System freezes sporadically during user initiated HD access (SCSI)
Hi all,
my debian woody system developed a quirk that I can't isolate. From time to
time the system freezes with the HD access light on. This LED is attaced to
the SCSI controller (Terratec) so I guess this means it happens while it
accesses on of the SCSI devices. I have a DVD-ROM and two SCSI HD attached,
but the access can only be related to one HD, since the other is normally not
mounted and it happens without using the DVD-ROM in any way.
The freezing is not reproducible to any specific task as such that it would
then freeze up every time, but it usually happens only when the (read) drive
access is initiated by a logged in user like when loggin in in KDM while KDE
is starting or while using the system. The heavy drive access during cron job
activity alone does not freeze system. Also I'm usually fine as a normal
user, after the cron job is finished. Using the system while the cron
activity is going on, however, is risky and usually freezes the system with
drive LED on either during login or shortly thereafter (mostly while starting
applications, but also while just typing away.)
Of course there are no messages in any logs, since the system freezes
completely.
Also the problem seems not to be restricted to Linux. It happened under
Windows 98, which I use for some games, too. That leads me to conclude that
it might be hardware related.
Can anybody give me a clue what I can try to isolate the problem?
TIA
Thorsten
PS: please cc via private mail so that I don't miss the reply
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