Motherboard/PSU crippling USB and Sata

2

I very recently bought a new desktop computer. The motherboard is: Z77MX-D3H and the power supply is ocz zs series 550w.

The issue I have is that once I boot to the operating system (I have tried with fedora and Ubuntu with kernels 2.6.38 - 3.4.0), my hard drive (2.5" Magnetic) occasionally makes a power switch noise and it resets. Needless to say, when this drive is the OS drive, the OS crashes. I also have a SSD that works fine with the same OS configurations, but if I have the magnetic hard drive attached as second drive, it works erratically and the reconnects result in corrupted data.

I also noticed that whenever I plug an external hard drive USB2.0 or USB3.0 to the computer the issue with the reconnects is even worse:

[   52.198441] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Spinning up disk...
[   57.955811] usb 4-3: USB disconnect, device number 3
[   58.023687] .ready
[   58.023914] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] READ CAPACITY(16) failed
[   58.023919] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[   58.023932] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense not available.
[   58.024061] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] READ CAPACITY failed
[   58.024063] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[   58.024064] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense not available.
[   58.024099] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[   58.024101] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
[   58.024135] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Asking for cache data failed
[   58.024137] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[   58.024400] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] READ CAPACITY(16) failed
[   58.024402] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[   58.024405] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense not available.
[   58.024448] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] READ CAPACITY failed
[   58.024450] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[   58.024451] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense not available.
[   58.024469] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Asking for cache data failed
[   58.024471] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[   58.024472] sd 7:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[   58.407725] usb 4-3: new SuperSpeed USB device number 4 using xhci_hcd
[   58.424921] scsi8 : usb-storage 4-3:1.0
[   59.424185] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       My Passport 0740 1003 PQ: 0     ANSI: 6
[   59.424406] scsi 8:0:0:1: Enclosure         WD       SES Device       1003 PQ: 0     ANSI: 6
[   59.425098] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[   59.425176] ses 8:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device
[   59.425248] ses 8:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 13
[   61.845836] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 976707584 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/465 GiB)
[   61.845838] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 4096-byte physical blocks
[   61.846336] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[   61.846338] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 47 00 10 08
[   61.846718] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[   61.846720] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[   61.848105] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[   61.848106] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[   61.857147]  sdc: sdc1
[   61.858915] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page present
[   61.858916] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[   61.858918] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk
[   69.875809] usb 4-3: USB disconnect, device number 4
[   70.275816] usb 4-3: new SuperSpeed USB device number 5 using xhci_hcd
[   70.293063] scsi9 : usb-storage 4-3:1.0
[   71.292257] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access     WD       My Passport 0740 1003 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[   71.292505] scsi 9:0:0:1: Enclosure         WD       SES Device       1003 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[   71.293527] sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[   71.293668] ses 9:0:0:1: Attached Enclosure device
[   71.293758] ses 9:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 13
[   73.323804] usb 4-3: USB disconnect, device number 5
[  101.868078] ses 9:0:0:1: Device offlined - not ready after error recovery
[  101.868124] ses 9:0:0:1: Failed to get diagnostic page 0x50000
[  101.868131] ses 9:0:0:1: Failed to bind enclosure -19
[  101.868288] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] READ CAPACITY(16) failed
[  101.868292] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  101.868296] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense not available.
[  101.868428] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] READ CAPACITY failed
[  101.868434] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  101.868439] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense not available.
[  101.868468] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[  101.868473] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 00 00 00 00
[  101.868580] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Asking for cache data failed
[  101.868584] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  101.868845] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] READ CAPACITY(16) failed
[  101.868849] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  101.868854] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense not available.
[  101.868894] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] READ CAPACITY failed
[  101.868898] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc]  Result: hostbyte=DID_NO_CONNECT driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
[  101.868903] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Sense not available.
[  101.868961] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Asking for cache data failed
[  101.868966] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[  101.868969] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI disk

Now, if I plug the same drive to the powered usb 2.0 hub of my monitor, the issue is not reproduced (at least on a 20h long operation). Also the issue of the usb reconnects is less frequent if the hard drive is plugged before I switch on the computer.

Does anybody have some advice as to what I could do? Which is the faulty part/s that I should replace? As for me, I really don't know if to point my finger to the PSU or the Motherboard (I have updated to the latest firmware and checked the BIOS settings several times).

EDIT: The reconnects are happening both in the Sata connected drives and the USBX connected drives.

celebdor

Posted 2012-06-03T00:34:11.457

Reputation: 826

Answers

1

I had a similar issue with an old Dell. One of the Harddisk power line bundles from its powersupply was "weak".

A device (DVDROM, CDRW or HD) drawing current on that weak line would (occasionally) fail its operation and reset itself. If any other part of the machine was drawing substantial power when the device on the weak line is used, then a system-reset would occur.

For troubleshooting, try putting all internal devices on one power string, then another string. stress the system with each configuration.

Seems you can run with only SSD internal and all other devices as external powered USB.

Magicianeer

Posted 2012-06-03T00:34:11.457

Reputation: 146

The trace I added is for the external USB hard drive. Those are the ones that suffer the issue in a bigger scale, it's not that when I plug the USB the internal gets worse. – celebdor – 2012-06-03T07:37:12.260

0

After giving it more thought I took my chances and replaced the PSU. It is early to say, but for the moment the system is stable.

What gave it away was the fact that not only the USB devices (where the power goes through the mainboard were malfunctioning, but also the directly powered Sata drives.

celebdor

Posted 2012-06-03T00:34:11.457

Reputation: 826

Asked: 2012-06-03T00:34:11.457

Viewed: 717 times

Active: 2012-06-03T15:59:53.633