From owner-freebsd-questions Sat Oct 12 10:34:59 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3A8F337B401 for ; Sat, 12 Oct 2002 10:34:58 -0700 (PDT) Received: from post-20.mail.nl.demon.net (post-20.mail.nl.demon.net [194.159.73.1]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 65E0343EB2 for ; Sat, 12 Oct 2002 10:34:57 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cls@raggedclown.net) Received: from [212.238.197.102] (helo=mailhost.raggedclown.net) by post-20.mail.nl.demon.net with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1) id 180QAC-000KR9-00 for questions@freebsd.org; Sat, 12 Oct 2002 17:34:56 +0000 Received: from willow.raggedclown.net (willow.raggedclown.intra [192.168.1.10]) by mailhost.raggedclown.net (Ragged Clown Mail Gateway [oz]) with ESMTP id 80B8C48331 for ; Sat, 12 Oct 2002 19:34:55 +0200 (CEST) Received: by willow.raggedclown.net (Ragged Clown Host [willow], from userid 1009) id B7DD422591; Sat, 12 Oct 2002 19:34:55 +0200 (CEST) Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 19:34:55 +0200 From: Cliff Sarginson To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [OT] how to isolate hardware failure with ATA Message-ID: <20021012173455.GA15981@raggedclown.net> References: <3DA84DE2.9000104@potentialtech.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <3DA84DE2.9000104@potentialtech.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.27i Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sat, Oct 12, 2002 at 12:29:22PM -0400, Bill Moran wrote: > I think the computer that I'm currently working on has > hardware that is about to fail. But I'm not sure if it's > the mobo or the HDD. In the past week, this scenerio has > happened twice. > The system just freezes. Not completely, mind you, but > anything that needs to use the HDD doesn't work. (it's > weird, you can still type in an Xterm, but it can't > execute the commands because it can't get the binaries > off the HDD) > One time that it did this, I hard booted and and the BOIS > claimed that there was no HDD, so I poped the cover to check > for loose cables, found none, and (figuring I was hosed with > a bad HDD) it booted up OK this time. The other time, the > hard boot resulted in a successful reboot. > Prior to this week, this computer has been 100% reliable for > about 2 years now. > > So, I'm assuming the problem is one of two things: HDD or > ATA controller on the mobo. Does anyone have any advice on > how to isolate the cause of the problem? I'm on a budget > and I'd really like to replace _only_ the part that's failing, > but I'm not sure how to isolate the problem, and I don't have > any spare hardware to swap out. First thing I would do having checked the obvious as you have done is to go to the web-site of the manafacturer and find their donload area. They almost all have diagnostic programs for their hard drives which you can download for free. See if that turns up anything, run the tests repeatedly for a while. The test program you ususally use by putting it on a floppy and booting from it, quite often it boots into a minimalist DOS, or straight into the diagnostic. See what happens with that. -- Regards Cliff Sarginson The Netherlands Email: cls@raggedclown.net Tel : +31 (0)10 4764595 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message