I also have an Adaptec 2400A RAID controller and have problems when my system seems to be having a lot of random hard disk accesses.
I upgraded the cache on the card to 128MB of Adaptec's preffered memory in hopes that the issue would subside, but it did not. I changed the write cache from write back to write through to see if there might be an issue with that. I upgraded to the latest I2O and SMOR. None of these seemed to work. My System will actually freeze when: * transferring data from a cd/dvd to harddisk and performing compression. (happens to be when I get the most disk access) - probability of freezing goes up drastically when I do something else at the same time that is hard disk intensive. eg: backing up data off a dvd/cd & portupgrade -via & listening to mp3's streaming off of my localhost For a while I've thought that it could be my system over heating. But when my machine overheats it just powers off abruptly. The freezing during high activity `seems` unrelated to heat. [ these abrupt power offs seem to have subsided since I got new heat syncs and got my AC fixed at my apartment :-D (DUH) LOL ] [ I am in the process of switching to water cooled ... as it is known that athlons run hot.. ] Something else that appears to be out of place (but i'm not sure) is that d0b3t0d0 always has a max speed of 10MHz no matter what drive I place there while all the others have a max speed of 50MHz. I have been searching the groups and mail archives for almost a year now. I can only find posts with similar problems but no resolution. Your post appears to be closer to my problems than others. There seems to be a small handful of ppl who have mentioned this problem. Maybe a bad batch of cards went out? or... the problem isn't frequent enough for some ppl to attribute it to a real problem? Or it could be the driver... I have no idea. I remember having all sorts of problems when I oringally wanted to put an OS on this machine and I didn't have a stable install until I set the cache to write- through (which for some reason is recommended for OS installs). Then afterwards I set the cache back to write-back (which was recommended any other time). ( from docs I have read scattered in remote places ) It appears we are not alone in our issue with the 2400A. Wayyyyy below is a moderately detailed description about my system and highly detailed description about my 2400A. if you managed to read through my ramblings. Thanks! I hope more people will come out and discuss more about the 2400A. Even those of you who have stable systems! I would definitley like to know what kind of hardware and software specs you have. (especially if FreeBSD-5.0 works better with this card due to UFS2 or device drivers or what not.. i really have no idea) Thanks! -Adam I run on: FreeBSD: 4.8-STABLE motherboard: IWILL MPX2 dual: Athlon 2100+ MP memory: 1G graphics card: Matrox MGA G550 AGP sound card: CMedia CMI8738 cd/dvd drive: PLEXTOR CD-R PX-320A raid card: ADAPTEC 2400A FW Rev. 3A0L With 128MB Cache, Raid 5, 4 X Western Digital 1200JB w/8MB Cache DMESG OUTPUT ON asr0 asr0: <Adaptec Caching SCSI RAID> mem 0xe0000000-0xe7ffffff irq 10 at device 5.0 on pci2 asr0: major=154 asr0: ADAPTEC 2400A FW Rev. 3A0L, 4 channel, 256 CCBs, Protocol I2O RAIDUTIL Version: 3.04 Date: 9/27/2000 FreeBSD CLI Configuration Utility Adaptec ENGINE Version: 3.04 Date: 9/27/2000 Adaptec FreeBSD SCSI Engine # b0 b1 b2 Controller Cache FW NVRAM Serial Status --------------------------------------------------------------------------- d0 -- -- -- ADAP2400A 112MB 3A0L ADPT 1.0 BB0E14220H4Optimal Physical View Address Type Manufacturer/Model Capacity Status --------------------------------------------------------------------------- d0b0t0d0 Disk Drive (DASD) WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 114440MB Optimal d0b1t0d0 Disk Drive (DASD) WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 114440MB Optimal d0b2t0d0 Disk Drive (DASD) WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 114440MB Optimal d0b3t0d0 Disk Drive (DASD) WDC WD1200JB-00CRA1 114473MB Optimal Logical View Address Type Manufacturer/Model Capacity Status --------------------------------------------------------------------------- d0b0t0d0 RAID 5 (Redundant ADAPTEC RAID-5 343320MB Optimal d0b1t0d0 Disk Drive (DASD) WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0114440MB Optimal d0b2t0d0 Disk Drive (DASD) WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0114440MB Optimal d0b3t0d0 Disk Drive (DASD) WDC WD1200JB-00CRA1114473MB Optimal d0b0t0d0 Disk Drive (DASD) WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0114440MB Optimal Address Max Speed Actual Rate / Width --------------------------------------------------------------------------- d0b0t0d0 50 MHz 100 MB/sec wide d0b1t0d0 50 MHz 100 MB/sec wide d0b2t0d0 50 MHz 100 MB/sec wide d0b3t0d0 10 MHz 100 MB/sec wide Address Manufacturer/Model Write Cache Mode (HBA/Device) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- d0b0t0d0 ADAPTEC RAID-5 Write Back / -- d0b1t0d0 WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 -- / Write Back d0b2t0d0 WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 -- / Write Back d0b3t0d0 WDC WD1200JB-00CRA1 -- / Write Back d0b0t0d0 WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 -- / Write Back # Controller Cache FW NVRAM BIOS SMOR Serial --------------------------------------------------------------------------- d0 ADAP2400A 112MB 3A0L ADPT 1.0 1.62 1.12/79I BB0E14220H4 # Controller Status Voltage Current Full Cap Rem Cap Rem Time --------------------------------------------------------------------------- d0 ADAP2400A No battery Address Manufacturer/Model FW Serial 123456789012 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- d0b0t0d0 WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 16.0 WD-WMA8C2061103 -X-XX--X-O-- d0b1t0d0 WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 16.0 WD-WMA8C1755837 -X-XX--X-O-- d0b2t0d0 WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 16.0 WD-WMA8C1625250 -X-XX--X-O-- d0b3t0d0 WDC WD1200JB-00CRA1 17.0 WD-WMA8C3105960 -X-XX--X-O-- Capabilities Map: Column 1 = Soft Reset Column 2 = Cmd Queuing Column 3 = Linked Cmds Column 4 = Synchronous Column 5 = Wide 16 Column 6 = Wide 32 Column 7 = Relative Addr Column 8 = SCSI II Column 9 = S.M.A.R.T. Column 0 = SCAM Column 1 = SCSI-3 Column 2 = SAF-TE X = Capability Exists, - = Capability does not exist, O = Not Supported _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"