My P3-500 dual boot box boots up with certain dma_intr errors in /var/log/messages. Usually within 10 minutes or so, the machine will freeze completely and I will not be able to do a proper shutdown. I have found similar reports that hint towards hard drive transfer rate issues. I have tried other dma modes, and I even tried disabling dma with hdparm, but a freeze still occured after a few minutes. This is a dual boot system that exhibits no problems in Win98, though I have read that Windows is more leniant with poor hardware configurations. I have yet to try new cables and opening the case and untwisting the cable has not helped things. I am writing because if it really is a transfer rate issue, as most other posting of this problem seem to say, then why does the box still freeze after I disabled dma (disabling brought transfers down to 3 MB/s)? Also, if the drive is junk, then why has it been working fine with Win98 for 2+ years (I just installed Mandrake last month). I am also confused as to why my hdparm output (way below) does not have an asterisk on any dma mode unless I explicitly set one, then hdparm it again. This is my first post, I have tried to pack as much info as possible. Any help is appreciated!!!

The box: P3-500 (Katmai) on an ABIT WB6 motherboard (Intel 810E chipset) running Mandrake 9.0 and Windows 98. The /hda is a Western Digital Caviar 84AA 8.4G. Both the motherboard and the hard disk claim to support Ultra DMA 66.

The following /var/log/messages excerpt shows the 'dma_intr' errors:
The excerpt after this error excerpt is from 'hdparm -i -v /dev/hda':

Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hub.c: USB hub found
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hub.c: 2 ports detected
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: usb-uhci.c: v1.275:USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: usbdevfs: remount parameter error
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hda: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.17, 10 Jan 2002 on ide0(3,5), internal journal
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: Adding Swap: 248968k swap-space (priority -1)
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hda: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hda: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hda: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: hda: dma_intr: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: ide0: reset: success
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.17, 10 Jan 2002 on ide0(3,7), internal journal
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: MSDOS FS: IO charset iso8859-1
Jan 20 21:21:30 localhost kernel: MSDOS FS: Using codepage 850

Here is the hdparm excerpt:

$>hdparm -i -v /dev/hda

/dev/hda:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 0 (default 16-bit)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 1 (on)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8 (on)
geometry = 1027/255/63, sectors = 16514064, start = 0

Model=WDC WD84AA, FwRev=05.05B05, SerialNo=WD-WMA0K1386550
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=57600, SectSize=600, ECCbytes=40
BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=16514064
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=no WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: device does not report version: 1 2 3 4

Thanks for reading all that!!!
Devendra