ATA_DMA errors (and fs corruption!)

[JM]

Tony Byrne wrote:

>Hello Bob,
>
>
>  
>
>>>can be hardware reasons for timeouts such as a dying disk or cable,
>>>but I think we've eliminated these in our case. [etc]
>>>      
>>>
>
>BB> Don't ignore the possibility of failing controller hardware. We had
>BB> comparable mysterious problems on a client system, causing a lot of
>BB> head-scratching. Eventually the failure went hard and we had to replace the
>BB> motherboard.
>
>I hear ya!  However, moving back to an older kernel changes the
>severity of the problem from a timeout every 2 to three minutes during
>heavy activity to about 4 or 5 in a 24 hour period.  That doesn't
>sound like hardware to me.
>
>Regards,
>
>Tony.
>
>  
>
i have these same errors on my VIA 823x series chipset. however, the 
problem is only with the secondary device (acd0 in this case), and might 
be stemming from some other problem.