Article ID: 194749 - Last Review: November 1, 2006 - Revision: 2.5

SP4 Periodic Disk Access Interferes with Power Management

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SYMPTOMS

Windows NT version 4.0 Service Pack 4 (SP4) systems access the hard disk approximately every five minutes. This access interferes with Power Management. For example, if your hard disk spins-down after a few minutes of inactivity, the hard disk will spin-up every five minutes.
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CAUSE

The Event Log service in Service Pack 4 maintains a time stamp on the hard disk. This time stamp is used to approximate system shutdown time whenever Windows NT is not properly shut down. By default, the time stamp is updated every five minutes. This feature was intended to operate only on Windows NT Server systems. Unfortunately, it is also enabled by default on Windows NT Workstation systems.
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RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Windows NT 4.0 or the individual software update. For information on obtaining the latest service pack, please go to:
For information on obtaining the individual software update, contact Microsoft Product Support Services. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;cntactms)

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STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4. This problem was first corrected in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 5.
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MORE INFORMATION

This hotfix adds the following to the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Reliability

with the following value:
   Value Name: TimeStampInterval
   Data Type:  REG_DWORD
   Value:      0
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APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition
  • Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4
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Keywords: 
kbhotfixserver kbqfe kbbug kbfix kbqfe KB194749
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