[ale] Hard drive error and hard drive fan

[Christopher Fowler]

On Mon, 2006-07-17 at 11:50 -0400, Andrew Swerlick wrote:
> I've come across a strange error that I think I've diagnosed as hard 
> drive overheating, so I thought I'd get ya'lls opinion on it, and see if 
> you had any recommendations for good hard drive coolers. What happens is 
> this--after my computer has been on for a long time it will start 
> locking up. At first the mouse will still work but then it'll freeze 
> too. This usually happens when box is getting very hot (I've got a small 
> case with an AMD chip, so heat is definitely an issue for me.) I can 
> usually make it unfreeze by taking the case off and pointing a room fan 
> directly at the hard drive. Once I get it unfrozen I run dmesg and get 
> this output.
> 
> Jul 14 15:27:43 localhost kernel: [17194706.572000] hda: 
> dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x20
> Jul 14 15:27:43 localhost kernel: [17194706.572000] hda: DMA timeout retry
> Jul 14 15:28:03 localhost kernel: [17194726.576000] hda: 
> dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x21
> Jul 14 15:28:18 localhost kernel: [17194736.576000] hda: DMA timeout error
> Jul 14 15:28:18 localhost kernel: [17194736.576000] hda: dma timeout 
> error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
> Jul 14 15:28:18 localhost kernel: [17194736.576000] ide: failed opcode 
> was: unknown
> Jul 14 15:28:18 localhost kernel: [17194741.580000] hda: status timeout: 
> status=0xd0 { Busy }
> Jul 14 15:28:18 localhost kernel: [17194741.580000] ide: failed opcode 
> was: unknown
> Jul 14 15:28:18 localhost kernel: [17194741.628000] ide0: reset: success
> 
> So what I'm asking is, do you think my diagnoses of overheating is 
> right? And if so, do you have any cooling solution recommendations?

How old is the drive?  I think smartd will tell you drive temp.

If you have a PCI slot or even an open slot on the back of the case you
can install a slot fan.  I used one in my old AMD800.  It would suck air
out of the case and out the back.

> 
> ~Andrew S.
> 
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