Comment 787 for bug 59695

On Jun 7, 2009 10:00 PM, "ethanay" <email address hidden> wrote:

If the intention is to enable a apm setting of 128 when on battery, where is
the rationale and evidence explaining how
1. it actually protects the hdd from shocks
2. it actually saves power
3. evidence (even anecdotal) of drives overheating otherwise

my understanding and experience is that Ubuntu software polls the hdd
too frequently and cancels out #1 and #2 above, because the hdd parks
and unparks again almost immediately. thus, there is no real shock
protection and no power saving (maybe even increased power consumption
due to unnecessary activity?), and in the absence of any heating issues
(not a problem on AC, by the way?), it makes no sense whatsoever to use
an apm value of 128 until software can be written with the standard of
reduced polling frequency while on battery mode.

cheers,
ethan

-- High frequency of load/unload cycles on some hard disks may shorten
lifetime https://bugs.launc...