tim@comcon.UUCP (Tim Brown) (01/08/90)
This problem is about the hard disk hanging occasionally. Platform: ISC2.0.2 SysV3.2 386 20/mhz 8 MB RAM WD1007A-WA2 ESDI Controller Miniscribe 330 MB Hard Disk. What I know so far: Last march the system started hanging. In core processes would run untill they needed disk access, then they would hang. The harddisk activity light would stay on steady, which was not normal. At that time I put a new controller in with the same results, the system would function fine for a time (3-12 hrs) then hang. At that time I backed everything up, reformatted the drive and re-installed everything. It has worked flawlessly till now. It has begun hanging with a steady drive activity light again. I am about to reformat and re-install. What else could be going on? I first (last march) thought maybe the drive was bad but the re-install fixed for nine months. Is there a disk diagnostic that could be run? Maybe a special mode of fsck or something. Thanks for listening.. Tim Brown | Computer Connection | (attmail or uunet)!comcon!tim |
jlg@odicon.UUCP (John L. Grzesiak) (01/15/90)
In article <240@comcon.UUCP>, tim@comcon.UUCP (Tim Brown) writes: > This problem is about the hard disk hanging occasionally. > > Platform: > ISC2.0.2 SysV3.2 > 386 20/mhz 8 MB RAM > WD1007A-WA2 ESDI Controller > Miniscribe 330 MB Hard Disk. > You didn't mention whether you had Chips and Technolgies chipset or not so I will assume that you do. The WD1007a ( As well as a couple of other WD controllers) has a firmware error that manifests itself on a fast bus machine. It has something to do with the track cache on the board. There are two cures that I know of: 1 Replace the 1007a with a WD1007Vse2. This cures the hang as well as adding some new speed to the system. The second cure is to slow the bus speed of the system. A lot of clone boards have C&T and the ability to change the registers. Or add a wait state to the 16 I/O channel. *-----------------------------------------------------------------* * John Grzesiak @ Omega Dynamics : Specializing in UNIX/XENIX * * Meriden Ct USA : Consulting . . . * * jlg@odicon or spock!odicon!jlg : gaboon!odicon!jlg * *-----------------------------------------------------------------*