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.

Similar Messages

Disabling OS X's Sudden Motion Sensor w/ a Seagate 7200.4 HDD

my MacBook has been having almost constant freeze-ups, roughly 15-30sec apart, and after reading around the forums for a bit, I discovered that OS X's Sudden Motion Sensor could be trying to override the shock protection my 2mo-old Seagate hard drive already has... needless to say, I disabled it about 15min ago and haven't had a single freeze-up since.
my question now is this- since I'm using Seagate's current generation 7200.4 drive and it already has its own form of shock protection, was disabling OS X's SMS a safe move? my MacBook is stationary 99.9% of the time, so I can't imagine that I'd ever have to deal with vibrations beyond the occasional optical drive buzz, but I still wanted to verify this just to be safe... thanks in advance!

"was disabling OS X's SMS a safe move?"
Yes.

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.

I ordered Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB 7.2K 2.5-inch SATA HD...

I just ordered a new Seagate Momentus 7200.3 320GB 7.2K 2.5-inch SATA Hard Drive ST9320421ASG - Brand New OEM. What I want to make sure (in case I need to cancel the order) is that this will be the same as the one that came with my Unibody Macbook Pro (it has the same model number...but does Apple customize these in any way?)
Thanks!

Yeah, mine is enabled too. Not that I want to do this...but do we have the option of disabling the motion sensor? If so, I'd like to know how .
PS: I wound up ordering the Seagate ST9320423ASG SATA Hard Drive because the other one was an older model. Pretty much the same thing though.

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.

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 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.

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 - 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 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.

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

Lenovo T61p and Seagate Momentus 7200.4 POST problem in UltraBay

Two different T61ps. Mine is a 6459-CTO model. Two different Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB drives. System boots fine, even with a second hard drive installed in the Ultrabay SATA adapter, most recently a Samsung Spinpoint 500GB 5,400rpm drive in mine, but before that 320GB and 200GB drives. No problems with any of those drives.
Install a Seagate 7200.4 drive in the UltraBay adapter though and turn the system on, and the system won't complete post. The hard disk activity indicator stays on solid. The drive activity light on the UltraBay stays on solid. And the system doesn't leave post.
Unplug the UltraBay and the system boots fine. The drive can be used if plugged into the system via USB in an external USB/SATA case, and appears to work fine as far as I can tell in this mode.
I have updated the BIOS in this T61p to the latest and the problem persists.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

You might try limiting the data transfer rate to 1.5 Gbits per second by setting the jumper if you have one. That's the limit that the UltraBay adapter is designed for. Unencoded that limit would be about 1.2 Gbits per second. The 7200.4 has a very cool internal maximum transfer rate of 1.23 Gbits per second, which might explain the intermittent booting issues.
Hope this helps. If it does, a report back before Newegg restocks this drive would be useful.
Don

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.

Sudden Motion Sensor / Seagate Momentus 7200.4

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