Losing both SATA disks after several hours operation

[olesk]

I'm experiencing a strange SATA issue (at least I believe it is a SATA issue).

 

I start up my system (T3-P5945GCX ASUS PC (Desktop Barebone), 4GB RAM, 2 x SATA disks, Intel 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) SATA running with ACPI APIC enabled) and everything works perfectly. It runs iDeneb at 10.5.6 with latest Voodo kernel without a hitch.

 

After running for a time (usually several hours), suddenly the disc activity lights on both drives goes full on, indicating very heavy activity. If I try using the machine, it freezes for a few seconds and then unfreezes and all is fine again. That wouldn't be so worriedsome if it wasn't for the fact that sometimes, usualy after the machine has been running for 12+ hours, the same thing happens, but now the machine doesn't snap out of it. I have control (mouse works, can move windows etc), but the disks are unavailable, which leads to a hang as soon as I try to access a menu or start an application. And on top of everything there is *nothing* in the logs (no surprise I guess, as once it happens, nothing can write to them anymore anyway).

 

Weirdly, I once got a clue, as suddenly my secondary display (I use dual) went black and I got a long list of repeated messages stating that the SATA controller could not talk to the disk anymore. I have included a lspci dump of my SATA controller below. Rebooting doesn't work, as the disks are still unusable until I actually kill the power completely on the PCU and restart. Attempts at booting with ACPI APIC support disabled doesn't work (the classic looking for root device issue). Disk Warrior reports good readings from S.M.A.R.T all the way up to the crash.

 

Does anyone have any incling as to what happens? I haven't seen anyone have this kind of problem before and am completely stumped...

 

 

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 8f [Master SecP SecO PriP PriO])

Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 2601

Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-

Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-

Latency: 0

Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 18

Region 0: I/O ports at b800

Region 1: I/O ports at b400

Region 2: I/O ports at b000

Region 3: I/O ports at a800

Region 4: I/O ports at a400

Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 2

Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold-)

Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-