Hi All,

 

I'm wondering if someone can help me diagnose/fix this problem... I recently installed a new SATA controller to expand my UnRaid server. It is a compatible card (Syba SY-VIA-150R). I connected a drive to the card and it showed up fine in UnRaid, but when I tried clearing the disk the whole system froze before it got past 0% -- I couldn't connect to the server management utility or type anything on the console. Then I tried the preclear_disk.sh script. It got to about 2% into the pre-read step and then the system froze again. I tried using the other SATA plug on the card, ran the script again, but again it froze (although it got a little further this time).

 

Any suggestions what the problem might be or what I could do to identify it? Could it be some kind of IRQ thing? Are there some logs I can check or some diagnostic tools/tests I could run?

 

Thanks for any help,

Greg.

 

The issue could be memory related, or IRQ related, or driver related, or borderline power supply related.

 

Yes, there is a system log that you can look through for hints on issues. Though the log is cleared upon system reboots unless you take steps to change that behavior.

 

On an alternate console or an additional putty/telnet/ssh window you do a live stream of the log using the following command:

tail -f /var/log/syslog

 

Also of interest is the syslog before you attempt to use the new card or drives. Please capture it and post it. There should be links on how to do this in my signature.

 

While you do that, you can also post some details on your system like Power Supply, CPU, Motherboard, and how many drives you have connected.

 

Have you performed a memory test on the system overnight?

It sounds as if the card could be bad.

 

Check to make sure the card is seated properly in the slot.

Check to make sure the SATA cable looks in good shape.

Change out the SATA cable to another to make sure it is not the problem.

Make sure the power cable is securely connected.

 

Please list your entire setup so we can give further advice.

 

Also, if you can telnet into the server and run

tail -f /var/log/syslog

while you are trying to clear the drive it may show some problems.

Thanks for the suggestions. I checked all the connections. The card was seated firmly in the slot, as were the power and SATA connectors. I took the card out, cleaned the PCI slot, and put it back in making sure it was well-seated. I reconnected the power connector to the drive and replaced the SATA connector with a different one (both were brand new but different brands). Then I ran the preclear script. It seemed to be going well. I thought maybe accessing one of the other drives simultaneously would trigger the freeze, so I put the array online and started playing a video file off it. After half an hour, it was still okay, so I thought the problem was solved. I took the array offline while the preclear script continued to run. An hour later, the system was still up and the script was about 50% through the first pre-read cycle. Now I actually did want to watch a video file on the array (not just for testing), so I put the array online again and started playing the video file. Within a minute of doing so, the system froze. Nothing came up in the log when it froze. It seems like accessing drives connected to the motherboard and to the PCI controller card simultaneously does help to trigger the freeze, although I don't know why I was able to do so for half an hour in my first test with no problems and then it froze almost right away the second time.

 

Anyway, I've attached some log files. Syslog00 is a log of my system without the controller card installed. Syslog01 is a log of my system with the controller card installed and connected to a drive. Syslog02 is the result of tailing the log file while running the preclear script. Nothing appeared in the log at the time of the freeze, though.

 

I will run the memory test overnight.

 

My system details are:

 

Motherboard: ASRock 939DUAL-SATA2

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (S939)

Memory: 1GB

Power Supply: 480W

Disk configuration:

Parity: Seagate Barracuda LP 2TB connected to motherboard

Data Disk 1: Western Digital WD10EARS Caviar Green 1TB (not jumpered for compatibility) connected to motherboard

Data Disk 2: Seagate Barracuda LP 1TB connected to motherboard

 

The disk I am trying to clear is the only one connected to the new SATA controller card (a Syba SY-VIA-150R). It is a Hitachi Deskstar HD31000 IDK/7K 1TB. It used to be my parity drive.

 

Thanks.

syslog00.txt

syslog01.txt

syslog02.txt