Re: Scary Intel SATA problem: "frozen"

[Jonas Lundgren <jonas@local.se>]

Tejun Heo wrote:
[--snip--]

>> IF the system does recover, I start getting
>> the extremly low disk write speeds that I reported above, and only a
>> reboot will get the performance back to regular.
> 
> Please full dmesg after your computer got really slow.  I suspect libata
> decided to switch to PIO mode.
Here's the relevant part, if you want the whole dmesg look at:
http://pastebin.ca/269581

[--snip--]
[82048.255126] can't create port
[85055.578172] reiser4[unrar(30787)]: disable_write_barrier
(fs/reiser4/wander.c:234)[zam-1055]:
[85055.578174] NOTICE: md5 does not support write barriers, using
synchronous write instead.
[87825.501998] can't create port
[89520.019538] ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2
frozen
[89520.019545] ata2.00: cmd c8/00:08:fe:68:df/00:00:00:00:00/e1 tag 0
data 4096 in
[89520.019547]          res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask
0x4 (timeout)
[89520.322292] ata2: soft resetting port
[89527.515891] ata2: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status
0xd0)
[89550.457913] ata2: port failed to respond (30 secs, Status 0xd0)
[89550.457917] ata2: softreset failed (device not ready)
[89550.457921] ata2: softreset failed, retrying in 5 secs
[89555.454103] ata2: hard resetting port
[89562.799693] ata2: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status
0x80)
[89585.740239] ata2: port failed to respond (30 secs, Status 0x80)
[89585.740242] ata2: COMRESET failed (device not ready)
[89585.740245] ata2: hardreset failed, retrying in 5 secs
[89590.736978] ata2: hard resetting port
[89598.081854] ata2: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status
0x80)
[89617.604742] ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[89617.611034] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/100
[89617.611042] ata2: EH complete
[89617.623426] SCSI device sdb: 145226112 512-byte hdwr sectors (74356 MB)
[89617.633551] sdb: Write Protect is off
[89617.633553] sdb: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[89617.637765] SCSI device sdb: write cache: enabled, read cache:
enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA

> 
>> I don't know what causes it, but most of the times when I've gotten it
>> my system has been under heavy load (compiling, downloading torrents in
>> 11mb/sec etc). Please let me know if you want any additional info, want
>> me to try something out, or whatever. My recent hardware upgrade for
>> around $1200 (to a core2duo system, i965 mobo) is just going to waste
>> because of this problem. :/
> 
> Heh, nice machine you got there.  When you look at the dmesg, do the
> error messages occur only on one of the two drives?  Or are both
> affected?  If only one is affected,
> 
> 1. swap the two.  you'll probably have to dance a little bit with boot
> loader but md should handle that fine once the kernel is loaded.  does
> the errors persist?  on which device do they occur?  do they follow the
> drive or stay on the mobo port?
It follows the drive. (Hardware problem?)

> 
> 2. try different cable / port.  if you change port, again, you need to
> dance w/ boot loader.  who's carrying the error messages with it?
Read above.

> 
> 3. try different power plug from different power lane.
I've got a really good power supply, wich can handle max 560W on the +12
/ -12 V rail alone.

> 
>> I just got so glad when I saw the post of this on linux-ide, I've been
>> searching like crazy to find another person having the same problem (and
>> possibly a solution) for the past 2-3 weeks or so.
> 
> My first guess is frequent transmission errors.  Please report the test
> results.  Thanks.
>

I guess it could only be a hardware problem since the error follows the
drive, and both the drives are identical, so it can't be a firmware
problem. Correct me if I'm wrong.

I just checked the smart status, and the drive passes, but it seems like
it's going down though, on the other hand I might misread the results.

smartctl -d ata -A /dev/sdb
smartctl version 5.36 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-6 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE
UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always
      -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   113   111   021    Pre-fail  Always
    -       4875
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   040    Old_age   Always
      -       237
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   153   153   140    Pre-fail  Always
      -       747
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   100   253   051    Pre-fail  Always
      -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   076   076   000    Old_age   Always
      -       18117
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always
      -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0013   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always
      -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always
      -       228
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   117   108   000    Old_age   Always
      -       33
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   001   001   000    Old_age   Always
      -       639
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always
      -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0012   200   200   000    Old_age   Always
      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x000a   200   253   000    Old_age   Always
      -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0009   200   179   051    Pre-fail
Offline      -       0


The "Reallocated_Sector_Ct" and "Reallocated_Event_Count" worries me..
Should I be worried?

-- 
-Jonas

Name:   Jonas Lundgren
ICQ#:   52064961
Mail:   jonas@local.se
IRC:    neon / neonman @ EFnet, Undernet, Quakenet, freenode