I have a dual boot system running FC2 (kernel 2.6.9-1.6_FC2) and WinXP. This system has 2 Maxtor HDDs on an IDE expansion card. There is a DVD drive on the onboard IDE controller. The issue is that whenever heavy disk activity occurs on the second drive, CPU utilization goes to 100%, and the system will eventually freeze, leaving no messages in /var/log/messages, everything just stops. This trouble occurs under both XP and Linux.

I can consistantly reproduce this problem by trying to decompress a 2GB uml root filesystem on the second drive. The system will always lock up unless I do the decompression on the first HDD, and also CPU utilization doesn't max out then. The trouble also occurs if I try to do any heavy transcoding.

I have:
1. Tried different kernels / operating systems
2. Moved both HDD to the motherboard IDE controllers
3. Moved just the second HDD to the onboard IDE controller (took out expansion IDE)
4. Added a third HDD and tried decompressing the file on it (result: lockup)
5. Replaced IDE cables
6. Moved all internal cards and drives to another computer (everything worked then)

Motherboard is an asus A7V880

I am at my wits end on this one. Any thoughts?

$ cat cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 10
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 3100+
stepping : 0
cpu MHz : 2200.206
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 0269 (rev 80)
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 1269
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 2269
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 3269
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 4269
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc.: Unknown device 7269
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Adapter (rev 13)
00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): NEC Corporation IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 01)
00:0e.0 RAID bus controller: Triones Technologies, Inc. HPT302 (rev 01)
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [K8T800 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:13.0 Multimedia video controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture (rev 02)
00:13.1 Multimedia controller: Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 0326 (rev a1)

/dev/hde:

Model=Maxtor 6Y120L0, FwRev=YAR41BW0, SerialNo=Y35DMF7E
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=240121728
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2
AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: (null):

dev/hdg:

Model=Maxtor 6Y120P0, FwRev=YAR41BW0, SerialNo=Y33JRMJE
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=7936kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=240121728
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6
AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: (null):

/dev/hda:

Model=LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1633S, FwRev=BS0C, SerialNo=
Config={ Fixed Removeable DTR<=5Mbs DTR>10Mbs nonMagnetic }
RawCHS=0/0/0, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=0kB, MaxMultSect=0
(maybe): CurCHS=0/0/0, CurSects=0, LBA=yes, LBAsects=0
IORDY=yes, tPIO={min:227,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2
AdvancedPM=no
Drive conforms to: device does not report version:

turn off dma on the 2 hard drives and see if it still happens. if not, we can tune to see how fast they'll run.

Unfortunately disabling dma had no effect. It still locked up

damaged power cable or power connector? Try others.

well, I keep a record of the output of sensors.conf, and I don't see any fluctuations there. I tried a whole new drive tonight, and it still locked up. I want to shoot this computer, and I'm not speaking figuratively.