Re: hdparm for lib_pata

["Patrick Ale" <patrick.ale@gmail.com>]

Good morning all,

About the reason as of why it drops to PIO mode, I might have found
the reason for this, I am just not sure if what i found is related.

When I opened my Athlon XP machine, took the cables out and replaced
them for new cables, I found out that my southbridge fan wasnt
spinning anymore, at all.

So my guess is that this chip is overheated at some point and starts
causing problems.
Now, it was always my comprehension that the southbridge does indeed
control the ATA controller but only the onboard one, so even if the
chip is having heat problems, my PCI add-on cards should still work on
full UDMA100 speed, right?

I am re-assembling my athlon board again today, and as soon as I get
the falling back to PIO mode errors again in dmesg I'll forward you
the messages, like you asked :)

If someone could shine a light on my question about the southbridge,
I'd really appriciate it, email me privately if you prefer.

Thanks!

Patrick