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Does Sudden Motion Sensor work in optical bay? (Late 2011 13" MacBook Pro)

P

paragonj

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 16, 2008
91
3
I am about to remove my DVD drive to install an SSD in my Late 2011 13" MacBook Pro and if the SSD doesn't work properly in the optical bay due to the SATA III issue on 2011 MBPs I will have to move the original HDD to the optical bay. I have read a number of conflicting reports on this so I wanted to put it out there to ask if anybody has any personal experience with moving their original HDD (or other drive without internal shock protection) to the optical bay of a Late 2011 13" MacBook Pro and have they determined whether or not the Sudden Motion Sensor still works? Thanks in advance!
 
Nope, the sudden motion sensor is built into the HDD bay, you can get drives with sudden motion sensors built in though.
 
I did swap out an SSD for an HDD in my 2010 macbook pro and turned off the HDD bay motion sensor because it was no longer needed.
 
Did you test whether it worked in the optical bay before turning it off? I am just trying to see if you have personal experience with this because I have read reports both ways as to whether the SMS works in the optical bay.
 
As far as I know there isn't one in the optical bay, I never touched it though I left the optical drive as is. All the research I have done says there isn't one in the optibay but you can use an HDD with a built in SMS in there instead.
 
Have you checked the link speed for the optical bay as it was during the 2011/12 period that it was switched from sata 2 to 3. If it's sata 3 then you can slap your ssd straight in the optical bay.
 
Gav2k said:
Have you checked the link speed for the optical bay as it was during the 2011/12 period that it was switched from sata 2 to 3. If it's sata 3 then you can slap your ssd straight in the optical bay.
Click to expand...

My link speed on the optical drive is listed as SATA 3 but I have read that there is an issue with some 2011 models that even though it reports SATA 3 it doesn't work properly (and doesn't negotiate down to SATA 2 so it just fails). From what I have read that issue is not common on 13" models so I am hopeful I can just put the SSD straight in the optical bay. I am just investigating the motion sensor in case I can't.
 
paragonj said:
Here's one report I saw of someone saying it still works. There are a couple of others. Hopefully the SSD will work in the optical bay and I don't have to worry about this. I don't want to spend more money on this computer than I just put out for the SSD.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...sudden-motion-sensor-enabled-w-video.1117836/
Click to expand...

I read that thread and in my opinion that just means that the SMS in the HDD bay still works even though it has nothing to work on that is what I disabled on my 2010.
 
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