Momentus XT, Momentus, Momentus Thin, MobileMax, and other notebook drives

[diesel13]

Hello all I have just gotten my hands on a Momentus xt 750 gb hard drive, Fully reinstalled windows 7 OS (ULTIMATE N), and am continually having freezing issues on COLD BOOT, a restart of the system by hard shutting down the PC via the power button seems to resolve the issue ans when the next time the OS boots up it seems to run fine, anyone know of a remed y for this ?

MANY THANKS

PS: Hard drive is much faster just driving me insane with cold boot related freezing issue.

SPECS:

M14x 8 GB RAM i72820QM 1600 x 900 NVIDIA 3 GB Video Card

[WiseDrive]

I assume you have a Dell Alienware M14x

I am running an M17

Turn off all power management --- everywhere.

From BIOS if there is a setting for it, then APM / Power management in Windows 7

Specifically -- set computer to "high performacne"

And,

Then eliminate the hibernate and sleep functions as well.

If that eliminates the problem --- start by working backwards turning one feature after another back on until you experience the problem.

Report back.

[diesel13]

I am actually one of those users who disables everything. All forms of hibernate and sleep are off within Windows 7 Settings. The system performance is 100 - 100. Closing the lid does nothing, and pressing the power buttons shuts the PC Down.  I have enabled all System settings so as to ensure that it rinses the battery. I am not trying to conserve anything !

Anything you had particularly in mind with the BIOS by any chance ?? As I am sure that I enabled everything there to.

PS: Does it when its plugged in and charging on cold boot or even when its unplugged. Hope that helps.

MANY THANKS

[WiseDrive]

Did you install Win 7 with an "image" or cloning from another drive?

Or did you install it from a factory original CD?

Always try to use a factory Microsoft CD to preclude a mystery incompatibility.

[diesel13]

Windows 7 Factory CD, all latest drivers aquired from Alineware Site, and everyitng flashed to latest BIOS FIRMWARE etc.

it only happens on a cold Boot, as long as the PC is restarted therafter it does not do it

[WiseDrive]

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diesel13 wrote:

Windows 7 Factory CD, all latest drivers aquired from Alineware Site, and everyitng flashed to latest BIOS FIRMWARE etc.

it only happens on a cold Boot, as long as the PC is restarted therafter it does not do it

---

In that case...

Incompatibility with "latest" driver from Alienware.

I would update those drivers directly with the manufafuturer of the hardware's latest drivers --- and see if that makes it go away.

Be sure you get the latest Intel drivers..

Tell me exactly what your settings are for the drive in BIOS --- how is it set?

I am thinking of an incompatibility (e.g. wrong / incompatible) setting between the SATA and the drive --- have seen that happen when the drive interface is faster than the machine.. which is your case.

Oh.. try disabling the DVD SATA (and all other unused SATA)   Sometimes, that clears it up. 

Also.. it is time to do a Seatools.

[diesel13]

Hello , I have already installed Seatools and everything came out check. I have also done Alienwares own built in Bios chck which did a comprehensive on all firmware which also came out good. So you recon a previous bios build might do the trick from what I am gathering of what you have said ? Also the Sata Speed them does 3.0 gbs and the drive does 6.0 you recon this could be an incompatibilty of this nature, is there a easy way to ensure the drives speed is on par of 3.0 gbps with the bus sped etc ?? Or do I not need to bother etc. Thanks Again

[WiseDrive]

---

diesel13 wrote:
Hello , I have already installed Seatools and everything came out check. I have also done Alienwares own built in Bios chck which did a comprehensive on all firmware which also came out good. So you recon a previous bios build might do the trick from what I am gathering of what you have said ? Also the Sata Speed them does 3.0 gbs and the drive does 6.0 you recon this could be an incompatibilty of this nature, is there a easy way to ensure the drives speed is on par of 3.0 gbps with the bus sped etc ?? Or do I not need to bother etc. Thanks Again

---

No, I am saying use LATEST BIOS and Drivers, not go back to another version.

Verify you have latest drivers for the entire system --- which is probably not necessarily the ones posted on the Alienware site.

Also try installing a minimum set of drivers --- and see if the problem goes away --- if yes, there may be a driver somewhere that is incompatible (e.g. if it does APM).

Another known issue comes from software that tweaks / overclocks, etc.

While I have not seen it on this particular drive, quite often when buses are overclocked... it works with slow gear, and faster gear (like this one) can overwhelm an overclocked bus.

Eliminate all overclocking "performace" stuff to start.

If they allow you to adjust things like DRAM timing / etc... set it to the most conservative settings.

Off hand, I am suspecting it is this issue...

The Drive automatically negotiate down to SATA 3gbs.. not a problem.

[diesel13]

All setting are now factory default. I am going to try and install everything fresh, once again. However if it happens again I will have to put it down to hardware incompatibility. I think the technology in this drive some how falters with the BIOS or possible chip settings in a lot of laptops.

 Sometimes we try too hard and should just be content with what we have, serves me right for buying a very new piece of technology with just too much going on. I do applaud Seagate for really going out their but unfortunately I think this hard drive just flew a bit too close to the sun, and burned me in the process.

For the record my Momentus XT 500 GIG with SD25 works like a charm in my older GT 725.

Many Thanks !

PS: I will keep you updated with my progress and reinstalling as such, thank you for your help !

[AlanM]

(Sorry that your post got blocked the first couple of times, diesel13.)