Arch Linux

tshaw

Member

Registered: 2021-03-27

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] ata2.00 errors: has my hardware failed? If so, what part?

My system failed to boot this morning, with a spate of errors like this:

ata2.00: failed command: WRITE DMA EXT
ata2.00: cmd 35/00:10:e8:3b:88/00:00:10:00:00/e0 tag 12 dma 8192 out
             res 51/04:10:e8:3c:88/00:00:10:00:00/e0 Emask 0x1 (device error)
ata2.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
ata2.00: error: { ABRT }

(the various numbers after cmd and res varied between copies of this message).

After a few minutes it dropped to a shell with the directive to run

fsck /dev/sda2

manually, but when I did so it just reproduced the same kind of errors, and never got to any of the usual fsck questions about whether to carry out various corrections. I tried booting from an arch recovery flash drive and mounting from there, with the same kind of errors. Notably, when I mount the EFI partition (on /dev/sda1), it mounts fine and I am able to read and write files on it, but there are occasional kernel errors in that case too, with the same form.

The computer is a Lenovo Thinkpad, about 2 years old (I think model is T440?). The drive is an SSD, but I don't know much more than that. The drive passes a

smartctl -t long

, if that helps.

My questions are:
-- is this definitely a hardware issue, or is there a chance that these errors are entirely due to software/filesystem problems? (I'm guessing hardware, but thought I'd double-check)
-- if it is a hardware issue, is it possible to distinguish between an SSD issue and a motherboard issue? In my reading of the various fora I have seen some reference to failure of the drive controllers, so it would be good to be able to tell the difference.

Thank you in advance,
Thomas

Last edited by tshaw (2024-11-19 15:35:14)

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Linux user since ~2004, archlinux since ~2014. Joined forum in 2021.

paulkerry

Member

From: Sheffield, UK

Registered: 2014-10-02

Posts: 611

Re: [SOLVED] ata2.00 errors: has my hardware failed? If so, what part?

It usually helps if you post a full log...

journalctl -b

What bios settings are in operation for the drive: AHCI for instance?
Can you change the SATA cable and/or re-seat the SSD?
Have you checked to see if there is a firmware update for the machine and the SSD?

tshaw

Member

Registered: 2021-03-27

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] ata2.00 errors: has my hardware failed? If so, what part?

Sorry I never closed this... The SSD was bad but I was able to mount it on a different system and recover most of the data.

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Linux user since ~2004, archlinux since ~2014. Joined forum in 2021.