On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Todd Gruhn wrote:

> When I start up the i386 I keep getting the following error:
> 
> sd0(aha0:0:0):timed out
> sd0(aha0:0:0):timed out AGAIN
> 
> This prob started about 3 weeks ago. I have since done:
> 
> Blew out power supply with compressed fluorocarbon
> Blew off all hardware
> Changed the SCSI ribbon cable (had to twist it to
> connect SCSI-II CD-ROM
> Unhooked said SCSI CD
> Recompiled kernel on the i486 without the PCI support etc
> Removed the QIC-40 Tape Drive (I assumed the HD was overheating)

How old is your HD?

Disks are mechanical and will wear out.  Good blocks become bad.  Errors
increase.  They need to be replaced eventually.

One think I have seen happen before and may be happening to you is that
your HD has a bad block and then starts to go through bad block recovery,
but the medium is so bad that it can't find a spare block or has other
problems and needs to go through another recovery effort, etc. until the
driver decides that the disk has timed out.  Disks can take well over a
minute in these states.  It's a disk firmware thing.

Eduardo Horvath