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[coreire]

I recently fitted a 500gb Scorpio Blue to (WD5000BEVT) to my jtagged jasper.
Before that I stored all of my games on a usb drive and had no problems with them.
I start noticing lag when signing in profiles or doing anything that was hard drive related after I fitted the drive.
I can also see lag in the menus of mass effect 2 if I leave the console idle for 5- 10 seconds and then try to select a menu item. There are lip sync issues if I wait a few seconds before choosing a conversation option.

What I've found is, if I leave the console idle for a few seconds I can hear the drive spin down/park the head. When I move the thumbstick I can hear the drive spin back up after about 2 seconds. I'm pretty sure this is what is causing all the problems.

Is there any way for me to fix this and stop the drive from spinning down?

Thanks in advance

[Toddler]

You need to run the Western Digital Idle Mode Update Utility to disable drive head parking:

http://support.wdc.c...s...609&sid=113

[brandogg]

I think I've noticed similar issues - sometimes Guitar Hero or Rock Band games will have a pause in the beginning, though everything stays synced up pretty well when it starts again. I'm gonna take a guess that you would have to format your HDD to NTFS or FAT before running that utility...right?

This post has been edited by brandogg: Aug 23 2010, 03:20 PM

[coldengrey]

anyone know if that problem effects scorpio black 7200rpm 500gb?

[Toddler]

QUOTE(brandogg @ Aug 23 2010, 09:19 AM)

I think I've noticed similar issues - sometimes Guitar Hero or Rock Band games will have a pause in the beginning, though everything stays synced up pretty well when it starts again. I'm gonna take a guess that you would have to format your HDD to NTFS or FAT before running that utility...right?

Yep, that's a sure sign of the issue--a brief "skipping" at the beginning of a track as the drive spins up when changing songs.  No, you don't need to format the drive first, the utility is completely non-destructive.  WDIDLE3.exe is a DOS utility.  Just hook your drive up via SATA (it won't work over USB-to-SATA) and boot to DOS (a USB flash drive is perfect for this).  Run "WDIDLE3.exe /D" which will either set the drive idle timeout to completely disabled or the maximum allowable value, depending on the drive.  (For my WD7500BPVT it sets it to 62 minutes, which is effectively disabled.)

QUOTE(coldengrey @ Aug 23 2010, 09:20 AM)

anyone know if that problem effects scorpio black 7200rpm 500gb?

Yes, it "affects" that drive and just about all recent WD laptop and desktop drives.  Technically, it is a feature (IntelliPark), but in certain applications (Xbox 360, a RAID array, TiVo, etc.) it can cause issues, hence the utility.

There is also a jumper setting for the WD drives which may be optimal when used in the 360.  It enables RPS (Reduced Power Spinup) on the drive, which does just what it says--it boots slightly slower in order to draw less power at spinup.  I jumpered my WD7500BPVT that way on my JTAG, which seems to have eliminated the 3-4 times out of 100 that the 360 did not boot properly:

WD Scoprio Drive Jumper Settings

Since the 360 will always take longer to startup than the drive will, I can't see a reason not to enable RPS.

[coldengrey]

QUOTE(Toddler @ Aug 23 2010, 09:07 AM)

You need to run the Western Digital Idle Mode Update Utility to disable drive head parking:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.as...609&sid=113

coreire has a WD5000BEVT

RE2GP Idle Mode Update Utility does not show WD5000BEVT being compatible (below)
Are you sure that utility will not brick drives not listed?
What about my WD5000BEKT- is this utility safe/needed to prevent lag?

WD1000FYPS-01ZKB0, WD7500AYPS-01ZKB0, WD7501AYPS-01ZKB0.

CAUTION: Do not attempt to run this software on any hard drives other than what is listed above. Please make sure that the computer system is not turned off during the firmware upgrade. Doing so may damage the hard drive beyond repair and your data may be lost.
---------
Off topic a bit (sorry)- but it sounds like you guys know what's what w/ HD's...
-I'm trying to get the aforementioned WD 500GB formatted and most of the noob guides I've been studying kinda skip over the actual (Internal) formatting process-

Q) Can I format 500GB Internal drive with Xexmenu and/or Freeboot, if so how/where do I access that format function???
Q) At this point still no partition for orig xbox1 games, right?
This would be were I would copy/ftp the HDD partition fixer and run, right?

Thanks and sorry for semi-hijack  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)
jason

[Toddler]

QUOTE(coldengrey @ Aug 23 2010, 05:37 PM)

coreire has a WD5000BEVT

RE2GP Idle Mode Update Utility does not show WD5000BEVT being compatible (below)
Are you sure that utility will not brick drives not listed?
What about my WD5000BEKT- is this utility safe/needed to prevent lag?

WD1000FYPS-01ZKB0, WD7500AYPS-01ZKB0, WD7501AYPS-01ZKB0.

CAUTION: Do not attempt to run this software on any hard drives other than what is listed above. Please make sure that the computer system is not turned off during the firmware upgrade. Doing so may damage the hard drive beyond repair and your data may be lost.

I am 100% positive.  Completely positive.  I've run it on that drive myself.  I've also run it on a drive with all my JTAG data on it.  Don't worry about their disclaimer.  Google "wdidle3" and you'll see people running it on all kinds of WD drives.  If you still wonder, I can't help you.

QUOTE(coldengrey @ Aug 23 2010, 05:37 PM)

Off topic a bit (sorry)- but it sounds like you guys know what's what w/ HD's...
-I'm trying to get the aforementioned WD 500GB formatted and most of the noob guides I've been studying kinda skip over the actual (Internal) formatting process-

Q) Can I format 500GB Internal drive with Xexmenu and/or Freeboot, if so how/where do I access that format function???
Q) At this point still no partition for orig xbox1 games, right?
This would be were I would copy/ftp the HDD partition fixer and run, right?

Thanks and sorry for semi-hijack  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)
jason

You need to format it under NXE, then install XeXMenu 1.1, run HDD Compatibility Partition Fixer and reboot the 360.  Be aware that you can't FTP files to that partition until it contains at least one file, so use XeXMenu to copy a file (any file) there, then you can use FTP to copy over the Xbox 1 emulator files.

This post has been edited by Toddler: Aug 24 2010, 12:59 AM

[coldengrey]

hey thanks for that!
I figured you knew about running the utility and the disclaimer was, well being a disclaimer...
-------
Question/help about running that utility on my 2.5' scorpio black hd

I've only got a laptop and no pc to connect and flash w/SATA any ideas how I could go about flashing that utility on my 500gb scorpio?

Could I install the blank scorpio as primary and only hd in my Dell inspiron 1520 laptop and somehow boot from a usb memory stick that I saved DOS and the WD Utility to?

Any other options like adapters, ect? No way to do with USB?

[Toddler]

QUOTE(coldengrey @ Aug 23 2010, 08:11 PM)

Could I install the blank scorpio as primary and only hd in my Dell inspiron 1520 laptop and somehow boot from a usb memory stick that I saved DOS and the WD Utility to?

Yep, that's probably your only option.

[nybbleme]

*deleted question* Was asking about being able to use larger hdd's in non-jtagged systems but after furhter searchign, found my answer. It wasn't the one I was hoping for.  so nevermind then.

This post has been edited by nybbleme: Aug 24 2010, 03:20 AM

[warningwarning]

WARNING!

I registered specifically to write you about this.

I have WD500BEVT, and I decided to put a long wait with WDIDLE3.exe /S300.

First I ran WDIDLE3
=> It showed that the drive was setup for 8 seconds.
=> I said, aha, same as WD20EARS that I just did, let's try it here too..
=> WRONG!

The moment I did this, the drive made a rather noise click sound.
When I ran WDIDLE3, it displayed:

=> 42 minutes

I ran WDIDLE3 again with /S8 => 8 seconds
=> WDIDLE3 again displayed 42 minutes..

I rebooted my laptop.
=> The drive made some click noise and barely worked. Eventually linux bootup failed saying it could not read some file..


I ran WDIDLE3 /D, and this time it did delete the parking setting.
Linux now works fine, however, my warranty is most likely void, plus this change did something that is not supposed to be done on this drive!

So, beware running this tool just on any drive...

[Toddler]

QUOTE(warningwarning @ Jan 14 2011, 11:00 PM)

WARNING!

I registered specifically to write you about this.

I have WD500BEVT, and I decided to put a long wait with WDIDLE3.exe /S300.

First I ran WDIDLE3
=> It showed that the drive was setup for 8 seconds.
=> I said, aha, same as WD20EARS that I just did, let's try it here too..
=> WRONG!

The moment I did this, the drive made a rather noise click sound.
When I ran WDIDLE3, it displayed:

=> 42 minutes

I ran WDIDLE3 again with /S8 => 8 seconds
=> WDIDLE3 again displayed 42 minutes..

I rebooted my laptop.
=> The drive made some click noise and barely worked. Eventually linux bootup failed saying it could not read some file..
I ran WDIDLE3 /D, and this time it did delete the parking setting.
Linux now works fine, however, my warranty is most likely void, plus this change did something that is not supposed to be done on this drive!

So, beware running this tool just on any drive...

Thanks for sharing your experience.  That is why I wrote:

QUOTE(Toddler @ Aug 23 2010, 01:42 PM)

Run "WDIDLE3.exe /D" which will either set the drive idle timeout to completely disabled or the maximum allowable value, depending on the drive.

The /D (disable) switch interacts with the drive firmware to determine the best supported course of action.  Manually entering a value assumes you know what you're doing, and it will try to do it.

Sounds like you recovered with no harm done.  The warranty issue is no different for you than for me or anyone else who has used that utility, and frankly, it won't matter.  I deal with hardware on a regular basis, and I've never had a vendor refuse an RMA for something like that.  If you do have to return it, flash it back to default.  If the drive is completely dead and you can't flash it, the returns department won't bother with it either.  They won't know or care, they'll just replace the drive.