Re: Warning - Maxtor SATA II and Nvidia nforce4

[Sander <sander@humilis.net>]

Jeff Garzik wrote (ao):
> Ah, I see this made it to LKML :)

I'm not the OP. The Maxtor notice is a few months old already.

> Dax Kelson wrote:
> >Short version
> >==============
> >Nvidia Nforce4 chipset with Maxtor SATA II drives with certain firmware
> >revisions cause data corruption and system instability when under
> >moderate to heavy I/O load.
> 
> I'm a bit suspicious of this.
> 
> Looking at the link, there are three problem areas and two problem blame 
> targets implied:
> 
> 	Data corruption	-> blame nvidia driver
> 	NCQ		-> blame nvidia driver
> 	Detection	-> blame maxtor firmware
> 
> The first one likely applies to the Windows driver not Linux's sata_nv, 
> and thus irrelevant here.  The second one OBVIOUSLY applies only to 
> Windows, since sata_nv (and libata itself) don't yet enable NCQ.  The 
> third one could potentially apply to Linux.  Lastly, your mention of 
> "nforce fake raid" almost certainly indicates Windows or proprietary 
> drivers.
> 
> Therefore, I ask:
> * are you reporting a only drive detection problem?
> * why are you reporting unrelated Windows problems to a Linux list?
> * if you are indeed reporting a problem on Linux, where is the kernel 
> and driver version info, as requested in REPORTING-BUGS?
> * and can you provide such info *and reproduce the problems* without 
> proprietary drivers loaded?
> 
> Your email is just a list of highly general symptoms.  Your link seems 
> to indicate two NV driver bugs on Windows, and a Maxtor firmware upgrade 
> for undescribed detection problems.
> 
> My recommended action for users is:
> 1) Avoid Windows.
> 2) Don't panic.

Last december I requested new firmware for my drives. Maxtor called me
and asked if I did have any problems. I did not, but just wanted to fix
the problem before I would notice any.

The Maxtor guy then told me that harddisk firmware upgrades are best not
to be done if not needed, and asked what operating system I run (answer:
Linux). He said that the problems only exists with Windows, and that
Linux should be ok.

In fact, I have yet to see a problem with my sata Maxtor disks connected
to the onboard nForce4 controller. This supports Jeff Garziks story.

I do notice that the nForce4 controller most of the times fails to
detect some of the drives (seems random) on a reboot. A powerdown and
fresh boot lets the controller detect all disks again.

	Sander

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Humilis IT Services and Solutions
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