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

Mac OS X (10.7), Mail app

Posted on Nov 2, 2012 12:58 PM

Reply
3 replies

Nov 13, 2012 7:11 AM in response to Alex Zavatone

Dunno if this helps, but checking my system with MacPilot (shareware utility), I discover that the SMS is disableable on a per-power-source basis. In other words, I get a checkbox to enable/disable it when running on the power brick and another one for when on battery. Maybe you missed one.


As a side note on Mac trivia, wonder where the SMS is nowadays. In my now-dead Early 2008 MBP and my 2001 TiBook, it was a clearly identifiable pellet wrapped in tape at the end of a cable that you stuffed next to the HDD. However, in my latest joy there is no such device to be seen anywhere: might it be now soldered and part of the logic board?

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Sudden Motion Sensor crash in MBP with SSD

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