Power supply failures can be pretty annoying to find

Recently one of the four drives in my HTPC kept dropping out, first it happened once every few days, then after several hours. The weird thing was that it always came back after losing the SATA link and allowed me to mount it again. I first thought it was a problem of the SATA controller or cables so I switched the drives around, yet the same drive was still affected. I then assumed it was related to the drive which got me sidetracked for a while, till I routinely decided to reset the BIOS. Doing so I randomly had a look at the supply voltages, the 12V rail had dropped to around 10.2V.
Gladly I had a spare ATX PSU which I then switched in resolving all the problems. The PSU that failed was a one hung low 75W high efficiency one that came with a miniITX case I bought a while ago. It consists of a AC/DC power brick supplying 12V and a DC/DC switch mode board generating the whole variety of ATX voltages. Some of the DC/DC boards electrolytic capacitors were bulgy and I couldn’t even find a datasheet for their brand so I decided to replace them all with fresh low ESR ones. Needless to say that solved the problem and it now works fine (11.83V) again.
It really was an annoying experience and the symptoms were highly misleading. After all the drive was fine, and it was just the manifestation of a completely different problem. From now on I will routinely check lm-sensors for voltages as well.


This was what my dmesg looked like:

Oct 27 18:57:14 mediapc2 kernel: [ 162.075774] ata7.00: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1990000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 18:57:14 mediapc2 kernel: [ 162.075783] ata7.00: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 18:57:14 mediapc2 kernel: [ 162.075790] ata7: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 18:57:14 mediapc2 kernel: [ 162.075795] ata7.00: failed command: SMART
Oct 27 18:57:14 mediapc2 kernel: [ 162.075806] ata7.00: cmd b0/da:00:00:4f:c2/00:00:00:00:00/00 tag 0
Oct 27 18:57:14 mediapc2 kernel: [ 162.075808] res 50/00:ff:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
Oct 27 18:57:14 mediapc2 kernel: [ 162.075813] ata7.00: status: { DRDY }
Oct 27 18:57:14 mediapc2 kernel: [ 162.075822] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 18:57:24 mediapc2 kernel: [ 172.089031] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 18:57:24 mediapc2 kernel: [ 172.089042] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 18:57:25 mediapc2 kernel: [ 172.977038] ata7: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
Oct 27 18:57:25 mediapc2 kernel: [ 172.989529] ata7.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 18:57:25 mediapc2 kernel: [ 172.989561] ata7: EH complete
Oct 27 19:24:55 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1823.374114] ata7: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1990000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:24:55 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1823.374165] ata7: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:24:55 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1823.374206] ata7: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:24:55 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1823.374269] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:25:00 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1828.380726] ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1810000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:25:00 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1828.380769] ata6: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:25:00 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1828.380806] ata6: SError: { PHYRdyChg LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:25:00 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1828.380846] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:25:05 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1833.388026] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:25:05 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1833.388069] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:25:10 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1838.396035] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:25:10 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1838.396078] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:25:11 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1839.152045] ata7: SATA link down (SStatus 20 SControl 300)
Oct 27 19:25:11 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1839.152055] ata7.00: link offline, clearing class 1 to NONE
Oct 27 19:25:11 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1839.160816] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:25:20 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1848.428028] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:25:20 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1848.428071] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:25:21 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1849.164026] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:25:21 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1849.164063] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:25:26 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1854.072034] ata7: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
Oct 27 19:25:26 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1854.107379] ata7.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 19:25:26 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1854.107389] ata7: EH complete
Oct 27 19:25:31 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1859.396027] ata6: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Oct 27 19:25:55 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1883.476028] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:25:55 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1883.476071] ata6: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
Oct 27 19:25:55 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1883.476077] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:26:03 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1890.936813] ata7: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1990000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:26:03 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1890.936856] ata7: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:26:03 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1890.936892] ata7: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:26:03 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1890.936934] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:26:13 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1900.952028] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:26:13 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1900.952071] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:26:16 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1904.416031] ata7: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
Oct 27 19:26:16 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1904.442015] ata7.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 19:26:16 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1904.442024] ata7: EH complete
Oct 27 19:26:16 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1904.572033] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:26:16 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1904.599421] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 19:26:16 mediapc2 kernel: [ 1904.599430] ata6: EH complete
Oct 27 19:28:18 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2025.998821] ata7: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1990000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:28:18 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2025.998870] ata7: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:28:18 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2025.998913] ata7: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:28:18 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2025.998963] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:28:18 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2025.999016] ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1810000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:28:18 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2025.999059] ata6: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:28:18 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2025.999108] ata6: SError: { PHYRdyChg LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:28:18 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2025.999163] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:28:24 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2031.760061] ata7: SATA link down (SStatus 20 SControl 300)
Oct 27 19:28:24 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2031.760070] ata7.00: link offline, clearing class 1 to NONE
Oct 27 19:28:24 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2031.802742] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:28:28 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2036.016028] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:28:28 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2036.016078] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:28:29 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2036.904043] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:28:29 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2036.929302] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 19:28:29 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2036.929311] ata6: EH complete
Oct 27 19:28:34 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2041.808033] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:28:34 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2041.808084] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:28:34 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2042.288043] ata7: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
Oct 27 19:28:34 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2042.325927] ata7.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 19:28:34 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2042.325937] ata7: EH complete
Oct 27 19:29:04 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2071.927629] ata7: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
Oct 27 19:29:04 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2071.927638] ata7: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1990000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:29:04 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2071.927695] ata7: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:29:04 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2071.927739] ata7: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:29:04 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2071.927788] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:29:05 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2072.855506] ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1990000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:29:05 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2072.855565] ata6: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:29:05 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2072.855609] ata6: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:29:05 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2072.855658] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:29:14 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2081.940029] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:29:14 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2081.940079] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:29:15 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2082.868029] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:29:15 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2082.868080] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:29:19 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2087.452072] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:29:19 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2087.478782] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 19:29:19 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2087.478797] ata6: EH complete
Oct 27 19:29:24 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2091.964077] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:29:24 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2091.964135] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:29:25 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2092.679513] ata6.00: limiting speed to UDMA/100:PIO4
Oct 27 19:29:25 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2092.679522] ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1810000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:29:25 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2092.679579] ata6: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:29:25 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2092.679623] ata6: SError: { PHYRdyChg LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:29:25 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2092.679671] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:29:35 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2102.692026] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:29:35 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2102.692078] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:29:35 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2103.504028] ata7: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Oct 27 19:29:35 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2103.580029] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:29:35 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2103.601603] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/100
Oct 27 19:29:35 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2103.601612] ata6: EH complete
Oct 27 19:29:59 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2126.988048] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:29:59 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2126.988108] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:30:00 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2127.876061] ata7: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:30:00 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2128.286454] ata7.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 19:30:00 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2128.286464] ata7: EH complete
Oct 27 19:30:56 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2184.418375] ata7: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1810000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:30:56 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2184.418441] ata7: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:30:56 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2184.418602] ata7: SError: { PHYRdyChg LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:30:56 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2184.418697] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:30:56 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2184.418727] ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1810000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:30:56 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2184.418785] ata6: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:30:56 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2184.418834] ata6: SError: { PHYRdyChg LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:30:56 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2184.418890] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:31:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2194.432540] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:31:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2194.432596] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:31:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2194.432614] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:31:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2194.432662] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:31:07 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2195.320034] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:31:07 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2195.340777] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/100
Oct 27 19:31:07 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2195.340789] ata6: EH complete
Oct 27 19:31:08 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2195.768036] ata7: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:31:08 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2195.800345] ata7.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 19:31:08 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2195.800357] ata7: EH complete
Oct 27 19:34:22 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2389.990078] ata7: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1990000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:34:22 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2389.990143] ata7: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:34:22 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2389.990192] ata7: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:34:22 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2389.990248] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:34:22 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2389.990303] ata6.00: limiting speed to UDMA/33:PIO4
Oct 27 19:34:22 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2389.990311] ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1990000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:34:22 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2389.990367] ata6: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:34:22 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2389.990415] ata6: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:34:22 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2389.990471] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:34:32 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2400.004031] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:34:32 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2400.004082] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:34:32 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2400.004094] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:34:32 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2400.004137] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:34:35 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2403.524034] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:34:35 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2403.547023] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/33
Oct 27 19:34:35 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2403.547034] ata6: EH complete
Oct 27 19:34:42 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2410.020534] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:34:42 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2410.020587] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:34:43 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2410.908040] ata7: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:34:43 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2410.926177] ata7.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 19:34:43 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2410.926189] ata7: EH complete
Oct 27 19:37:20 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2567.834778] ata7: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1990000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:37:20 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2567.834840] ata7: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:37:20 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2567.834887] ata7: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:37:20 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2567.834938] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:37:21 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2568.761550] ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1990000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:37:21 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2568.761610] ata6: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:37:21 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2568.761655] ata6: SError: { PHYRdyChg 10B8B Dispar LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:37:21 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2568.761705] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:37:30 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2577.856031] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:37:30 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2577.856081] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:37:31 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2578.745046] ata7: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:37:31 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2578.773052] ata7.00: configured for UDMA/133
Oct 27 19:37:31 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2578.773066] ata7: EH complete
Oct 27 19:37:31 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2578.797034] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:37:31 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2578.797085] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:37:32 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2579.684531] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:37:32 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2579.705605] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/33
Oct 27 19:37:32 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2579.705620] ata6: EH complete
Oct 27 19:38:01 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2608.859342] ata6: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1810000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:38:01 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2608.859401] ata6: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:38:01 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2608.859445] ata6: SError: { PHYRdyChg LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:38:01 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2608.859494] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:38:02 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2609.806213] ata7.00: limiting speed to UDMA/100:PIO4
Oct 27 19:38:02 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2609.806222] ata7: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1810000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:38:02 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2609.806279] ata7: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:38:02 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2609.806323] ata7: SError: { PHYRdyChg LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:38:02 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2609.806372] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:38:11 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2618.892040] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:38:11 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2618.892090] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:38:12 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2619.785032] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:38:12 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2619.811750] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/33
Oct 27 19:38:12 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2619.811760] ata6: EH complete
Oct 27 19:38:12 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2619.832044] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:38:12 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2619.832098] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:38:13 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2620.720039] ata7: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:38:13 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2620.735611] ata7.00: configured for UDMA/100
Oct 27 19:38:13 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2620.735621] ata7: EH complete
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.333822] ata7.00: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x1 SErr 0x1810000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.333884] ata7.00: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.333930] ata7: SError: { PHYRdyChg LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.333976] ata7.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.334026] ata7.00: cmd 60/20:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 0 ncq 16384 in
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.334028] res 40/00:04:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.334132] ata7.00: status: { DRDY }
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.334180] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.363075] ata6.00: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x1 SErr 0x1810000 action 0xe frozen
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.363136] ata6.00: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.363182] ata6: SError: { PHYRdyChg LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.363227] ata6.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.363277] ata6.00: cmd 60/08:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 0 ncq 4096 in
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.363279] res 40/00:04:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 Emask 0x10 (ATA bus error)
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.363382] ata6.00: status: { DRDY }
Oct 27 19:43:44 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2952.363429] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:43:54 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2962.348029] ata7: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:43:54 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2962.348080] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:43:54 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2962.376027] ata6: softreset failed (device not ready)
Oct 27 19:43:54 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2962.376074] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:44:01 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2969.032035] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:44:04 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2972.012034] ata7: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:44:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2974.032043] ata6.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
Oct 27 19:44:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2974.032054] ata6.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
Oct 27 19:44:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2974.032059] ata6.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
Oct 27 19:44:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2974.032110] ata6: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:44:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2974.516050] ata6: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:44:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2974.537802] ata6.00: configured for UDMA/33
Oct 27 19:44:06 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2974.537822] ata6: EH complete
Oct 27 19:44:09 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2977.013038] ata7.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
Oct 27 19:44:09 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2977.013049] ata7.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
Oct 27 19:44:09 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2977.013055] ata7.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5)
Oct 27 19:44:09 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2977.013104] ata7: hard resetting link
Oct 27 19:44:09 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2977.497041] ata7: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Oct 27 19:44:09 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2977.519787] ata7.00: configured for UDMA/100
Oct 27 19:44:09 mediapc2 kernel: [ 2977.519806] ata7: EH complete

8 Comments

  1. Thank you! I faced exactly the same problem and after reading your post and checking my 12v rail i’ve got 11.75v , wich was enough to make it completely unstable, it’s crazy how hdd are sensitive to this voltage. And of course after changing of power supply which delivers at least 11.95v all goes well !

  2. I’ve been suffering from the same problem for months. It stopped some weeks ago, but after adding another hard drive, the failure has came up again. I’ve exchanged the SATA cables of data and power among my drives several times. However nothing has worked. The behavior of this error has been really errant and very complicated to track. Specially because it has seemed to affect only to some hard drives.

    Some days ago I decided to plug a power meter to the PSU. My PSU is of 400w. I thought that it was more powerful, sincerely. Anyway, it was supposedly enough for all my devices. Even the power meter show a power usage of 100-200w as much. However, I’ve checked that punctually the maximum usage has reached and even exceeded 400w.

    Although it might have nothing to do with this error, it has motivated me to look for information about the DRDY error and its probable link to faulty PSUs. Then I’ve found this article and it has been very helpful. I’ve checked the voltage of the 12v lane in the UEFI settings menu and it’s 11.65v only. So it seems evident that my dear Enermax power supply is faulty and needs to be replaced.

    Thank you for such an useful information.
    Best regards.

  3. Hey,
    great helpful artical.
    I had this problem and was athe beginning expecting that my hdd had a problem because my problem occured only sometimes and couldn‘t be reproduced.
    After i changed my powersupply and can now say, after some weeks without any problem,
    this solved my problem.
    Thanks.

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