Errors scrolling on terminal - "connection status changed"

English Hardware
#1

I just switched to a terminal using [Ctrl][Alt][F1] and found an error message being printed to the screen over and over at the rate of one per second. I have no idea what’s causing it or what it means, let alone what to do about it. With these errors scrolling by it makes all terminals unusable.

Example:

 3187.260489] ata12: irq_stat 0x80000040, connection status changed
 3187.260492] ata12: SError: { DevExch }
 3187.977815] exception emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen

Here’s a screenshot of it: (I don’t know if this will post…)
file:///home/russ/BLUETOOTH/Error.message.jpg

The only thing I can think of is that a week or two ago I removed a hard drive which has Windows on it, deleted the entry in fstab, then reinstalled a new grub. I haven’t had any problems from that, unless this error message is related to that.

Can anyone explain what this cryptic message means and how to correct (stop) it?

#2

Here’s the screenshot in my dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/murm6gdpmco80vq/Error.message.jpg?dl=0

#3

I’m sad to see that although there have been 80+ views, there’s not yet one suggestion offering assistance. I have been searching everything I could find, and found no solution anywhere. I don’t know if this will help, but here’s one of several hundred identical error messages from /bin/dmesg:

 8930.075523] ata12: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 310)
 8930.075539] ata12: EH complete
 8930.084631] ata12: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen
 8930.084635] ata12: irq_stat 0x80000040, connection status changed
 8930.084638] ata12: SError: { DevExch }
 8930.084645] ata12: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
 8930.084647] ata12: hard resetting link

There’s got to be someone able to read and accurately interpret this. It’s all Greek to me. Error messages like this are still being dumped to all [Ctl][Alt][Fx] terminals, rendering them useless. I did find this, but that isn’t very clear to a layman and does nothing to tell me how to fix this problem.

#4

I am no hardware guru, but you could maybe check all your SATA connections in the system. Pull them, clean the contacts, refit them.

Just my two cents.

#5

It seems to be a hardware issue. I don’t actually have any good suggestions.

 8930.075523] ata12: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 310)
 8930.075539] ata12: EH complete
 8930.084631] ata12: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen
 8930.084635] ata12: irq_stat 0x80000040, connection status changed
 8930.084638] ata12: SError: { DevExch }
 8930.084645] ata12: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
 8930.084647] ata12: hard resetting link

The SATA interface is where your hard drive and perhaps DVD drive are connected.

If you boot into your BIOS settings page, there are probably settings for your SATA devices. It might be hard to work out what the settings should be. If there is an option to set them to factory defaults, you might try that.

#6

I’m no hardware guru either, but your suggestion makes sense, so I’ll try that. Let’s see if it changes anything.

#7

Are your SATA cables as new as your motherboard? If they are old, and red, replace them.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/linux.debian.user/nVN_ZN1Oxsw/zzUgrxQ0CwAJ

#8

Well, it’s not easy to get down on arthritic knees while trying to keep a sticky-fingered grandson toddler from ‘helping’ move cabling around, but I finally managed. Removing that Windows drive left the optional 8-port sata board unused, so I pulled it out while I was in there. I don’t know if re-plugging the cables or removing the unused board did it, but it’s fixed now! Interesting how sometimes the solution can be so simple. Thanks for the idea!

#9

Everything is just two months old.