HDD noise

Jugger · 2011-03-22, 14:15

since I joined the project the laptop was constantly making noise - turns the hard drive .. What to do?

And what is the reason, like in the main CPU should work .. may need to play around with the settings

Christenson · 2011-03-24, 03:01

To get much real help, you need to let us know what system you are on and what you are running....e.g. Windows 7 and Prime95 v26.5?
There's a setting for the maximum time between checkpoints to hard drive...set it to 10 minutes or more.
Also, what kind of work are you doing? How much memory are you allowing for your ECM/P-1 work?
A simple thing to do here is to stop the worker threads and run your system monitor -- on Windows this is called "Task manager", and it has a tab for CPU usage (and maybe memory usage, but it definitely lists memory usage somewhere), you want to be sure that you don't grant your prime95 task more memory for ECM or P-1 factoring than you have free, or the disk will thrash as the data gets swapped out to disk and back. This memory allowance is set under the preferences menu for the Prime95 task in Windows, and it has separate settings for day and night, as well as defining what is meant by day and night.

Rincewind · 2011-03-24, 19:51

Is this noise only if your PC is doing work? Or do you hear this sound too although your laptop is 'idle'?
In both cases I think a backup would be a good idea.

lycorn · 2011-03-25, 13:00

Are you sure the noise comes from the hard drive?
Running Prime95 on a laptop makes the cooling fan turn for most (if not all) of the time, and that makes a perfectly audible sound.
As for the hard drive usage, you may have a thrashing issue, but that can only be caused by Prime95 if the following conditions apply simultaneously: you´re running P-1/ECM Stage 2 and you´ve been "too generous" in the memory allocation.

Commaster · 2011-03-26, 08:43

You can try moving Prime95/mprime onto a flash drive if the backup is the only cause for writing/reading data from your HDD.

cheesehead · 2011-03-28, 18:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jugger

since I joined the project the laptop was constantly making noise - turns the hard drive .. What to do?

And what is the reason, like in the main CPU should work .. may need to play around with the settings

There are two parameter settings that interact to cause constant HDD turning, and the non-GIMPS one is in your operating system:

How long the HDD turns after the most recent access

(Maybe it's something like: Time after access before spin-down)

So, if your OS time-until-spindown is 15 minutes and your GIMPS time-between-checkpoints is 10 minutes, the disk will never stop.

Your laptop system should have this setting somewhere. Maybe it's in the Power Management section.

If I can find where it is in Windows, I'll post that.

schickel · 2011-03-28, 18:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheesehead

There are two parameter settings that interact to cause constant HDD turning, and the non-GIMPS one is in your operating system:

How long the HDD turns after the most recent access

Your system should have this setting somewhere. If I can find where it is in Windows, I'll post that.

For XP: right-click the desktop, Properties, Screen Saver tab, Power button, settings for[*] power scheme, "Turn off hard disks after...".

[*] Which scheme depends on how you have your system set.....my desktops are set as "Always on".

axn · 2011-03-29, 04:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by cheesehead

There are two parameter settings that interact to cause constant HDD turning, and the non-GIMPS one is in your operating system:

How long the HDD turns after the most recent access

(Maybe it's something like: Time after access before spin-down)

So, if your OS time-until-spindown is 15 minutes and your GIMPS time-between-checkpoints is 10 minutes, the disk will never stop.

Odd. Spinning hard drive, as a general rule, does not make noise. It is only when data is being read/written that it makes noise. As a general rule. In my experience. [Also, no activity lights either]

Jugger · 2011-03-29, 13:27

I have windows 7 32 bit, yes version applied 95 26.5

When it is idle there is no noise, looked in Task Manager - seems to be a disc is not much used mainly by other applications .. cooler can really noisy, I did not like that thought

Memory I have allocated 1000 mb .. I do not know how best - of 4 GB is used about 1.6 .. and after joining the project memory consumption has not increased at 1000 mb

About the type of job I do not know .. my profile written by TF - though I do not know what it is .. Prompt plz

If it is cooler then it is better

Christenson · 2011-03-30, 02:38

Now that we know you are running Windows 7 and P95v26.5, we can help quite a bit more. Do let us know how frequently this noise is; is it the hard drive simply spinning or is it in fact seeking the head continuously, which would sound like something small jumping from place to place constantly and flash the activity light, typically a few times per second?

Memory allocation in Prime95 under Options/CPU is for ECM and P-1 type work. You are doing TF (trial factoring) work, it seems, which is where the program generates a list of mostly primes and tries to see if a given mersenne number, such as 2^26,437,739 is divisible by any number from the list. TF uses just a few tens of megabytes of memory, I believe.

Under the menu Test, there is an option to Stop all workers, and another to restart them. Make sure that this option does indeed start and stop the hard drive noise you are speaking of.
Also, in Prime95, under options/preferences, there is a "Minutes between writing save files". Set this to 30 minutes or higher; it is the maximum amount of work you are willing to lose in a power failure. While you are there, lop a zero off of the iterations between printing for better feedback as to what is happening.

Second, if you go to control panel, there is a "power management" icon, which is what others here are talking about. In Windows 7, there is an option for when the computer goes to sleep, and there is an "advanced" options that lets you control detailed settings like how long the hard drive spins before it is powered off.

Hope this helps.

cheesehead · 2011-03-30, 06:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by axn

Odd. Spinning hard drive, as a general rule, does not make noise. It is only when data is being read/written that it makes noise. As a general rule. In my experience.

Then you've had nice quiet ones. :-)

2011-03-22, 14:15	#1
Jugger Mar 2011 2₁₆ Posts	HDD noise since I joined the project the laptop was constantly making noise - turns the hard drive .. What to do? And what is the reason, like in the main CPU should work .. may need to play around with the settings

2011-03-24, 03:01	#2
Christenson Dec 2010 Monticello 5×359 Posts	To get much real help, you need to let us know what system you are on and what you are running....e.g. Windows 7 and Prime95 v26.5? There's a setting for the maximum time between checkpoints to hard drive...set it to 10 minutes or more. Also, what kind of work are you doing? How much memory are you allowing for your ECM/P-1 work? A simple thing to do here is to stop the worker threads and run your system monitor -- on Windows this is called "Task manager", and it has a tab for CPU usage (and maybe memory usage, but it definitely lists memory usage somewhere), you want to be sure that you don't grant your prime95 task more memory for ECM or P-1 factoring than you have free, or the disk will thrash as the data gets swapped out to disk and back. This memory allowance is set under the preferences menu for the Prime95 task in Windows, and it has separate settings for day and night, as well as defining what is meant by day and night. Last fiddled with by Christenson on 2011-03-24 at 03:03 Reason: Didn't say where to set the memory allowance for ECM/P-1 factoring

2011-03-29, 13:27	#9
Jugger Mar 2011 2 Posts	I have windows 7 32 bit, yes version applied 95 26.5 When it is idle there is no noise, looked in Task Manager - seems to be a disc is not much used mainly by other applications .. cooler can really noisy, I did not like that thought Memory I have allocated 1000 mb .. I do not know how best - of 4 GB is used about 1.6 .. and after joining the project memory consumption has not increased at 1000 mb About the type of job I do not know .. my profile written by TF - though I do not know what it is .. Prompt plz If it is cooler then it is better Last fiddled with by Jugger on 2011-03-29 at 13:28

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2011-03-24, 19:51	#3
Rincewind Oct 2006 103 Posts	Is this noise only if your PC is doing work? Or do you hear this sound too although your laptop is 'idle'? In both cases I think a backup would be a good idea.

2011-03-25, 13:00	#4
lycorn "GIMFS" Sep 2002 Oeiras, Portugal 2·7·113 Posts	Are you sure the noise comes from the hard drive? Running Prime95 on a laptop makes the cooling fan turn for most (if not all) of the time, and that makes a perfectly audible sound. As for the hard drive usage, you may have a thrashing issue, but that can only be caused by Prime95 if the following conditions apply simultaneously: you´re running P-1/ECM Stage 2 and you´ve been "too generous" in the memory allocation.

2011-03-26, 08:43	#5
Commaster Jun 2010 Kiev, Ukraine 3×19 Posts	You can try moving Prime95/mprime onto a flash drive if the backup is the only cause for writing/reading data from your HDD.

2011-03-30, 02:38	#10
Christenson Dec 2010 Monticello 5×359 Posts	Now that we know you are running Windows 7 and P95v26.5, we can help quite a bit more. Do let us know how frequently this noise is; is it the hard drive simply spinning or is it in fact seeking the head continuously, which would sound like something small jumping from place to place constantly and flash the activity light, typically a few times per second? Memory allocation in Prime95 under Options/CPU is for ECM and P-1 type work. You are doing TF (trial factoring) work, it seems, which is where the program generates a list of mostly primes and tries to see if a given mersenne number, such as 2^26,437,739 is divisible by any number from the list. TF uses just a few tens of megabytes of memory, I believe. Under the menu Test, there is an option to Stop all workers, and another to restart them. Make sure that this option does indeed start and stop the hard drive noise you are speaking of. Also, in Prime95, under options/preferences, there is a "Minutes between writing save files". Set this to 30 minutes or higher; it is the maximum amount of work you are willing to lose in a power failure. While you are there, lop a zero off of the iterations between printing for better feedback as to what is happening. Second, if you go to control panel, there is a "power management" icon, which is what others here are talking about. In Windows 7, there is an option for when the computer goes to sleep, and there is an "advanced" options that lets you control detailed settings like how long the hard drive spins before it is powered off. Hope this helps.