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Date:      Tue, 22 May 2007 08:04:25 +0100
From:      Bob Bishop <rb@gid.co.uk>
To:        Tim Aslat <tim@spyderweb.com.au>
Cc:        freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Recommended SATA controllers
Message-ID:  <0E38A5C7-A5AE-43FD-A8A3-58568D2F50C7@gid.co.uk>
In-Reply-To: <46522517.8080100@spyderweb.com.au>
References:  <Pine.OSX.4.64.0705181803340.365@gee5.nat.fasttrackmonkey.com>	<cone.1179528158.971883.82263.5001@35st.simplicato.com>	<Pine.OSX.4.64.0705181932290.365@gee5.nat.fasttrackmonkey.com>	<200705191056.25359.groot@kde.org> <46521F23.7050409@spyderweb.com.au> <465224DC.8010703@rcn.com> <46522517.8080100@spyderweb.com.au>

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Hi,

On 22 May 2007, at 00:02, Tim Aslat wrote:

> In the immortal words of Gary Corcoran  on 05/22/07 08:31:
>
>> I've had drives go bad, such that upon powerup, the Promise  
>> controller BIOS
>> wouldn't even see the drive.  And later, as the drive got closer  
>> to death,
>> it started making the *other* drive on the same IDE cable also  
>> "fail".
>> Removing the dying/dead drive from the cable made the other drive  
>> work again.
>
> I've taken the drives out and hooked them up to a different  
> connector (external USB2) and they work flawlessly, they are also  
> only about 3 months old and quite underused as the machine they are  
> in spends more time offline than online.
>
>> I'd look into the possible need to replace one of your disk drives...
>
> I'm quite sure the drives are fine.  It's either an incompatibility  
> with the FreeBSD & the promise card, or the mainboard is actually  
> on its last legs.
>
>
> I'm going to have to see if I can chase up another board today and  
> see if that helps.

I've had onboard SATA controller chips go bad and produce all sorts  
of odd symptoms. I've also had similar problems from other causes.  
You need to eliminate:

- the drives: put them in a known good system and use the  
manufacturers diagnostic program
- the cables: use know good
- the power supply: ditto

Which leaves memory/CPU/something else on the motherboard. Memory can  
be tested, but at this point an upgrade may be indicated :-)

--
Bob Bishop          +44 (0)118 940 1243
rb@gid.co.uk fax +44 (0)118 940 1295







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