# [SOLVED] DMA turns off under pressure

## hannson

Hi all.

I've got a strange problem. 

I'm running my Gentoo system on a IDE hdd.

It's DMA enabled but when I do something like emerge --sync and visit a image heavy blogsite it automaticly turns DMA off.

Any ideas?

EDIT:

It seems that I had indeed a low-quality IDE cable. I swiched to a better one and whoila - The hdd sticks with DMA now  :Very Happy: 

Thanks everybodyLast edited by hannson on Mon Jun 19, 2006 2:50 am; edited 1 time in total

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## TheRAt

any messages in your log files ?

or on dmesg ?

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## hannson

dmesg

```

hdb: DMA disabled

hdb: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x60

hdb: DMA timeout retry

hdb: timeout waiting for DMA

hdb: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

ide: failed opcode was: unknown

hdb: drive not ready for command

hdb: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x60

hdb: DMA timeout retry

hdb: timeout waiting for DMA

hdb: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

ide: failed opcode was: unknown

hdb: drive not ready for command

```

I'm not sure which log file to read...   :Embarassed: 

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## TheRAt

try /var/log/messages and post anything you notice there ...

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## TheRAt

also, once DMA turns off, are you able to manyally turn it back on ?

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## hannson

In /var/log/messages there are the same messages as above.

And Yes, I am able to manually turn it back on!

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## TheRAt

my guess would be a pending hardware failure .. 

but it is a guess, and i am not sure ..

suggest looking through the forums searching for your error message and/or looking for it on the net ..

what kernel version ?

have you tried to upgrade recently ?

are you certain that the correct hardware drivers are either compiled in or loaded as a module ?

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## hannson

I'm not sure, but I think my system has acted like  that since I built it. I just didn' give a damn for a while  :Razz: 

I'm using gentoo-sources 2.6.14-rc5 (According to dmesg). Is there a (linux) way I can check my harddrive health? I haven't upgraded anything other than "emerge world"

I have no idea if I'm using the right drivers but my other drive, hdc, is using DMA by default and no problems. I'm using the nVidia and AMD ide drivers compiled into kernel, and I'm using a Asus a8n-deluxe (Nvidia 4? SLI chipset)

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## TheRAt

you might like to take a look at sys-apps/smartmontools:

```
* sys-apps/smartmontools 

     Available versions:  5.33-r1 5.36

     Installed:           5.36

     Homepage:            http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

     Description:         control and monitor storage systems using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System (S.M.A.R.T.)
```

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## mbar

It may be caused by low quality IDE cable.

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## hannson

I don't recall ASUS manufacturing low-quality stuff. I'm using the original cables that came with the mobo. I'll how ever investigate it better when I get home from work.

EDIT:

It seems that I had indeed a low-quality IDE cable. I swiched to a better one and whoila - The hdd sticks with DMA now  :Very Happy: 

Thanks everybody

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## frostschutz

I'm getting the same errors. Just suddenly started this morning. According to SMART extended self check, hard disks are okay. Maybe the cable got bad after 3 years of use?  :Shocked:  Or it really is the harddisk dying... well, I've got a backup, so no worries there, but I never had a hard disk die on me this way (no I/O errors, just occassional DMA hiccups...).

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