Sudden Motion Sensor - Where is it?

See this Apple article about how to enable it: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300724 . On my Powerbook, the last 3 lines of the system profiler hardware overview say:

Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled
Version: 1.0

A good article on SMS can be found at http://www.kernelthread.com/software/ams/ams.html . There are also some utilities towards the bottom of the article that you can download to tap into the SMS circuit, to see how it's keeping track of the Powerbook orientation.

+Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later: Sudden Motion Sensor information doesn't appear in System Profiler or third-party utilities+

+If System Profiler, or third-party utilities capable of reporting the status of Sudden Motion Sensor, don't display any information for the Sudden Motion Sensor, it's not an indication of an issue. This omission can happen when using Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later on these PowerBook models:+

+PowerBook G4 (12-inch 1.5 GHz)+
+PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.67 GHz)+
+PowerBook G4 (17-inch 1.67 GHz)+
+iBook G4 (Mid 2005)+

I have a Powerbook G4 1.67Ghz with 10.4.11 and as posted above, there is an SMS statement in my system profiler.

If you go to the article I referenced, there is a program called AMSVisualizer. You might try that and see if in fact your Powerbook is sensing it's orientation - that would suggest SMS is active.

I downloaded the same program to make sure it works with mine, which it did. Perplexing. There was a thread on this, I want to say, around a year ago, you might search for it. Sorry not a better suggestion at this point.

The Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS) feature came with all PowerBook G4s and iBook G4s starting with the model A1106 1.5GHz/1.67GHz models and the "mid 2005" iBook G4s.

See Apple's page— [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300781]

Did you put in your own hard drive to replace the stock drive? Or, did the person you buy it from replace their hard drive? I posted a question in regard to this because my SMS was working fine until I installed my own drive on the former 15-inch I was using, a model A1106 1.5GHz.

After I did that, my SMS started malfunctioning.

This is the thread— [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1327566]

Hmm... that is interesting because the SMS is supposedly a "software" feature, and not a hardware one. Yes, it runs hardware in that it parks the heads of a hard drive, which is hardware, but the motion sensor itself is said not to be a hardware feature.

At least, not on the hard drive itself. (I beg to differ after my experience of replacing my hard drive and then the SMS stopped working correctly. However, I just contradicted myself, since, if it was a feature on the hard drive, by taking out the stock hard drive, I should essentially have had symptoms like yours-- NO motions sensor at all!).

I was going to say that the possibility you might have is that you have the early version of the 1.5GHz machine, the model A1095 1.33GHz/1.5GHz PowerBook since those didn't have the SMS feature. But you've clearly stated you have an early 1.67GHz, the model A1106, and punching in your serial no. above into the Apple Support page shows it to be an A1106.

I am now as intrigued as you over this since it's almost "related" to my question about the SMS. (I'd be curious to know what hard drive is installed in your computer. Can you copy and paste the info from System Profiler under the "ATA" section? Should be the first device on the list and will have "capacity," "model," "BSD," "S.M.A.R.T. Status," etc. The other on the list is your optical drive).

I'm guessing yours is a stock hard drive then, since it comes up (the Fujitsu model no. of the drive) as an Apple "part." So the previous owner probably didn't open up the machine and replace the drive.

At this point, I'm just as stuck as you. If I find any more info, or if you have any as well, I'll let you know.

Message was edited by: Pismo 900

The SMS not working is not, "not" a big issue and doesn't hinder performance nor is necessarily required for your machine. It works great for the event you drop your PowerBook or other type of sudden motion that needs to make the hard drive heads park in order to prevent damage or loss of data.

You might want to ask the seller on eBay if they knew of this problem or noticed it at all. If they are an honest seller with lots of feedback points, you may get a straight answer. 🙂

Pismo900 .... thanks for joining the thread ... couldn't remember who discussed this in the past.

I have the same Fujitsu drive in my Powerbook, same revision, different serial 😉 and my file system shows as 'journaled HFS+' versus yours showing as 'journaled HFS++'. As I posted earlier, my system does show SMS being active, and responds to the AMSvisualizer program.

Why don't you try installing these fun utilities and see if it works with your machine. At least, it's a way to diagnose the problem and if it works, the SMS is working too. If not, then your SMS is "broken" somehow. How is the question we'll endeavor to find out. (And why, too).

VirtueDesktops— [http://virtuedesktops.info/downloads>
**this is supposedly what inspired Spaces in Leopard. Only difference? You can't switch "spaces" in Leopard with the flick of the PowerBook's motion sensor

Seismac— [http://www.suitable.com/tools/seismac.html]
**this is a fun app, that lets you simulate California's special "weather."

BGreg:

Yeah, you and I were the ones discussing this on my posting. 😉