Scandisk

[Warren Togami]

Could you please post this to the mailing list?  Just to be educational in
the debugging process...

Your "hdparm -t" results could indicate something.  It may indicate
something that the buffered disk reads got slower with subsequent tests.
Can you test that further and see if that is a trend that it gets slower?

What version of Linux and kernel are you using?  Try "uname -a" and post the
results.  Searching for your IDE controller the VIA Technologies VT82C586
chipset and Linux on Google, it doesn't appear that there were many troubles
with that particular IDE chipset for about a year since the kernel driver
was included and fixed.  Try searching further for "VT82C586 Linux" and see
if you find any problem reports.

Please try an updated kernel for your Linux distribution.

Also, I have had many bad experiences with the FIC brand of motherboards.
They are often the first to market with new motherboard chipsets, and I have
been burned a few times by these rushed products.  My colleagues at
AMDMB.com http://www.amdmb.com consider their brand name as "lousy
products", although the SD11 motherboard in particular was quite high when
it was first released.

Also try flashing your BIOS to the latest version on their web site.

Check your system cooling too.  If your CPU temperature is not below 55C
then you need a better HSF.  I'm using GlobalWin WBK68 rated up to 1.5GHz...
excellent cooling and very low noise.  Also, many motherboards by low
quality brands like FIC have crappy passive cooling on their motherboard
northbridge or southbridge chipsets.  Look for a tiny heatsink on the
motherboard that is held down by crappy plastic clips and metal springs.
You will be able to lift the heatsink from the board slightly if you have
one of these really bad motherboards.  (Abit BP6 was one of these
motherboards.)  Very often these tiny heatsinks have very little thermal
contact with the chipset due to poor design and weak pressure holding to the
motherboard.  You could try replacing the heatsink with something like the
ThermalTake BlueOrb, but it is often far cheaper and more effective to
simply use Arctic Silver thermal transfer compound to improve thermal
conductivity between the chipset and the heatsink.  It makes a BIG
difference, even over other thermal transfer greases or pads.

Byteware carries Arctic Silver
http://www.byteware.net/product_info.php?cPath=&id=1069&

----- Original Message -----
From: "Rodney Kanno" <pepe65 at hawaii.rr.com>
To: <warren at togami.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 4:30 PM
Subject: Scandisk


> Hi Warren,
>
> K I have attached the output results of lspci -v. The hard drive that
Linux
> is installed on is an IBM-DPTA-372050, 20040 MB. The drive is partitioned
as
> follows:
>
> hda - Windows
> hda5 - /
> hda6 - swap
> hda7 - /home
>
> results of hdparm -t
>
> /dev/hda:
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  2.93 seconds = 21.84 MB/sec
>
> /dev/hda5:
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  3.20 seconds = 20.00 MB/sec
>
> /dev/hda6:
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  3.59 seconds = 17.83 MB/sec
>
> /dev/hda7:
>  Timing buffered disk reads:  64 MB in  3.59 seconds = 17.83 MB/sec
>
> DMA is enabled.
> Motherboard is 1stMainboard SD11 www.fic.com.tw
>
> Let me know if you need anymore info.
>
> Thanks,
> Rodney