RE: Strange things happen when reading from
-> Check out the Epox website first ... and search the web with a
searchengine, i know it might take a long time
Very likely, it might be you have a serious IRQ conflict and/or some address
conflicts with some devices. Another possible problem is that the serial
port on you motherboard is not really standard and requires special
drivers/configuration. This, together with IRQ conflicts, can result in high
CPU usage and since the IDE controller also relies on CPU you might once
more get skr*wed. Must add that since AMD CPU mobo's are quite new
technology they should implement less CPU-intensive IDE Controllers.
Did you try removing anything that is not essential to the operation of your
machine and then try the same operations (thinking about disconnecting extra
cd-roms and removing PCI and ISA cards) ?
Did you verify for sure your drives are not set to cable select but
hardwired (jumpers) to be master or slave depending on their position ? Did
you connect your cable in an orderly fashion ? Make sure that the
termination (other end) is not at the primary controller's primary/secondary
device. Might sound awkward but could help.
Did you verify you BIOS settings to be 'nice', try booting with default bios
settings and try again. If all seems ok then, start turning on those juice
options wich speed up your systems operation.
You could consider upgrading your BIOS and also check out some
AMD/Athlon-Duron specific drivers. On M$ os's you HAVE to install AGP and
IDE drivers in order to get this type of system working fine.
There is also a known issue with, especially, older motherboards (lot older
then yours) and burning cd's, this has something to do with IDE controllers
and buffers wich would cause stuttering if the buffer isn't in sync. with
the drives etc. sometimes BIOS updates resolve such issues.
good luck,
Joris
-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Dickenson [mailto:steven@usermail.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 5:11 PM
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
Subject: Re: Strange things happen when reading from
On Thu, Mar 08, 2001 at 03:03:53PM +0100, Christoph Groth wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> My box is a PC with an EPoX 8KTA2 and a Duron 700, a Matrox Millennium
> II PCI and a Gravius Ultrasound PnP (ISA). It is running Debian 2.2r2
> (Kernel 2.2.17).
>
> The IDE-Devices connected to it are:
> hda: Traxdata CDRW2260+, ATAPI CDROM drive
> hdb: TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-6002B, ATAPI CDROM drive
> hdc: IBM-DTLA-307030, ATA DISK drive
> hdd: SAMSUNG WU32163A (2.16GB), ATA DISK drive
You have a rather strange drive configuration. I'd normally put the
hard drives on the primary IDE interface, and load my CD-ROM's on the
second. I guess it really doesn't matter, but it's just common
practice. Also, if I'm reading it correctly, you have a nice, fast IBM
30GB drive paired with an old, slow Samsung 2GB drive. I'd dump the
Samsung like a bad habit. It's probably slowing down your entire IDE
channel everytime you access it.
> I am quite happy with this machine except for one thing:
>
> Whenever the CD-drives are accessed in some way (reading, burning) at
> least two strange effects happen:
>
> 1) Sound played at 44kHz becomes noisy and literally slows down.
> Sound played at 22kHz or less isn't affected.
>
> 2) When connected to an ISP with the 56k external serial modem,
> massive communication problems appear. E.g. ping doesn't work (it
> simply ceases to produce any output). As soon as the CD-ROM access
> stops, everything works again.
Have you tried removing the CD Audio cable? I doubt it will make a
difference, but it's one more thing out of the equation. Have you tried
using your drives seperatly? Boot up the system with only one CD
attached and see what happens, then try it with the other.
Also, it seems as though you may be experiencing some electrical noise
problems, since both of these problems deal with very sensitive
frequencies. Have you tried another power supply?
> Maybe changing the PIO-/DMA-Mode could help, but I don't know how to
> set them for CD-ROM drives (hdparm is only for HDDs).
You can usually set your drives for PIO mode in the BIOS, or at the very
least turn off bus-mastering for that channel.
I know I'm just offering stabs in the dark here, but it's a very strange
problem. I don't know what tools, extra parts, or knowledge you have at
your disposal, but I'd do a part-by-part swap out until the I found the
problem. I'd also try it under another OS on a spare hard drive.
Good luck!
Steven
--
Steven Dickenson <steven@usermail.com>
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