Mac OS X

Tricks

Disable sudden motion sensor

The motion sensor is great to save the hard drive if the machine is ever to fall a fair height or be struck, but it also can make the heads park more often than necessary.

To disable the sensor:

1. Open the Utilities folder, find Terminal
2. Enter sudo pmset -g to see the current system settings, sms indicates Sudden Motion Sensor and is normally 1
3. To disable the sensor use sudo pmset -a sms 0, where 0 is disable and 1 enable
4. The change is permanent until the pram and maybe the SMC is reset

References

• Apple Portables: Advanced tips for Sudden Motion Sensor