Seagate disk freeze for 30 seconds then comes back (RecovComm 10B8B)

Seagate disk freeze for 30 seconds then comes back (RecovComm 10B8B)

[Catalin(ux) M. BOIE]

Hello!

I have a ST9160821AS drive, firmware 3.BHE, and I experience some seldom 
problems with it. It is in a HP 6715s HP laptop, kernel 2.6.27.5.

The error message is:
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x80002 action 0x6 frozen
ata1: SError: { RecovComm 10B8B }
ata1.00: cmd ca/00:f8:11:b8:38/00:00:00:00:00/ec tag 0 dma 126976 out
res 40/00:00:00:4f:c2/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
ata1: hard resetting link
ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
ata1.00: SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
ata1.00: SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
ata1: EH complete
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 312581808 512-byte hardware sectors (160042 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
support DPO or FUA

When it happens, the system freezes for around 30 seconds.

Seagate told me that there is no firmware update for this drive.

Please, let me know if it is a software issue.

Thank you very much!

--
Catalin(ux) M. BOIE
http://kernel.embedromix.ro/

Re: Seagate disk freeze for 30 seconds then comes back (RecovComm 10B8B)

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 11:30:42AM +0200, Catalin(ux) M. BOIE wrote:
> I have a ST9160821AS drive, firmware 3.BHE, and I experience some seldom 
> problems with it. It is in a HP 6715s HP laptop, kernel 2.6.27.5.
> 
> The error message is:
> ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x80002 action 0x6 frozen
> ata1: SError: { RecovComm 10B8B }
> ata1.00: cmd ca/00:f8:11:b8:38/00:00:00:00:00/ec tag 0 dma 126976 out
> res 40/00:00:00:4f:c2/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
> ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
> ata1: hard resetting link
> ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
> ata1.00: SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> ata1.00: SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
> ata1: EH complete
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 312581808 512-byte hardware sectors (160042 MB)
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
> support DPO or FUA
> 
> When it happens, the system freezes for around 30 seconds.
> 
> Seagate told me that there is no firmware update for this drive.
> 
> Please, let me know if it is a software issue.

This sounds like a very widely known and discussed firmware problem.  It
happens with Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, as well as various NAS boxes.
It is seagate's fault.  Of course I had only seen it mentioned for the
500GB, 750GB, 1TB and 1.5TB drives.  Somehow yours seems like it should
be a different series, but then again why should a firmware bug not be
duplicated on all their drives.

One discussion is here: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/15863

Seriously annoying for raid users of course when a drive falls out of
the raid for no good reason.


I seem to recall some people had found that if you disabled some part of
the drive caching the problem seemed to go away (as did a lot of the
drive's performance of course).

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: Seagate disk freeze for 30 seconds then comes back (RecovComm 10B8B)

[Bill Davidsen]

Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 11:30:42AM +0200, Catalin(ux) M. BOIE wrote:
>> I have a ST9160821AS drive, firmware 3.BHE, and I experience some seldom 
>> problems with it. It is in a HP 6715s HP laptop, kernel 2.6.27.5.
>>
>> The error message is:
>> ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x80002 action 0x6 frozen
>> ata1: SError: { RecovComm 10B8B }
>> ata1.00: cmd ca/00:f8:11:b8:38/00:00:00:00:00/ec tag 0 dma 126976 out
>> res 40/00:00:00:4f:c2/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
>> ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
>> ata1: hard resetting link
>> ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
>> ata1.00: SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
>> ata1.00: SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
>> ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
>> ata1: EH complete
>> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 312581808 512-byte hardware sectors (160042 MB)
>> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
>> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
>> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
>> support DPO or FUA
>>
>> When it happens, the system freezes for around 30 seconds.
>>
>> Seagate told me that there is no firmware update for this drive.
>>
>> Please, let me know if it is a software issue.
> 
> This sounds like a very widely known and discussed firmware problem.  It
> happens with Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X, as well as various NAS boxes.
> It is seagate's fault.  Of course I had only seen it mentioned for the
> 500GB, 750GB, 1TB and 1.5TB drives.  Somehow yours seems like it should
> be a different series, but then again why should a firmware bug not be
> duplicated on all their drives.
> 
Would you expect that firmware would be shared between old tech laptop drives 
and desktop/server drives? Particularly since the laptop drive was built before 
any of the 7200.11 drives?

I think this is a very unlikely part of the problem. Certainly the drive might 
be dying or other hardware issue.

> One discussion is here: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/15863
> 
> Seriously annoying for raid users of course when a drive falls out of
> the raid for no good reason.
> 
> 
> I seem to recall some people had found that if you disabled some part of
> the drive caching the problem seemed to go away (as did a lot of the
> drive's performance of course).
> 


-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot

Re: Seagate disk freeze for 30 seconds then comes back (RecovComm 10B8B)

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 07:07:48PM -0500, Bill Davidsen wrote:
> Would you expect that firmware would be shared between old tech laptop 
> drives and desktop/server drives? Particularly since the laptop drive was 
> built before any of the 7200.11 drives?
> 
> I think this is a very unlikely part of the problem. Certainly the drive 
> might be dying or other hardware issue.

It does seem unlikely, although if it is a common design flaw in their
firmware, it could have been carried over from older drives and just not
be as noticeable on the older drives with smaller caches and less drive
space.

Now if the drive is really old, then year it might simply be failing.

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: Seagate disk freeze for 30 seconds then comes back (RecovComm 10B8B)

[Catalin(ux) M. BOIE]

On Fri, 30 Jan 2009, Lennart Sorensen wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 07:07:48PM -0500, Bill Davidsen wrote:
>> Would you expect that firmware would be shared between old tech laptop
>> drives and desktop/server drives? Particularly since the laptop drive was
>> built before any of the 7200.11 drives?
>>
>> I think this is a very unlikely part of the problem. Certainly the drive
>> might be dying or other hardware issue.
>
> It does seem unlikely, although if it is a common design flaw in their
> firmware, it could have been carried over from older drives and just not
> be as noticeable on the older drives with smaller caches and less drive
> space.
>
> Now if the drive is really old, then year it might simply be failing.

No, the driver is pretty new (less than 1 year old) and the use is very 
light.

> -- 
> Len Sorensen
>

--
Catalin(ux) M. BOIE
http://kernel.embedromix.ro/

Re: Seagate disk freeze for 30 seconds then comes back (RecovComm 10B8B)

[Robert Hancock]

Catalin(ux) M. BOIE wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> I have a ST9160821AS drive, firmware 3.BHE, and I experience some seldom 
> problems with it. It is in a HP 6715s HP laptop, kernel 2.6.27.5.
> 
> The error message is:
> ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x80002 action 0x6 frozen
> ata1: SError: { RecovComm 10B8B }
> ata1.00: cmd ca/00:f8:11:b8:38/00:00:00:00:00/ec tag 0 dma 126976 out
> res 40/00:00:00:4f:c2/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
> ata1.00: status: { DRDY }
> ata1: hard resetting link
> ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
> ata1.00: SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> ata1.00: SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
> ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
> ata1: EH complete
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 312581808 512-byte hardware sectors (160042 MB)
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
> sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
> support DPO or FUA
> 
> When it happens, the system freezes for around 30 seconds.
> 
> Seagate told me that there is no firmware update for this drive.
> 
> Please, let me know if it is a software issue.

Quite unlikely, it looks like something caused the communications with 
the drive to be dropped. It's likely either a drive, cabling/connection 
or power problem (the latter two seem unlikely in a laptop though, 
unless the drive isn't connected all the way or something..)