hdparm standby timeout not working for WD raptors?

["Mark Weber" <crash@treysoft.com>]

I can't get "hdparm -S" to work at all.

Using  "hdparm -S 1" should set the timeout to
5 seconds,  but the drives stay active/idle all the
time. When I set to standby manually, the drives
stay on standby for days, and start up fine when
they are used. I know this because I logged status
every 30 minutes using crontab.

They just don't standby automatically.

I'm using 5 identical drives (see below for drive
info), with software RAID.

Any suggestions? System details follow.


# uname -a
Linux narf 2.6.22-gentoo-r5 #1 Sat Sep 1 13:35:06 CDT 2007 i686
Intel(R) Celeron(R) D CPU 420 @ 1.60GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

# hdparm -S 1 /dev/sda
 setting standby to 1 (5 seconds)

# hdparm -I /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

ATA device, with non-removable media
        Model Number:       WDC WD5000ABYS-01TNA0
        Serial Number:      WD-WCAPW2171884
        Firmware Revision:  12.01C01
Standards:
        Supported: 7 6 5 4
        Likely used: 7
Configuration:
        Logical         max     current
        cylinders       16383   16383
        heads           16      16
        sectors/track   63      63
        --
        CHS current addressable sectors:   16514064
        LBA    user addressable sectors:  268435455
        LBA48  user addressable sectors:  976773168
        device size with M = 1024*1024:      476940 MBytes
        device size with M = 1000*1000:      500107 MBytes (500 GB)
Capabilities:
        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
        Queue depth: 32
        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, with device specific minimum
        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 16
        Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 254
        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
             Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
        Enabled Supported:
           *    SMART feature set
                Security Mode feature set
           *    Power Management feature set
           *    Write cache
           *    Look-ahead
           *    Host Protected Area feature set
           *    WRITE_BUFFER command
           *    READ_BUFFER command
           *    NOP cmd
           *    DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
                Power-Up In Standby feature set
           *    SET_FEATURES required to spinup after power up
                SET_MAX security extension
           *    Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
           *    48-bit Address feature set
           *    Device Configuration Overlay feature set
           *    Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
           *    FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
           *    SMART error logging
           *    SMART self-test
           *    General Purpose Logging feature set
           *    WRITE_{DMA|MULTIPLE}_FUA_EXT
           *    64-bit World wide name
           *    Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
           *    SATA-I signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
           *    SATA-II signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
           *    Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
           *    Phy event counters
                DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
           *    Software settings preservation
           *    SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
           *    SCT Long Sector Access (AC1)
           *    SCT LBA Segment Access (AC2)
           *    SCT Error Recovery Control (AC3)
           *    SCT Features Control (AC4)
           *    SCT Data Tables (AC5)
                unknown 206[12]
                unknown 206[13]
Security:
        Master password revision code = 65534
                supported
        not     enabled
        not     locked
                frozen
        not     expired: security count
        not     supported: enhanced erase
        134min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Checksum: correct