From owner-freebsd-newbies Tue Nov 13 15:53:25 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from nyc.rr.com (nycsmtp1fb.rdc-nyc.rr.com [24.29.99.76]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 285DF37B418 for ; Tue, 13 Nov 2001 15:53:23 -0800 (PST) Received: (apparently) from scott1.despammed.com ([24.168.25.8]) by nyc.rr.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(5.5.1877.357.35); Tue, 13 Nov 2001 18:53:21 -0500 Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20011113184550.00c2ee40@pop-server.nyc.rr.com> X-Sender: scottro@pop-server.nyc.rr.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 18:53:21 -0500 To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org From: Scott Subject: 40 and 80 pin cable and UDMA errors Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Howdy, Just thought I'd pass this along. On two boxes, I was getting upon bootup, various UDMA error messages, and eventually it would say that it couldn't read it, and was dropping down to PIO. So a search on deja indicated that this is a fairly common problem. In some cases, it means the hard drive is dying, but often, the suggestion was simply to use a better quality IDE cable. I also noticed, in one machine's BIOS, that it wouldn't support some UDMA modes unless it detected a shielded, 80 pin cable. A quick search on pricewatch found me some cheap cable for 3 bucks a pop. Replacing the 40 pin in both machines with it, (and this is only ATA 33/66 cable--only after placing the order did I think, sheesh, I should have spent another few dollars and gotten the 100), my UDMA errors have gone away. As I said, judging from deja, it seems to be a very common problem, with people often suggesting that the problem is the hard drive. So, I figured I'd post this to let people know that it can often be resolved by simply putting in better quality IDE cable, that doesn't have to be expensive. There were enough hits on deja so that I think Ms. Anderson should put it in her book's next edition. :) Hope this helps someone, Scott Robbins To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message