Hi,
I have a weird problem with my laptop. For some reason the hard disk stops working, the laptop lags for a minute or so, the hard disk starts again, and everything works again.
I’ve been searching for some time and can’t find an explanation.
I’ve used smart tools to check the hard disk, and nothing is wrong with it. Also the processor usage is normal when it lags, and it has enough memory left to work.
Can someone help me with this?
Open a terminal and type: top
keep an eye on the output, it will show apps that use high cpu or memory
make a note
report back
Output of top is
top - 18:32:25 up 4:59, 4 users, load average: 1.59, 1.03, 0.87
Tasks: 134 total, 2 running, 132 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 18.3%us, 16.4%sy, 0.0%ni, 64.8%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.5%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2070792k total, 1907736k used, 163056k free, 81016k buffers
Swap: 2104472k total, 0k used, 2104472k free, 873672k cached
That looks OK, but I was intending you monitor it or try to whilst this issue happens
You might be able to hit the PrtSc (Print Screen) button to capture it
Like this:
http://thumbnails8.imagebam.com/4816/83ca0348151260.gif](http://www.imagebam.com/image/83ca0348151260)
That was the output of top right at the moment the hard disk stopped.
The terminal is the only application that most of the times continues to work.
It would be handy if I could see what processes were in there
This is the full output of top when the disk stops:
top - 19:51:35 up 6:18, 4 users, load average: 0.53, 0.65, 0.81
Tasks: 134 total, 1 running, 133 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 2.8%us, 12.5%sy, 0.0%ni, 82.0%id, 1.3%wa, 0.9%hi, 0.5%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2070792k total, 1942760k used, 128032k free, 75820k buffers
Swap: 2104472k total, 0k used, 2104472k free, 882024k cached
PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
5841 joris 20 0 807m 604m 53m S 25 29.9 34:45.80 VirtualBox
5651 joris 20 0 225m 29m 13m S 3 1.5 2:53.14 knotify4
5443 root 20 0 152m 50m 9168 S 1 2.5 2:44.97 Xorg
6092 joris 20 0 109m 35m 17m S 1 1.7 0:10.32 konsole
79 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 1 0.0 0:18.34 ata/0
2246 haldaemo 20 0 7172 4828 4040 S 1 0.2 0:03.96 hald
6128 joris 20 0 2416 1012 768 R 1 0.0 0:13.54 top
5729 joris 20 0 93908 5500 4340 S 0 0.3 0:37.78 pulseaudio
6118 joris 20 0 122m 37m 11m S 0 1.9 0:26.07 chrome
1 root 20 0 1008 356 308 S 0 0.0 0:01.92 init
2 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kthreadd
3 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/0
4 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:05.92 ksoftirqd/0
5 root RT -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 migration/1
6 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:04.66 ksoftirqd/1
7 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:01.04 events/0
8 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.94 events/1
9 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 khelper
10 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/0
11 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kintegrityd/1
12 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:01.22 kblockd/0
13 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.44 kblockd/1
14 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.32 kacpid
15 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kacpi_notify
16 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 cqueue
17 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.02 kseriod
18 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:01.86 kondemand/0
19 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:01.80 kondemand/1
20 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 pdflush
21 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.62 pdflush
22 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.02 kswapd0
23 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 aio/0
24 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 aio/1
25 root 15 -5 0 0 0 S 0 0.0 0:00.00 kpsmoused
You are running Virtual Box when this happens?
I also happens when I’m not running virtualbox.
How often is this taking place. Is it just random or does there seem to be any thing related to it?
To me it seems to be a random problem. But it occurs more often as 2 weeks ago. When it started it happened a few times a day, but now it happens almost every 10 min.
I can’t find a program that can be linked to it. Even when the pc isn’t doing anything the hard disk stops and restart.
Boot a live cd and check how it behaves.
Remember they are a bit laggy, because of reading from the cd, but if this is a real hardware issue, it should still be present nevertheless.
Joris v wrote:
> now it happens almost every 10 min.
i think you should check your power savings settings both in Linux AND
in the laptop’s BIOS…because, maybe the hard drive is powering
down after some inactivity…which could be a good thing for battery
life…as long as you can live with the slow start…
wait! you say it does nothing for a minute or so and THEN begins again…
why do you say it is the hard drive stopping? do you have a
light/led that shows ‘hits’ on the hard drive–do those cease
completely, and stay OFF for another minute after you make a keyboard
input??
are you saying you SEE the hard drive light stop working and THEN open
top and copy its output??
or are you saying you think the hard drive stops…or what?
–
palladium
I’ve checked my power savings setting in linux, and there is nothing wrong with it. Andit also happens when I’m working (for example typing this text),so power saving settings should power down anything.
When the system lags, I can hear the hard disk stop and after a minute or so it clicks and spins up again. Also if the hard disk is working when it happens, the indication led goes out.
The output of top is from just after the hard disk went down. Top was working and when I heard the disk spin down I copied the output.
How is it you can hear your HD anyway. Maybe when you power on the machine and it kicks in but after that it should be whisper quiet.
The HD activity light is a good indicator.
I have a plan. try creating a new user account, login and see if it is the same. (We didn’t do that already did we?)
You need auto-login disabled for this:
Disable Auto-Login - openSUSE Forums
Setup a new account in YaST - Security and Users - User Management
when done - logout and back in with the new account
Normaly I can’t hear my HD, only when it starts (spins up) and stops during the start up and shut down. But when it lags it makes the same noise as during shut down, and again when it restarts.
That is why I’m sure that it stops and restarts.
I will try the different user account and will let the result now.
Already thanks for the help 
I tried setting up a new account, but the problem is still there.
Did you try a Live CD?
Joris v wrote:
> I will try the different user account and will let the result now.
> Already thanks for the help
and if that doesn’t help i think maybe you need to investigate the
possibility that you have an intermittent short in the power to that
drive…
i don’t know how hard would be on YOUR laptop to:
-shutdown the computer
-get it open enough to unplug the hard disk’s power input
-plug it back in and see if the spin down ceases…
but first read both of these:
please go to your printed user manual or the makers web site and
carefully follow the instructions there to change the hard drive…do
NOT destroy your machine trying to do the above, please
see here: http://tinyurl.com/6aagco
–
palladium
I’ve already tried to take out the hard disk and put it back in. I’ve even replaced it with an older one witch also had opensuse installed on it. (I changed my haddisk last year to a newer model with more space.) But it did not help.
Is it this that you mean, or should I check the cables to the HD. (that’s not that easy in my laptop)
I just finished downloading the live cd and I’m going to try it now.
