Page fault in kernel when using CD, BSD 7.2

[Mark Terribile]

Hi,

In the last two days I've had two nasty problems on two machines.  The first started dumping core on epiphany, apparently when the Javascript garbage collector ran.  I found that the fan on the video card was running and stopping.  I jury-rigged a fan over it (until I get a new one) and the problem has gone away.  Probably nothing to do with the second problem,
but who knows?

Second problem: on a machine (Core 2 Quad, 2.24 GHz) the CD/DVD drive has
started to give me page faults in the kernel.  The "press any key on the
console" to halt the reboot does not work.  I've been using this drive on
and off for months.  I've checked all the connections (PATA), blown out
the machine (the temperatures reported by sysctl range from 50 to 59
degrees from core to core), and put a different power lead into the
drive.

Sometimes the console gets large transfer errors (I don't want to excite
the problem right now, as the fsck is finally running) before the fault.
The disk transfers don't work, the drive won't open, the process can't
be interrupted, etc.

The error usually comes a few minutes after the drive stops working.

Yes, the processor is running a little hot, but I don't think it's
dangerous and its been like this for months.  I have a compact heat
sink on it and the interaction between the rotor/stator fan and the
CPU speed control reduces the speed too much at low load.  But again,
it's been like that for months.

Does anyone have any suggestions?  Is it worth trying a new PATA or SATA
drive?

    Mark Terribile
    materribile at yahoo.com