Re: hard drive not spinning down.

[Andrew Henry]

Paul Cartwright wrote: Well, if the fans are working on the laptop it should never get burning hot.  There's no reason why a laptop can't run with its drive spinning all the time (unless its on battery and you want to save the battery). I would like it to spin down not just to stop overheating but to save energy (and the life of the drive). Check for airflow.  Also, note any difference in airflow between bios screen (where you can verify the fan rpm) and during boot, and after booting into debian. Doug. Airflow was probably the reason.  The vent was blocked with dust, so I vacuumed it and the fans don't sound as loud now.  Reason for this mail is because a few days ago I walked into the room to smell the distinctive odour of fried electronics.  Dunno what blew, but it all seems to work still, although when I opened the lid before shutting down, the gdm greeter had gone completely blank with a flickering "scan line" (yes I know its LCD) at the top.  not good. you can also install powertop. It tells you what you can do to save power, including spinning down the drives faster. I always keep my laptop on coasters, so there is airflow beneath it, and MAKE SURE you have the vent area clear, where tha fans blow out the hot air. I sometimes forget, and put papers and large objects too close, and block the vents.. a sure way to heat up your laptop in a hurry! I already use powertop, but have not yet managed to figure out where to put all the suggestions so that they are activated on boot.  I have a script to run manually, but some of the suggestions are harder for me to figure out. Thanks for the tips, but is there no tool that can set the power saving mode of the drive?  I have an external usb drive that spins down after a ew minutes idle time, and I would like the same on the internal drive. --andrew -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]