[SOLVED]Status light off, but no spindown?

[pietjepuk76]

I have a TS-109 with a Seagate ST3500320AS SD04.

The Status light does go off after the configured time (e.g. 5 minutes or 30 minutes), but I can still feel vibrations when I place my hand on the QNAP. I guess this means the hard drive is not in standby mode, even though the Status light is off.

Are there others who are experiencing this as well?

Edit 22-02-2008:
Finally, using version 2.0.0 build 215 spindown is working for the ST3500320AS drive. It did not work with version 1.1.5, and not even with 2.0.0 build 214, but it does work now with build 215. Note that I first had to power off the NAS following the reboot-after-upgrade; before I did that the spindown still did not work.

Nice work QNAP!

[johnA]

I appear to have the same problem with my TS-209, the status light goes off after the configured time but I can feel the hdd is still spinning and I can hear its noise distinct from the fan if I put my ear up to it.
I plugged it into a power meter and the TS-209's power consumption does not change when the light goes out, I waited another twenty minutes or so and the power consumption does not drop.
Left it overnight and the light is out in the morning but the power consumption is the same.

ST3500320AS with SD04 firmware as well.

[pietjepuk76]

Thanks John for the info.

The question now is: is it caused by the drive ST3500320AS SD04, or does this also occur with other hard drives?

Let's wait for some more answers to this post.

[johnA]

Still doesn't work with 1.1.5

[pietjepuk76]

Right, forgot to mention that, I'm also on 1.1.5. Haven't tried 2.0 yet, but I have a feeling that upgrading to 2.0 will not solve this...

[johnA]

I'm thinking about installing 2.0.0 now, I mean, if it won't spin down I may as well know how healthy it is.

[johnA]

Installed the new 2.0.0, I can now see the SMART status of the drive but no spindown still.

[johnA]

Noticed with 2.0.0 that the drive was showing as ATA-7 in the SMART info so flashed the drives firmware to AD14, now shows ATA-8 correctly... no spindown though.

Also 100% sure the drive drive is not spinning down despite the i light being out:-

I used hdparm -S1 to change standby to 5 seconds, i light goes out but no no change in power consumption /acoustics.
Then used hdparm -y to force the drive to spindown , power consumption drops and I can hear the drive spindown.

[johnA]

Tried turning everything off, disconnecting UPS / Printer, restarted and still nothing, i light goes off but no spin down of drive.

[johnA]

I've given up, nothing I do will make it spin down.

[pietjepuk76]

I would appreciate if one of the QNAP guys could comment on this. Why do certain disks not spin down, even though the Status light is off...

And John, can you tell me how to flash the firmdrive? Did you do this when the drive was in the NAS? Thanks for the info you provided so far!

[reaper]

Hello,

I observed the same Problem:
Status light goes off, but HDD does not spin down.

Configuration:
Device: TS-109 Pro
Firmware: 1.1.5 Build 0128T
Disk: Seagate ST31000340NS SN04

Looks like a problem with the new Seagate HDDs?
On the Seagate webpage they mention someting about a "Power Trim technology".
See: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=barracuda-es-2-sata-3-0-gb/s-1-tb-hard-drive&vgnextoid=481e83de34b43110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=b655f141e7f43110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&reqPage=Model

Maybe this interfers with the spindown procedure?

[johnA]

I changed the hdd firmware by removing the hdd from the nas and putting it in my pc, disconnecting all other sata and pata devices and booting from a floppy drive with a disk created with the utility that Seagate supply, they also do a version that creates a bootable CD.

The AD14 firmware is supposed to address problems with the full cache of the drive not being available. This shouldn't be a factor in this problem but as my drive was showing its connection incorrectly (ATA133) I figured I may as well flash it to see if it cleared that up, and it did.

[Mantorok]

Hi johnA,

Where did you find the firmware for your HDD on Seagate's web site?

All I could find was the following:

ATA and Serial ATA (SATA) Hard Drives

There is no firmware available for our standard distribution ATA/SATA drive models.

Firmware could possibly be changed if the drives were modified by an OEM vendor, so this would be supported through the OEM vendor only.

Firmware only applies to OEM units for ATA/SATA models which are supported by the OEM vendor, not Seagate.

To determine the OEM vendor, refer to your original place of purchase.

[johnA]

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/suppor ... a-fw-disty

Don't use that unless you're sure you have one of those models, you know what youre doing and you really feel the need to use it, I was cautious about
changing mine even though it was reporting the wrong speed, flashing the firmware can kill your hdd.