My machine is:

AMD 64x2 3800+
1.5 Gig ram
2 IDe hard disk 1 40Gb 180Gb
Asus A8N Sli Deluxe
Nvdia XFX 6600GT

This machine works fine with windows as long as the DMA is swicthed off in the bios, otherwise it take about 15 minutes to start booting up.

But with Suse 10 with the same settings i get a message similar to:

>
> hdb: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x41
> hdb: DMA timeout error
> hdb: dma timeout error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
>
> hdb: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
>
> hdb: drive not ready for command
> hdb: dma_timer_expiry: dma status == 0x41
> hdb: DMA timeout error
> hdb: dma timeout error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
>
> hdb: status error: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
>
> hdb: drive not ready for command

Hi,

This looks VERY familiar. It's likely 1 of 2 things. A BIOS problem OR a mismatched memory problem. Which may really be a BIOS problem.

Check to see what BIOS reports as the memory type during boot. Look for "single channel or dual channel" If it says "single channel" I'll bet it's a BIOS problem.

Try using "noapic nolapic" as the kernel boot options to see if the problems goes away. Again, if it does. I'll bet it's a BIOS problem.

If the problem doesn't go away. Try using memory in pairs an see what happens. Ultimate answer is it's likely a BIOS problem.


Hope that helps.


Stan

Thanks stan currently I am aware from my home computers, but when I get abck home will give your solution a try.

kind Regards

Yusuf

5g ram?? Will it support that much?? try less and see if that works--just a thought

yes-- according to newegg.com this board only supports 4g of ram although i'm not saying that is your problem

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131517

I meant 1.5 Gig memmory though they are not paired, so i need to pair them up?

oh my bad--ummm--i wouldn't think so

No, pairing would only go for dual channel. Though technically some boards do a dual channeling like thing with non matching sticks...

You only NEED pairs for certain thngs, like rambus.

I tried both noapic nolapic ide=nodma and i still get the errors, it is so annoying that when i run windows from the dual boot it seems to boot up fine. But the data transfer to disk does seem to suck, so i will try connecting a usb drive and see what happens if i install to that drive. if everything works fine i may have to use an ide to usb cable and have it connect to my usb card, which will hopefully allow me to use suse linux on this machine.

The other option would be to buy SATA to ide and SATA drives.

I have a question... The ASUS 8N SLI, 4 DDR slots that allows dual channel, but can run in single. With 1.5 total, you have:
1 1gig and 1 512mb...
1 1gig and 2 by 256mbs...
2 512mbs and 2 256mbs...
3 512mbs...
None of those configurations should be dual channeling, and a DMA issue would be a harddrive issue, not a ram issue. DMA however, should NEVER be turned off, you have a high end board, with an X2 processor, a 6600GT and you would run a drive in PIO only? What is the point of that? Don't disable DMA, you are limiting hard drive read/write to about 1/40th of what it would be in DMA using PIO only.

Put DMA back on, and run it, SuSE is expecting DMA and timing out because PIO takes too long to do seek tests. You could install SuSE and use the recovery console to recompile the kernel and disable DMA(I think) but there would be no sense in that. You want DMA.

That said, can windows not boot in DMA is that why you have it disabled? If so, your problem is with Windows, not with SuSE.


Also on a personal note, your board supports SATA why are you using a 40gig drive with all the other parts in your system being so high end. If you would get a SATA drive... you should use the SATA as SATA, better read/write speeds than IDE. Hell your board supports SATA II, you could go that route and be even better off.

Did you check to see if there is a later version BIOS for the motherboard?

When I was having trouble trying to get 64 bit, FC4 or Suse 10.0, to load. I kept gettting DMA errors like the harddrive was bad when the OS booted. It WAS a memory configuration problem with the BIOS on the board I have. I say that because changing from single channel to dual channel fixed the problem. After upgrading the BIOS, I can use single or dual memory and it works fine.

You might ask ASUS about the problem. They "may" try to help you. But if it works Ok with windoze, I wouldn't bet on any help from them.


Stan

Hi guys,

well i updated my bios from 1015 to 1016 and have the same problem i am using 1 on gig and 512. I removed one so only having a 1gig in B1 as specified in the instructions and the same prolem occurs. My friend had the same probelm with his Asus board for intel, only he was using windoze. Anyway when i enable dma in the ide options, it takes grub for ever to load up it just seems to run really really slow. I also tried to run dban and it couldn't find my hard drives. therefore I am unsure and will have to look into support from Asus.

I have ordered a 250 sata II drive and that shoud hopefully come tomorrow where I will install and try from there. if it works I will probably use the IDE drives in another machine.

Well guys see what happens ill keep you posted.

p.s the usb option did not work as it says hard drive unfound. Basically i'm begining to think i may roll back my bios to the first version to see what happens.

Yusuf

Hi,

I forgot to ask. Are you trying the 32 bit or 64 bit version of Suse 10.0? The similar problem I had to this was with the 64 bit version. 32 bit worked fine.


Stan

I am running the 64bit version, well I have found that by unplugging my 40 gig drive everything seems to work fine. So basically i may have to change the jumoer settings to maybe cable select or just remove the drive completley once my 250sata arrives.

Thanks a lot guys.

removing the 40gig also allowd me to enable dma in the bios, so it apperas motherboard and bios are fine but my hard drive is a little messed up.

Will kepp u guys posted.