[ltp] hard disk spindown related lockups

[linux-thinkpad@linux-thinkpad.org]

Hi Everyone. I've been having some issues with the hard disk on my T40p
seeming to lock up while in linux. What happens is occasionally (sometimes
every 2-3 hours) while running on battery the system will need to read
something from the hard disk, but the read and all subsequent disk I/O will
hang. Once this hang has begun, the hard disk activity light is lit solid.
The system is still slightly usable, however any process that needs to read
from disk will hang.

One time I managed to get a dmesg to run with the system in this state and I
noticed some general read failure IDE/ATAPI error messages from the kernel.
I didn't get the exact error messages stored anywhere but I can try if it
would help.

General summary:

- happens both with the SuSE 2.6.5 kernel and a stock 2.6.10 I built myself.

- happens only in Linux, never in XP

- happens only while the system is on battery, never while on AC

- the hard disk light is always lit solid once the lockup starts

- lockups are occasional (once or twice per charge) and not reproducable by
any specific action.

- I have never had any filesystem corruption, however if I write to a file a
few seconds before this lockup occurrs, that data will not be there after I
reboot.

- I have observed no evidence of failing hardware.

- It is possible that the lockups are always ocurring when the hard disk is
spinning back up. The lockups usually seem to happen after the system has
been quiet enough to allow the drive to spin down. But again, it doesn't
happen on every single spinup.


Anyone know what's going on? 
Thanks