Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 08:53:34 -0500 (EST) From: Andrew Gallatin <gallatin@cs.duke.edu> To: "alex" <lex@adelaide.on.net> Cc: <alpha@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: UDMA ICRC error reading fsbn 78165297 Message-ID: <15854.2270.830291.736048@grasshopper.cs.duke.edu> In-Reply-To: <004601c29b1d$57df3d00$0800000a@pepe> References: <004601c29b1d$57df3d00$0800000a@pepe>
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alex writes: > Hi all, > > I have installed a Promise TX2 Ultra ATA/100 controller into my Alpha pws > 500au. > The kernel seems to probe and attach a driver to the device: <...> > ad0: UDMA ICRC error reading fsbn 78165297 of 0-3 (ad0 bn 78165297; cn 77544 > tn 15 sn 0) falling back to PIO mode > ad0: 38166MB <WDC WD400JB-00ENA0> [77545/16/63] at ata3-master PIO4 > > I'm worried about the line "falling back to PIO mode". Does this mean that > ad0 is running at ATA33 ? > No, it means its running in PIO mode like the message says. Why? Well, alphas are electrinically noisy, and physically cramped. The 500au in particular was designed by some sort of sadist who wanted things to look pretty and didn't give a damn how things worked on the inside. If I had a $1.00 for every drop of blood I ever lost by skinning my knuckles inserting or removing drives or pci cards from miatas, I'd be rich. Rant aside, ATA cables are VERY sensative to EMI noise. What's happening to you is that the cable is either badly twisted, running too close to an EMI source, or both. This is causing the transfers across the cable between the controller and the disk to be corrupted (that's the ICRC error you're seeing). This is NOT the fault of the software, rather its a real hardware problemn with your setup. The software is saving you from serious disk corruption. I suggest moving things around inside and making sure that the cables are kink-free and don't run close to a source of EMI noise (cpu, powersupply, other pci cards). This is much easier said than done on a miata like yours. You might also consider purchasing the highest quality cables you can find (I have no suggestions as to brand..). Maybe serial ata has better sheilding and would do better. I dunno. I do know that it took me 3 sets of cables and considerable fiddling to get ata33 to work on a UP1000. Alternatively, you could use atacontrol to force a slower mode like udma66 or udma33 which the cable might be more capable of handling. I have an old promise card in my miata which seems to handle udma33 OK. Good luck. You'll need it. Drew To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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