[UFO Chicago] Dead DVD does dubious dance during desired duties

[Jordan Bettis]

On Sat, Mar 15, 2003 at 11:59:43PM -0800, Jesse Becker wrote:
> Mar 15 23:22:00 localhost hdc: irq timeout: status=0x58 {
> DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
> Mar 15 23:22:00 localhost hdc: drive not ready for command
> Mar 15 23:22:10 localhost hdc: drive not ready for command
> Mar 15 23:22:10 localhost hdc: status timeout: status=0xd0
> { Busy }
> Mar 15 23:22:10 localhost hdc: drive not ready for command
> Mar 15 23:22:10 localhost hdc: ATAPI reset complete
> Mar 15 23:22:20 localhost hdc: irq timeout: status=0x51 {
> DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
> Mar 15 23:22:20 localhost hdc: irq timeout: error=0x20
> Mar 16 01:19:55 localhost hdc: bad special flag: 0x03 

SeekComplete errors have always signaled hardware trouble to me
(usually a hard drive on its last leg). I don't know if they could be
kernel related (I imagine they could), but when I see them, I
immediently suspect the hardware.
 
> Thoughts? (or hardware recommendations?)

I have a Toshiba DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive I got from pricewatch for about
$70.  I'm pretty happy with it although I here on the grapevine that
combined readers/writers don't last as long because the write head is
heavier. Most of my CD-ROM drives far outlived their usefulness
anyhow.

The only really GAR thing about it is that Linux can't seem to handle
SCSI DVD reading, and can't handle IDE CD writing, so I have to have
ide-cdrom and SCSI emulation compiled seperately as modules, and have
the ide-cdrom in the kernel when I'm writing, then switch to the the
SCSI crap to write.

Also, I think CDs are basically going to become obsolete within the
next year or two, so you might want to invest in a DVD-R now (unless
you want to wait for the inevitable price drop when they become
mainstream).

-- 
Jordan Bettis <http://www.hafd.org/~jordanb>
Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide 
they ought to have.
         -- Richard Salent, Former President CBS News.