ATA, SATA Disk Problems

[rgheck <rgheck@brown.edu>]

Hi, and sorry if this turns out to be a known issue. Actually, I'll be 
thrilled if this turns out to be a known issue. But I've searched on it 
forever, and although I've found some information, I've not found a 
definite fix. Possibly my fault, but this is driving me nuts.

System: Asus P5N32E MB, Intel Quad Core; on SATA: two HDs, SATA Pioneer 
DVD-RW; on PATA: Plextor CDRW, one HD. (Can send more info of course.) 
Kernel is 2.6.23.9 on Fedora 8.
[root@rghquad lyxsvn]# lsmod | grep ata
pata_amd               20293  2
pata_pdc2027x          17477  0
sata_nv                25157  6
ata_generic            14405  0
libata                114673  4 pata_amd,pata_pdc2027x,sata_nv,ata_generic
scsi_mod              145657  5 sr_mod,sg,usb_storage,libata,sd_mod

The issue concerns locks ups and other errors that seem to be focused on 
the optical drives. I'm getting this kind of error:
Jan 16 01:33:19 rghquad kernel: ata7.01: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 
SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
Jan 16 01:33:19 rghquad kernel: ata7.01: cmd 
a0/00:00:00:00:20/00:00:00:00:00/b0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 0
Jan 16 01:33:19 rghquad kernel: ata7: soft resetting port
Jan 16 01:33:19 rghquad kernel: ata7.01: configured for MWDMA2
Jan 16 01:33:19 rghquad kernel: ata7: EH complete
repeatedly, sometimes with the Plextor, sometimes with the Pioneer. But 
then things sometimes get worse:
Jan 16 01:36:22 rghquad kernel: sr1: CDROM (ioctl) error, command: 
<6>ata7: EH complete
Jan 16 01:36:22 rghquad kernel: __journal_remove_journal_head: freeing 
b_committed_data
Jan 16 01:36:22 rghquad kernel: __journal_remove_journal_head: freeing 
b_frozen_data
Jan 16 01:36:22 rghquad kernel: __journal_remove_journal_head: freeing 
b_committed_data
and it seems as if the whole ATA system locks up. The main drive gets 
reset to read-only, and, well, things are not then good.

The fact that this sometimes happens on SATA and sometimes on PATA 
suggests its not a cable issue. (That particular case was the Plextor.)

Is it worth trying a larger PS? I believe I have 450W in this system.

Any help or suggestions more than welcome.

Best,
Richard Heck