linux-kernel - Re: HDD problem, software bug, bios bug, or hardware ?

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Message-ID: <20120910091546.GA4431@liondog.tnic>
Date:	Mon, 10 Sep 2012 11:15:46 +0200
From:	Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>
To:	Adko Branil <adkobranil@...oo.com>
Cc:	Mikael Pettersson <mikpe@...uu.se>,
	Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@...ox.com>,
	linux-ide <linux-ide@...r.kernel.org>,
	lkml <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Dan Merillat <dan.merillat@...il.com>,
	"Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@...k.pl>
Subject: Re: HDD problem, software bug, bios bug, or hardware ?

On Fri, Sep 07, 2012 at 04:32:56AM -0700, Adko Branil wrote:
> After updating bios no more crashes happened, i tested it many times
> on heavy HDD IO loads, with many kernels (including CONFIG_PREEMPT
> kernels).

Alriiight, one of the most seldom times where a BIOS update actually
fixes things :-).

> But now if enable "Cool'n' Quiet" option in bios, 
> CONFIG_PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY kernel with passed "nosmp" at boot time,
> crashes during boot process with kernel panic, while  CONFIG_PREEMPT
> kernlel without "nosmp" works fine  - but it is another story i
> think, should not be related with the crashes when it was old bios,
> and i think it is probably "nosmp" the reason.

Hmm, Cool'n'Quiet enabled actually means that you have _PSS objects and
powernow-k8 should be detecting the P-states properly.

Can you catch dmesg from that machine twice?

* one with Cool'n'Quiet disabled
* one with the kernel panic

> (i have never changed cpu frequency of this cpu at all) When "Cool'n'
> Quiet" is disabled, the system works perfectly adequately with all
> kind of kernels i tried. Except that this warning message in dmesg
> still appears (if it is problem at all). I put here this message for
> "nosmp" case as well, kernel is 3.5.2:

Right, so AFAICU, you can run a CONFIG_PREEMPT kernel perfectly fine now
after the BIOS update, right?

If so and when you say that the oopses started happening after an
electrical instability, I'd venture a guess that something got damaged
in the BIOS EPROM and since you've flashed it anew, the corrupted data
got overwritten and so no more crashes. Correct?

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.
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