disk controller problem?

[Andrew Mathews]

Tony Alfrey wrote:
> Hi list;
> 
> OK, still trying to first diagnose my mysterious disk controller (?) 
> problem.
> Here is the behavior.
> a)  Leave the computer with idle applications (text editor, console, 
> konqueror) on the screen and leave it overnight.
> b) Come back in the morning.  Screensaver is running.
> c) Move the mouse and a 'broken' desktop appears, mostly just a blank 
> screen, and the computer (mouse, keyboard) is frozen.
> d) Press the 'reset' button to reboot (but leave the computer power on).
> e) On reboot, one or more SCSI disks are not recognized.  That is, the 
> SCSI ID that is jumper selected on the drive is not seen at all, as if 
> the device were not even plugged into the SCSI cable. Additionally, 
> even if a bootable drive is actually recognized, the mbr seems to be 
> unreadable.
> f) Ctrl-Alt-Del yields the same results.
> g)  Finally, a full power off reboot fixes the problem.
> 
> BTW, early in the morning before I check the computer, the cron 
> processes usually run so at least the mounted drive gets scanned at 
> that time.
> 

I've seen similar problems on HP machines that had an onboard SCSI 
controller as well as a pci SCSI controller. I had to disable the 
onboard controller and the problem disappeared. (and the disks didn't)

-- 
Andrew Mathews
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