On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 00:45:27 +0000
"Douglas A. Tutty" <dtutty@porchlight.ca> wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 24, 2007 at 08:12:28PM +0200, Shams Fantar wrote:
> > Douglas A. Tutty wrote:
> >
> > >Try shutdown, disable DMA in the bios, and reboot into single-user
> > >mode (avoids mounting the drive rw). See if the messages show up
> > >in dmesg. Then reboot into normal mode and check syslog for that
> > >boot (ignore previous boots).
> >
> > There are the same messages.
> >
> > >The thing about S.M.A.R.T. If it says the drive is failing, then
> > >it is. If it says the drive is OK then it may be, or not.
> > >
> > >Try booting either the install disk in rescue mode or a live CD so
> > >that the drive is totally unmounted. Run a full filesystem check
> > >with read/write badblocks check. I'm not thinking you'll find bad
> > >blocks, but it forces the drive firmware to verify each block of
> > >the disk platter. Check the syslog of the live or install CD to
> > >see if you have the same errors.
> >
> > Yes, there are still the same messages.
> >
> > >Then reboot the normal system and check syslog again. Then start
> > >another S.M.A.R.T. long test and wait its recommended time and
> > >review the result.
> >
> > The new long test available at
> > http://jumble.snurf.info/desktop/hard-disk
> >
> > So is it dead?
> >
>
> According to SMART, the drive is fine. If the filesystem badblocks
> check was OK then that seems to be OK too.
>
> So I don't know why you're having DMA errors. Hopefully someone who
> knows more about SMART and the ide driver can shed some light.
> Perhaps its a driver issue.
I've been following this thread for quite a while - I have been
getting DMA timeout errors on boot for about a year - i am also running
SMART and every test I have done shows no problem. Booted with the
install disk and run fschk so many time I have lost track. Never a
problem, but DMA timeouts continue. I have come to the conclusion it's
some obscure bug, perhaps in the IDE module. It *never* affects
anything else as the drive is fast and so far reliable. If/when it dies
I'll change my opinion.
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