Re: Assistance with error

[Robert Hancock <hancockr@shaw.ca>]

Rusty Conover wrote:
> Hello Linux IDE Guys,
> 
> I'm encountering this error after a few days of decent load on the disks:
> 
> ata4.00: exception Emask 0x40 SAct 0x1 SErr 0x80800 action 0x6 frozen
> ata4: SError: { HostInt 10B8B }
> ata4.00: cmd 61/58:00:8d:40:08/00:00:01:00:00/40 tag 0 ncq 45056 out
>          res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x44 (timeout)
> ata4.00: status: { DRDY }
> ata4: hard resetting link
> ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
> ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133
> ata4: EH complete
> sd 3:0:0:0: [sdd] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
> sd 3:0:0:0: [sdd] Write Protect is off
> sd 3:0:0:0: [sdd] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> sd 3:0:0:0: [sdd] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
> support DPO or FUA
> ata4.00: exception Emask 0x50 SAct 0x1 SErr 0x480900 action 0x6 frozen
> ata4.00: irq_stat 0x08000000, interface fatal error
> ata4: SError: { UnrecovData HostInt 10B8B Handshk }
> ata4.00: cmd 61/08:00:fd:41:08/00:00:01:00:00/40 tag 0 ncq 4096 out
>          res 40/00:00:fd:41:08/00:00:01:00:00/40 Emask 0x50 (ATA bus error)
> ata4.00: status: { DRDY }
> ata4: hard resetting link

..

> Its always on the same device sdd, I've swapped out the physical disks 
> and the error persists.  Do you have any ideas what the cause could be?  
> I've checked connections, could it be a bad SATA cable?

Quite possibly. The errors indicate a bunch of problems on the SATA link 
between the disk and the controller.

> 
> The full dmesg output is available at:
> 
> http://www.infogears.com/disk-failure.log
> 
> Kernel is:
> 
> Linux version 2.6.26.6-79.fc9.i686.PAE (mockbuild@) (gcc version 4.3.0 
> 20080428 (Red Hat 4.3.0-8) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Fri Oct 17 1
> 4:38:28 EDT 2008
> 
> The FAQ mentions power issues being a possibility but I'm not sure if 
> there is a way to tell if that is the cause since it it always the same 
> device in a 6 device array.

If it's always the same device that seems a bit less likely, but I 
wouldn't rule that out either (maybe that drive is more sensitive, or 
it's on the end of the chain from the power supply, etc.)