IBM APS offers no protection when dropped?

[blackatom]

Has anyone else tried this?
Take your T42 or whichever ThinkPad you have that has APS (Active Protection System) on it and raise it up to eye level and just let it have a controlled drop. I tried this and monitored the APS real-time status screen and the HDD keeps running throughout the drop, it only halted once it started slowing down which was me preventing it from hitting the ground. Again this is a controlled drop and of course I’m not putting my baby in jeopardy like Jacko and his baby over a balcony . But of course the HDD halts when i carry the laptop or pick it up, which is nice and reassuring that when I go from one class to another down the hall I don’t' have to worry about the HDD getting ruined. But i doubt this system does any more than that. It defiantly can't tell if its' accelerating in a drop, so maybe slipping out of your hand if you're walking won't do much to protect the HDD after all. Of course it'll halt if it goes tumbling down a hill, and this will just allow for one good smack, hitting once on the ground is better than 30 times, but still, just curious, and ranting.
The ads say it's like an airbag for your laptop, meh, not really, seems more like shocks on a car, helps it get over bumps while traveling, but has no effect in a crash. I'll shaddup now
Any comments?

[Matt]

You do realize there are different sensitivity settings in the APS applet, right? Tried the others?

[ZPrime]

see, your "controlled drop" is not a normal failure situation for a dropped laptop. due to the battery they tend to rotate when they fall. the sensor is triggered on rotation - at the most sensitive, you can just barely lift the palmrest and it will shut off the drive.

i have mine at low sensitivity and it still spools down if i move too quickly in a chair or whatnot. it's the tilting that sets it off.

[monty cantsin]

IBM Hard Drive Active Protection System: Effectiveness Test. Test
report prepared under contract from IBM Corporation

http://www-605.ibm.com/misc_includes/en ... p_test.pdf