Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
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From: sichermn@beach.csulb.edu (Jeff Sicherman)
Subject: Re: IDE hard drive pauses... sometimes.
Message-ID: <1991Jun16.072011.790@beach.csulb.edu>
Organization: Cal State Long Beach
References: <1991Jun13.193634.24680@sarah.albany.edu> <1991Jun14.144313.3504@athena.mit.edu> <91166.100432H90SI@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1991 07:20:11 GMT

In article <91166.100432H90SI@CUNYVM.BITNET> H90SI@CUNYVM.BITNET writes:
>In article <1991Jun14.144313.3504@athena.mit.edu>, mmshah@athena.mit.edu (Milan
>M Shah) says:
>>
>>In article <1991Jun13.193634.24680@sarah.albany.edu> brk102@leah.albany.edu
>>(Brian King) writes:
>>>I have an IDE hard drive, a Toshiba 100MB (can't remember the model
>>>number), that seems to pause sometimes, for around 15 seconds, and
>>>then continues.  When I say pause, I mean that it causes my whole
>>>system to completely stop whatever it is doing. The drive light stays
>>>on for about 10 seconds, and then goes off for the remainder of the
>>>time, until the system recovers.
>>
>>I have the exact same problem with a completely different setup! I have a
>>20MHz Mylex MB machine with 64K cache, a Conner 3104, and Phoenix BIOS
>>v 1.10.10 (copyrighted 1985-1989). Problem is not software specific: so far,
>
>I have the same problem with my ST157A 40 Mb IDE drive. I have 386sx with
>DTK BIOS. It happens more often when I switch from 16Mhz to 8Mhz. Usually
>it pauses during heavy disk activity. I think it has something to do with
>timing.
>

   It sounds like it might be I-O retries due to disk read errors. Of course
they could be media failure or weakness which is recoverable after some
number of attempts or random errors due to noise or the speed change.



