WESTERN DIGITAL 200GB IDE DRIVES GO OFFLINE - HOW TO FIX

WESTERN DIGITAL 200GB IDE DRIVES GO OFFLINE - HOW TO FIX

[war]

I've searched the archives, google and so on, many questions relating to
why the Western Digital drives go offline exist but with no answers.

PROBLEM: After extended periods of time, the HDD will simply go offline.

EXAMPLE LOG ENTRY:

Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: hdg: dma_intr: status=0x61 { DriveReady
DeviceFault Error }
Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: hdg: dma_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: hdg: DMA disabled
Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: PDC202XX: Secondary channel reset.
Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: ide3: reset: success
Jun  2 02:07:36 l2 kernel: hdg: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
Jun  2 02:07:36 l2 kernel: PDC202XX: Secondary channel reset.
Jun  2 02:07:36 l2 kernel: ide3: reset: success
Jun  2 02:07:51 l2 kernel: hdg: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
Jun  2 02:07:51 l2 kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev 22:01 (hdg), sector
234118272
Jun  2 02:07:51 l2 kernel: hdg: status timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
Jun  2 02:07:51 l2 kernel: PDC202XX: Secondary channel reset.
Jun  2 02:07:51 l2 kernel: hdg: drive not ready for command
Jun  2 02:07:51 l2 kernel: ide3: reset: success
Jun  2 02:08:01 l2 kernel: hdg: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
Jun  2 02:08:01 l2 kernel: PDC202XX: Secondary channel reset.
Jun  2 02:08:06 l2 kernel: ide3: reset: success
Jun  2 02:08:21 l2 kernel: hdg: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }

Finally, I recently came upon a fix.

The fix states:

http://www.warp2search.net/article.php?sid=12540

Drivers: Western Digital Offers Update For
                      180GB & 200GB Harddrives
                      =>Posted by: Rancho*.
                      =>Thursday, June 05 @ 17:52:50 CEST
                                      Apparently
                                      Western Digital
                                      180GB & 200GB
                                      harddrives tend to
                      drop from an IDE RAID array after
                      several days or weeks of operation. The
                      company is offering a fix for this odd behaviour
                      deeply hidden in their FAQ's. Affected drives
                      are:

                        WD2000BB (WD Caviar 7200 2MB 200 GB)
                        WD2000JB (WD Caviar 7200 Special Edition
                      8MB 200 GB)
                        WD1800BB (WD Caviar 7200 2MB 180 GB)
                        WD1800JB (WD Caviar 7200 Special Edition

                      8MB 180 GB)

                      The problem is a result of a feature that reduces
                      idle acoustic noise in desktop drives. This
                      feature can cause a timeout in a IDE RAID
                      environment. To disable the feature, you can
                      run a simple Western Digital utility to turn off a
                      single bit in the drive.s run-time configuration.
                      Disabling of this feature will NOT impact normal
                      system operations in a RAID environment. No
                      firmware or hardware changes are required.

                        3Ware controller cards:
                      If you are using one or more 3Ware controller
                      cards your IDE RAID configuration, download
                      the IDE RAID Compatibility Upgrade Utility for
                      3Ware 7500-X controllers cards.

                        Non-3Ware controller cards:
                      If you are using a 3Ware controller card ALONG
                      with other controller cards in your RAID
                      configuration or if you are using only one
                      controller card that's not made by 3Ware,
                      download the IDE RAID Compatibility Upgrade
                      Utility for non-3Ware control


Here is the readme:

The instructions below apply to the contents of the .zip file named 'WD_CFG'.

The utility runs within DOS and is used to update WD drives connected
to a host system via the primary IDE controller on the system's motherboard.

Note:  The tool will NOT work on a DOS console that is running under Windows.

To update drives please see the following instructions:

1) Unzip WD_CFG.ZIP onto bootable medium (floppy, CD-RW, network drive, etc.)
2) Boot the system to be updated to the medium where the update files were unzipped to.
3) Run wdnewcfg.exe
4) The utility will proceed to update all the drive connected to the system's primary IDE port.
5) Once the update completes, re-boot the system.
6) Update is complete.

Here is what it looks like from a successful update:

WDNewCfg Version 1.03
Copyright (C) 2003 Western Digital Corp


Updating this drive:
Model:          WDC WD2000JB-00DUA0
Serial:         WD-WMACK1008916
FW Rev:         63.13F63


Drive has been updated.
Model:          WDC WD2000JB-00DUA0
Serial:         WD-WMACK1008916
FW Rev:         63.13F70

Re: WESTERN DIGITAL 200GB IDE DRIVES GO OFFLINE - HOW TO FIX

[Alan Cox]

On Mer, 2003-06-11 at 16:36, war wrote:
> I've searched the archives, google and so on, many questions relating to
> why the Western Digital drives go offline exist but with no answers.
> 
> PROBLEM: After extended periods of time, the HDD will simply go offline.
> 
> EXAMPLE LOG ENTRY:
> 
> Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: hdg: dma_intr: status=0x61 { DriveReady
> DeviceFault Error }
> Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: hdg: dma_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
> Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: hdg: DMA disabled

"DeviceFault" and "Error"

Those are return values I associate with device (ie hardware) faults
oddly enough 8)

Re: WESTERN DIGITAL 200GB IDE DRIVES GO OFFLINE - HOW TO FIX

[Dave Gilbert (Home)]

Alan Cox wrote:
> On Mer, 2003-06-11 at 16:36, war wrote:
> 
>>I've searched the archives, google and so on, many questions relating to
>>why the Western Digital drives go offline exist but with no answers.
>>
>>PROBLEM: After extended periods of time, the HDD will simply go offline.
>>
>>EXAMPLE LOG ENTRY:
>>
>>Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: hdg: dma_intr: status=0x61 { DriveReady
>>DeviceFault Error }
>>Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: hdg: dma_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
>>Jun  2 02:07:26 l2 kernel: hdg: DMA disabled
> 
> 
> "DeviceFault" and "Error"
> 
> Those are return values I associate with device (ie hardware) faults
> oddly enough 8)

In many cases these drives with the older firmware don't even grace you 
with the benefit of an IDE error; they just give random file system 
corruption.  I believe that this was the cause of the problems I was 
reporting here:
http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/2003-14/0935.html

after updating the firmware both systems seem to be OK.

So even if you aren't actually seeing these errors, even if you aren't 
using RAID I'd suggest getting this patch.

Dave

Re: WESTERN DIGITAL 200GB IDE DRIVES GO OFFLINE - HOW TO FIX

[Jeff Garzik]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2003 at 05:59:28PM +0100, Dave Gilbert (Home) wrote:
> In many cases these drives with the older firmware don't even grace you 
> with the benefit of an IDE error; they just give random file system 
> corruption.  I believe that this was the cause of the problems I was 
> reporting here:
> http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/2003-14/0935.html
> 
> after updating the firmware both systems seem to be OK.
> 
> So even if you aren't actually seeing these errors, even if you aren't 
> using RAID I'd suggest getting this patch.

Where can we obtain these wonderful firmware updates?  :)

	Jeff

Re: WESTERN DIGITAL 200GB IDE DRIVES GO OFFLINE - HOW TO FIX

[war]

It appears as if that site is having problems.

http://www.warp2search.net/

I don't recall the URL directly to the file, but I still have the file,
I've made it availible here:

http://66.93.105.220/~war/wd_cfg.zip (144KiB)
http://209.81.41.149/~war/wd_cfg.zip (144KiB)

$ md5sum wd_cfg.zip
ca3bfc92364e607ef04a1fbe3dba76c0  wd_cfg.zip


On Wed, 11 Jun 2003, Jeff Garzik wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 11, 2003 at 05:59:28PM +0100, Dave Gilbert (Home) wrote:
> > In many cases these drives with the older firmware don't even grace you
> > with the benefit of an IDE error; they just give random file system
> > corruption.  I believe that this was the cause of the problems I was
> > reporting here:
> > http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/linux/linux-kernel/2003-14/0935.html
> >
> > after updating the firmware both systems seem to be OK.
> >
> > So even if you aren't actually seeing these errors, even if you aren't
> > using RAID I'd suggest getting this patch.
>
> Where can we obtain these wonderful firmware updates?  :)
>
> 	Jeff
>
>
>
>
>

Re: WESTERN DIGITAL 200GB IDE DRIVES GO OFFLINE - HOW TO FIX

[Nuno Monteiro]

On 2003.06.11 18:27, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 11, 2003 at 05:59:28PM +0100, Dave Gilbert (Home) wrote:
> > So even if you aren't actually seeing these errors, even if you aren't
> 
> > using RAID I'd suggest getting this patch.
> 
> Where can we obtain these wonderful firmware updates?  :)
> 
> 	Jeff
> 

Its located here: http://support.wdc.com/download/ , near the bottom of 
the page. Its marked as "IDE RAID Compatibility Upgrade Utility for non-
3Ware controller cards". There's also another upgrade utility, strictly 
for 3Ware 7500 X-IDE cards.


Cheers,


		Nuno

Re: WESTERN DIGITAL 200GB IDE DRIVES GO OFFLINE - HOW TO FIX

[Brian McGroarty]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2003 at 07:00:55PM +0100, Nuno Monteiro wrote:
> 
> On 2003.06.11 18:27, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > On Wed, Jun 11, 2003 at 05:59:28PM +0100, Dave Gilbert (Home) wrote:
> > > So even if you aren't actually seeing these errors, even if you aren't
> > 
> > > using RAID I'd suggest getting this patch.
> > 
> > Where can we obtain these wonderful firmware updates?  :)
> > 
> > 	Jeff
> > 
> 
> Its located here: http://support.wdc.com/download/ , near the bottom of 
> the page. Its marked as "IDE RAID Compatibility Upgrade Utility for non-
> 3Ware controller cards". There's also another upgrade utility, strictly 
> for 3Ware 7500 X-IDE cards.

Thanks muchly, Nuno.

Related, this update seems to require DOS.

Is there a way to perform this update without throwing down for a
Windows CD or DOS and a floppy drive?

Re: WESTERN DIGITAL 200GB IDE DRIVES GO OFFLINE - HOW TO FIX

[Marc Wilson]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2003 at 06:08:31PM -0500, Brian McGroarty wrote:
> Is there a way to perform this update without throwing down for a
> Windows CD or DOS and a floppy drive?

Sure.  Get a copy of FreeDOS.  Their bootable CD is just the ticket.

-- 
 Marc Wilson |     "It was a virgin forest, a place where the Hand of
 msw@cox.net |     Man had never set foot."