Can Hybrid Drives Suffer from Sleep Apnea?

I recently decided my Dell Inspiron Core2Duo notebook was obsolete so I ordered an Asus G73SW-XT1 to replace it. The Asus came equipped with an Intel Core i7 2630QM CPU, 8GB of PC3-10600 1333MHz RAM, Seagate 500GB 7200RPM HDD, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M 1.5GB DDR5 VRAM video card, a 17.3" LED backlight screen (full HD @ 1920x1080 w/ 3DTV Play support) and Windows 7 Home Premium installed. Among the additional bells and whistles it includes: A back-lit keyboard, 2.0 Mega Pixel Web Camera, Blu-Ray DVD Combo, THX TruStudio sound w/ built-in subwoofer, 802.11 b/g/n, 10/100/1000 Base T, USB 3.0 support and quite a few other minor, butvaluable, features.  Needless to say, this jet has after burners compared to my old propeller powered Dell.

Anxious to start playing with my new toy but not one to leave well enough alone, I replaced the base Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 16MB Cache HDD with a Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 32MB Cache Hybrid SSD which "combines SSD-like performance with affordable high-capacity hard drive storage.*" "Designed with high-performance core components on an innovative platform, the Momentus XT drive consists of a 7200-RPM hard drive with 32MB of cache, 4GB of solid state SLC NAND flash storage, and Adaptive Memory self-learning technology. Adaptive Memory technology intelligently monitors frequently used applications and data files, then places them into the solid state portion of the drive so they can be quickly recalled.*" "The Momentus XT drive is designed to deliver SSD- and 10K-RPM-class performance in an affordable 2.5-inch drive.*" I then installed Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) on the new hybrid drive followed by the special drivers and utilities needed for the Asus from the drivers DVD.

Booting up and seeing a Windows Experience Index rating of 6.9 (7.6 for RAM, 7.4 for CPU, 7.1 for both Graphics and 6.9 for Primary Hard Disk) was very satisfying, momentarily.  Within a short time frame, the new computer began stuttering, locking up for seconds at a time during which even mouse movement was sometimes unresponsive. Trying to diagnose the problem presented difficulties since most all the tools used for such purposes would also lock up, then report nothing unusual once they resumed operation. I finally noticed that responsiveness following a lockup resumed immediately after a long period of disk activity.

I discovered that the bug was reported to Seagate over a year ago, prompting the release of a few firmware updates that have helped in some cases. Yet for the most part, the problem persists and remains just as frustrating to new users today. In reviewing the promotional material for the drive, as well as the installation and operation documentation, I found no mention of the driver's quirks or the availability of firmware updates. When I checked Seagate's site, I located a recently posted firmware update with virtually no explanation regarding what it fixes or changes. I decided to apply the update, considering the firmware version on my drive was a few releases behind.

While it initially seemed to help, the update lowered the Windows Experience Index rating for the system to 5.9, solely based on a drop in drive performance. As the problem resurfaced, I noticed it only appeared after the system had been running for some time, long enough for power saving features to kick in. Based on that discovery, I disabled all power saving features that would put the drive to sleep for any reason. I then completely shutdown and rebooted the notebook.

It has now been running several days without any hiccups. Although power saving features that dim the screen, slow the CPU or hibernate the system have engaged, the fact that the drive is not put to sleep seems to have resolved the problem. Unfortunately, changing the power saving settings did not help the Windows Experience Index rating for the drive (not that I really expected it would) and the battery life is shorter without the system putting the drive to sleep.

I'm going to run like this for a bit and continue researching true SSD drives. Hopefully, Seagate releases a firmware update that truly resolves the problem and restores at least most of the initial drive performance rating. If no fix is available by the time I find a reasonably priced SSD, I'm going to replace this Hybrid beast with an SATA III SSD.

I'll let you know what happens.

* Seagate Momentus XT Product Overview
 ...

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