Varian wrote: > I've been having an extremely hard time using the on board SATA > controller on my nvidia based board. I have two 160gig Maxtor SATA > drives attached to the on board controller, setup as software raid0. The > problem is the array is extremely unreliable, where I'm getting constant > I/O errors like: > > sd 0:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x00040000 > end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 20010007 > sd 0:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x00040000 > end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 20010000 > > I've wiped and scanned the drives with the Maxtor diagnostic utilities > which passes both drives with flying colors. I've had no issues when i > was doing the same thing with Suse 10.1, the same setup was 100% > reliable. I also have two 160gig Maxtor ATA133 drive in the machine on > the on board PATA controller and they work totally reliable. I'm > wondering if anyone else is having a problem with on board nvidia sata > controller thats part of the nforce4 chipset? > btw its using the sata_nv driver. Also when I reboot it works fine for a > few hours and then begins to act up again. Its not a heat problem, the > drives have a working fan directly blowing on the drives, and the case > its in has very good airflow. > > > > ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x9F0 ctl 0xBF2 bmdma 0xD000 irq 193 > ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x970 ctl 0xB72 bmdma 0xD008 irq 193 > scsi0 : sata_nv > ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) > ata1.00: ATA-7, max UDMA/133, 320173056 sectors: LBA48 > ata1.00: ata1: dev 0 multi count 16 > ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 > scsi1 : sata_nv > ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300) > ata2.00: ATA-7, max UDMA/133, 320173056 sectors: LBA48 > ata2.00: ata2: dev 0 multi count 16 > ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133 > Vendor: ATA Model: Maxtor 6Y160M0 Rev: YAR5 > Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 > SCSI device sda: 320173056 512-byte hdwr sectors (163929 MB) > sda: Write Protect is off > sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 > SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back > SCSI device sda: 320173056 512-byte hdwr sectors (163929 MB) > sda: Write Protect is off > sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 > SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back > sda: sda1 > sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda > Vendor: ATA Model: Maxtor 6Y160M0 Rev: YAR5 > Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 > SCSI device sdb: 320173056 512-byte hdwr sectors (163929 MB) > sdb: Write Protect is off > sdb: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 > SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write back > SCSI device sdb: 320173056 512-byte hdwr sectors (163929 MB) > sdb: Write Protect is off > sdb: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 > SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write back > sdb: > sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sdb > ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APSJ] enabled at IRQ 22 > GSI 17 sharing vector 0xC9 and IRQ 17 > ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:11.0[A] -> Link [APSJ] -> GSI 22 (level, > low) -> IRQ 201 > PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:11.0 to 64 > ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x9E0 ctl 0xBE2 bmdma 0xE400 irq 201 > ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x960 ctl 0xB62 bmdma 0xE408 irq 201 > scsi2 : sata_nv > ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) > scsi3 : sata_nv > ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) > > > Varian Varian, there is a known problem with Maxtor drives and nForce4 chipsets (and the problem appears on other chipsets as well, I see it on Intel 5000X, but less often). It can be fixed with a firmware update to the disk; you'll have to send email to Maxtor (that's Seagate now) support and they'll send you the firmware back by email. The "good" firmware is VA111680, the "bad" VA111630 if I remember correctly. This at least applies to 6V250F0 (and other sizes) and probably 7Vxxxxx drives. HTH, Kay