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jdcineaste Author

Level 1

0 points

Western Digital Scorpio Blue 640 Drive draws too much power in a MacBookPro

I just received a Western Digital 640 gb (WD6400BEVT) Scorpio Blue Drive for my MacBookPro. I've noticed that the drives "Throttles" a lot, i.e. seems to accelerate/spin and slow down/stop in a way I've never seen in any other drive, and I've been through lots. It wouldn't be a problem if the computer didn't seem to be sluggish in response, much more sluggish than with the 200G Hitachi drive I had before. I will sometimes start typing something and the computer will be slow to react; I also see the spinning ball much more often.
I contacted WD and was told that "It is quite possible that the computer cannot manage the capacity and energy demand of this drive. If the previous drive was under 250 GB, a 640 GB drive will encounter these issues."
I'd never hear of this problem, and I'm really confused since the new drive has a lower rated energy requirement (it's a 5400 rpm vs 7200) than the previous drive. Has anyone else had these problems? Can someone tell me whether this is reality or obfuscation on the part of Western Digital?

Message was edited by: jdcineaste

MacBookPro Core 2 duo 2.33 MHz (late 2006), Mac OS X (10.6.2), Western Digital scorpio blue drive 640 GB

Posted on Nov 30, 2009 6:19 PM

211 replies

chris09

Level 1

4 points

Dec 2, 2009 1:17 PM in response to JoeyR

JoeyR wrote:

Using drives with a built in equivalent of the MacBooks Sudden Motion Sensor can cause problems. You may want to try to disable the Sudden Motion Sensor in your MacBook and see if that helps:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1934

I've done as JoeyR suggested and the spinning wheel of death issue has been resolved as far as I can tell. The system is snappier compared to the state with the Sudden Motion Sensor active, however I think it could be faster. Maybe Apple will address this issue in one of their next updates. I guess a lot of people will encounter this problem since 640GB WD blue scorpio HDD seems to be the largest regular option (0.4" height) for the MBs/MBPs. Anyways, thanks for that input and especially for that great tip with the motion sensor.

Cheers,
Chris.

jdcineaste Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 2, 2009 3:11 PM in response to jdcineaste

I turned off the sudden motion sensor, but this has had no effect on my drive's/computer's performance.

chris09

Level 1

4 points

Dec 2, 2009 3:33 PM in response to jdcineaste

Did you restart and deleted the p-ram?

Mini-Mac

Level 3

819 points

Dec 2, 2009 3:47 PM in response to JoeyR

Using drives with a built in equivalent of the MacBooks Sudden Motion Sensor can cause problems. You may want to try to disable the Sudden Motion Sensor in your MacBook and see if that helps:

In my experience with the WD Blue line there's no problem with SMS compatibility....at least with the 500 GB version, which has pretty much the same specifications as the 640 GB version.

Mini-Mac

Level 3

819 points

Dec 2, 2009 3:56 PM in response to Mini-Mac

Here's what I did after cloning and installing the new drive.

1. Reset SMC
2. Reset PRAM
3. Repaired Permissions
4. Made sure the new drive is the startup disk. Go to "System Preferences" and select "Startup Disk" highlight the new drive and restart the computer.
5. Ran Disk Warrior to make repairs....had several to make by the way.
6. Ran "Disk Utility" "First Aid" and repaired the disk using the install DVD. Note: do NOT repair permissions using your install DVD.
7. Repeat #4 if needed.

If you do these thing you'll be happy and your computer will be happier.

Have you tried this?

BTW, my new drive is operating as expected (same as the 500GB version). Knock on wood!

jdcineaste Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 2, 2009 4:00 PM in response to jdcineaste

I tried to reset the SMC using the procedure that has been indicated ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411), but this appears to have not happened, as I haven't seen any difference between before and after. I'm on a late 2006 MacBook Pro...
How can I tell whether the SMC has been reset?

MrGALL

Level 1

0 points

Dec 3, 2009 10:52 PM in response to jdcineaste

I have had the same problem with Western Digital 640Gb and MacBook Pro 15".
I tried all advises from this topic but they didn't help.
Then I tried utility hdapm ( http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/) and the problem was gone for me!

You need to install it and run:
hdapm disk0 max

chris09

Level 1

4 points

Dec 7, 2009 10:31 AM in response to jdcineaste

I'm back to square one. I performed all the repairs / clean ups / tweaks as described, disabled the sudden motion sensor and performed the performance tweak (hdamp) described before. At first, my macbook seemed to be snappier. However, after a while it gets back into the same old behavior of being unresponsive and showing the spinning colorful disc. It *****. I hope there'll be a driver update soon.

S.U.

Level 6

9,601 points

Dec 7, 2009 1:55 PM in response to chris09

One last thing to try might be the suggestions in Kappy's Extended Hard Drive Preparation:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1885474&tstart=60

I don't know if the erasure procedure will solve the problem or not. If it does not, it may be time to contact WD about a replacement.

Good luck!

Dec 7, 2009 9:58 PM in response to jdcineaste

I figured I would post in this thread....
I am interested in the Western Digital 750gb and 1tb Scorpio Blue Drive for my Macbook Pro.
It is a 17" model (not the unibody). Myservice.com states in an article that these drives do indeed fit although they are 12.5mm, but I have read elsewhere that they do not. Can anyone actually confirm whether or not this drive at 12.5mm will fit in a Macbook Pro 17" pre-unibody?
THanks.

Apollo33

Level 1

0 points

Dec 9, 2009 11:45 PM in response to MrGALL

I just wanted to second the suggestion to use hdapm. That's what I had to do with this drive as well. Here are some good instructions:

http://mymacfixes.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-do-i-stop-clicking-noise-from-hard.ht ml

Lingon can be downloaded here (the link in the instructions is dead): http://voxel.dl.sourceforge.net/project/lingon/Lingon/2.1.1/Lingon-2.1.1.zip

Now here's my question: Does anyone else think this drive is loud? My MBP was silent before, and now this hard drive makes it sound like a fan is running all the time—a fan that gets louder every time it reads. It's pretty annoying. I've been considering getting a replacement to see if I get one that's as quiet as all the online reviewers said, but I have a feeling it won't be any different.

Dec 14, 2009 11:45 PM in response to Apollo33

Well I have the same problem. My drive is the wd5000BEVT series and i get the spin up and down problems. Ive tried to disable the sms and use that utility you talked about, and however it did help a bit, I still noticed a HUGE lag. If someone that has this problem try this, listen to itunes for about 30 min. When i did that i would get 1-2 times where it would freeze completely for about 30 sec. I called WD and they sent a replacement, but that still didnt fix it. I dont know who to turn towards. Weather WD is at fault for making a pos hard drive or if apple has a problem with their firmware

Dec 17, 2009 4:30 PM in response to brianmay27

Just registered here to say that I have the exact same problem described by the OP. Just recently bought the WD6400BEVT and installed it in my mid-2008 Macbook Pro. I noticed at first that firefox would "pause" every couple of minutes, and I also started to hear the hard drive "spin up and down" what seemed like every 10 seconds. What drove me nuts however was that whenever I watched any movie file on my computer (like an .avi or .mkv), the video would stop and skip every 10 seconds.

What's really interesting is that I bought a second WD6400BEVT drive and put it in my PS3, and although it "skips" more than the stock drive, the skipping does not ever interfere with video playback or gameplay.

I've just applied the hdpam hack - hopefully this fixes my problem!

Dec 17, 2009 9:00 PM in response to anorphius

Just wanted to respond back and say that the hdapm hack has fixed the intermittent start/stopping of the hard drive. Hopefully it doesn't have too much of a negative effect on battery life.

Dec 17, 2009 11:04 PM in response to anorphius

Does it pause for you every 10 ish min? try playing a video or song for a while and see if it freezes up

Western Digital Scorpio Blue 640 Drive draws too much power in a MacBookPro