Checksum: 55452 Path: utzoo!utgpu!romwa From: romwa@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Mark Dornfeld) Date: Sat, 7-May-88 23:49:36 EDT Message-ID: <1988May7.234936.23166@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu> Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix Subject: Re: fixed disk error References: <1988Apr29.151753.3956@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu> <497@scovert> Reply-To: romwa@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Mark Dornfeld) Keywords: fixed disk, error In article <497@scovert> stephm@sco.COM (Stephen P. Marr) writes: >romwa@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Mark Dornfeld) writes: >> ><...>Can anyone help with this Xenix error message? >> >>error on fixed disk (minor 40), block=16544 >>Error Type 0, Code 3, Unit 0 >>Write/Drive Fault >> >><...> >> >>Mark T. Dornfeld >> >><...> >> >>mark@utgpu!rom - or - romwa@utgpu > >A Write/Drive Fault means that the controller went bye-bye. >I'm responsible for running some 35+ machines here at SCO, >and I've seen this error on two machines in the last 2.5 years. > I've gotten some good advice on this problem and in general everybody's experience is with a bad controller or disk. But here's an update: I noticed a pattern of the times of the bad writes and all except two of them occur between 9 and 10 AM and between 5 and 7 PM. This machine is in a high security collection room in the Museum and there is some type of security device with motion scanners and whatnot very near the computer. ( I learned this after the trouble started happening.) When the doors are either unlocked in the AM or locked in the PM, the security company sends some signals into the security system for verification. The clustering of these bad writes leads me to suspect some high frequency interference triggering an error message or, in fact, a bad write to disk. This is only the current theory and I will suspect everything until I find the problem, but the plot of the times sure isn't anywhere near random. There are no cron processes scheduled during these times so nothing should be writing to disk anyway. Any more help/ideas are welcome. Mark T. Dornfeld Royal Ontario Museum 100 Queens Park Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5S 2C6 mark@utgpu!rom - or - romwa@utgpu