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.

Similar Messages

Should I disable the sudden motion sensor after upgrading to an SSD

I put a 1TB Samsung 840 EVO in my MacBook Pro (9,1). Should I disable the sudden motion sensor? Does it do anything else other than park the hard disk (like something with the fans)?

You may want to read up on the SMS here:
Mac notebooks: About the Sudden Motion Sensor
Sounds like you can safely disable it if you wish since MacBooks which ship with an SSD drive seem to have it disabled.

Sudden motion sensor - hardware malfunction - beach ball lag related

Hello,
I have a macbook pro 13" bought in July 2009 with the 160Gb Hitachi 5400 rpm hardrive and 2Gb Ram. I also have the beach ball lag problem and have been reading many posts about it on this and other forums. However, I noticed today that in my System Profiler - Hardware overview, my sudden motion sensor (sms) is indicated as State: Disabled. I look at the state of the sms through the terminal window (sudo pmset -g) and is says sms 1!!! Something is wrong there! Then I executed "sudo dmesg | grep -i error | grep -i sms" to check whether there are any errors about SMS. and I get the following line:
SMS::checkForInvalidInts ERROR: we appear to have a hardware malfunction
SMS::setupInts ERROR bad hardware detected, disabling the interrupts
Then I looked in the Console at the System.log and realized that everytime the beachball lag was occurring, I was getting the same message in the system log:
Aug 23 17:07:28 localhost kernel[0]: SMS::checkForInvalidInts ERROR: we appear to have a hardware malfunction
Aug 23 17:07:28 localhost kernel[0]: SMS::setupInts ERROR bad hardware detected, disabling the interrupts
Although there are many posts on the beach ball lag and on the firmware updates, I don't seem to be able to find any information about this error what it means and how it might be fixed.
I also tried to test the SMS. When I enable SMS through the terminal command, I hear a click if I move my computer up and down through the air. When I disable SMS through the terminal command, I don't hear the click. So I'm very confused!
Has anybody got a similar issue with their sms and have they been able to resolve it?
Thank you very much.
Noemi

Hey, have you called Apple? I have the exactly same problem as you. Hope apple will give us a update for fixing this problem.

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.

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 - 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 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 - 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 working strange in Unibody!

I got a macbook pro 15 recently and i was trying out the applications on the Net. I tried smacbook which works with the sudden motion sensor of the hard disk...
Also i tried liquidMac app.. But what i realised is, they both didnt work for me well..
when i lay down macbook through left side, the liquid must go to left for example, but nothing happens, actually when i move laptop through forward or backward they are moving..
And when i run SeisMac to see the axis of Sudden motion sensor my result is like this
Y-axis positive is left up, right down (clockwise rotation)
X-axis positive is front up, rear down
(Actually it must be reverse)
And suggestions?? Can it be broken or sth?
OR is there any way to play with this directions?
Should i send the laptop to service?

Are you saying the SMS does not respond in the same direction that you move it... or that certain axis do not function at all? The SMS is designed to protect your hard drive and nothing more. While developers have come out with some applications that can use it, there is functional benefit to which axis activates by which motion. The idea is that it detects "any" motion and locks the drive head to prevent damage. Now, if an axis is not functioning at all, you may want to look into that.

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

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.

Sudden Motion Sensor on OSX 10.4.6 (iBook/PowerBook G4)

cheers!
according to http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303178, there is a problem with the sudden motion sensor on my ibook g4 14'.
my questions are:
1. is the sms really not working or is it just not showing up in the system profiler?
2. what should i do to bring sms (back?)to work? install a macosx-version prior to 10.4.3?
3. did the sms on my ibook ever work? bought it with 10.4.3 on it.
thanks for the answers.

Hi Mmkay,
Welcome to Apple Discussions
I am sorry, but just to make sure; Does the Sudden Motion Sensor not show up in System Profile (Getting Information About Your Computer (System Profiler)). In System Profiler > click on the Hardware tab > Look in the main window and you should seen Sudden Motion Sensor below Serial Number. Does it say State: Enabled? If it doesn't show up, bring it to your local Apple Store. I don't think that reinstalling the system software will make a difference.
Jon
Mac Mini 1.42Ghz, iPod (All), Airport (Graphite & Express), G4 1.33Ghz iBook, G4 iMac 1Ghz, G3 500Mhz, iBook iMac 233Mhz, eMate, Power Mac 5400 LC, PowerBook 540c, Macintosh 128K, Apple //e, Apple //, and some more... Mac OS X (10.4.5) Moto Razr, iLife '06, SmartDisk 160Gb, Apple BT Mouse, Sight..

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

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