big IO operations on t420s makes it hangs

[ik_5]

I have t420s, and when I try to copy a lot of information to some disk on keys, or between hard-drives but with a lot of IO operations, at some point the whole computer freezes, and only by removing the power cord and the battery, that I can make it poweroff.

I tried to let it work for 4 hours at the first time, before I decided to go this way.

I have on the laptop today Arch Linux (64 bit), but it also happened with the original Windows copy I had on the laptop.

How can I figure out what is wrong, and have anyone else encountered that type of problem before ?

[ColonelONeill]

Can you check all of the hard drives (including internal one) for bad sectors? Use HD Tune's trial and go to the Health tab to grab the SMART data.

[Ideasmiths]

It might be window itself. Have you tried those file moving software like teracopy?

If you are moving a lot of video/pictures files, this may normally caused hangups, because window is trying to copy/delete those thumbnail pics(hidden files). Turning of indexing services may help

[ik_5]

Smart by itself report no errors at all. From Linux, this is what it provides me with:

sudo smartctl --all -d ata /dev/sda
 
smartctl 5.42 2011-10-20 r3458 [x86_64-linux-3.1.4-1-ARCH] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     HITACHI HTS723232A7A364
Serial Number:    E3834563HPDKGN
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000cca 61dd7d275
Firmware Version: EC2ZB70B
User Capacity:    320,072,933,376 bytes [320 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  ATA-8-ACS revision 6
Local Time is:    Mon Dec  5 09:25:23 2011 IST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00) Offline data collection activity
                                        was never started.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                (   45) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        No Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (  77) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x003d) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000b   100   100   062    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  2 Throughput_Performance  0x0005   100   100   040    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0007   246   246   033    Pre-fail  Always       -       1
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1265
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   005    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000b   100   100   067    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0005   100   100   040    Pre-fail  Offline      -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0012   097   097   000    Old_age   Always       -       1694
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   060    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       147
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x000a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       3670029
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       5024
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       30 (Min/Max 16/44)
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0008   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x000a   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
223 Load_Retry_Count        0x000a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Vendor (0x50)       Completed without error       00%         0         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Windows is no longer installed on my machine at all, but it happens also when it was using Windows.

Could memory usage can also have such effect ?

[ColonelONeill]

How much RAM do you have?

Not sure why it would hard freeze... Large amounts of 4K disk read/writes tend to choke hard drives, but only so far as to slow operation, not a full crash.

[ik_5]

I have 4 Giga of RAM, and swap size of almost 5 Giga.