following features:
    Shock Guard, WhisperDrive, SecurePark
    As they do not list Free Fall Sensor, I'm guessing this model does not have one so it should not conflict with the internal Sudden Motion Sensor in your MacBook.

  • 10.6.8 update and sudden motion sensor

    I have MBP 8,1, 2011 base model i5. Since i updated to 10.6.8 it seems like sudden motion sensor got a lot more sensitive. Never seen it work before, now if i lift the mbp from desk even i can hear the hdd clicking home. I have disabled the sensor and it stops even i move the computer around very fast. So it is not just the drive doing, sensor is triggering that.
    I was wondering if anyone knows if sensivity of this sensor changed on last mac os update? or if anyone else noticed it too?
    Thx
    Ozzy

    Hi Ozzy,
    I have not noticed any difference on my MBP.
    You can try an SMC Reset, which can resolve SMS issues: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Why would I get a Sudden Motion Sensor error on a Mac Pro (not a laptop)??

    Get this error all the time since upgrading to Logic 9.1.4.  Thing is, I have a Mac Pro, not a laptop.
    Apple sends me to this page:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1934
    Should I disable sudden motion sensor?  Seems silly.  I am recording woth headphones, there's no movement from the computer.   And again, didn't have this error for 3 years and suddenly I get it after upgrading to 9.1.4?

    9.1.4 seems a bit shaky...
    That said, you might try disabling "Sleep" for the drive.
    As I recall, it's a generic error meaning the computer either isn't getting a response from the drive or that it can't pull data off fast enough.
    pancenter-

  • Sudden Motion Sensor not working after upgrade to WD5000BEKT HDD

    Hi everyone, I just upgraded the hard drive on my Macbook Pro (2010) and I am very pleased with the performance of this 7200rpm drive, I have seen reads around 105MB/s and a pretty good boot time at 23s. But I used to be able to hear the hard drive stop when I moved the computer around before due to the Sudden Motion Sensor technology and since I have the new hard drive in it doesn't seem to work anymore. I have tried switching SMS off and on and it didn't change anything, also the drive is a Western Digital Scorpio Black without Free Fall sensor (I took that version on purpose so it wouldn't conflict with the SMS). Do you have any ideas on how to make it work again? Because I really like this feature on my Mac (I have dropped a laptop before so just in case it happens again). Thanks a lot for your help.
    Scott

    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.

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