Comment 146 for bug 285392

After installing Ubuntu 9.10 I faced this problem. Only twice before it has caused a "GUI-crash" (Only cursor moves, yet I can switch to console), and now when I came looking for more info about the trouble, I noticed that logs on my Asus keep constantly filling up with this report, even now as I write this.

Apr 4 16:31:02 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 842.160166] ata3.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
Apr 4 16:31:02 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 842.160180] ata3: hard resetting link
Apr 4 16:31:03 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 842.644059] ata3: softreset failed (device not ready)
Apr 4 16:31:03 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 842.644071] ata3: applying SB600 PMP SRST workaround and retrying
Apr 4 16:31:03 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 842.808068] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Apr 4 16:31:03 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 842.822909] ata3.00: SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
Apr 4 16:31:03 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 842.838381] ata3.00: SB600 AHCI: limiting to 255 sectors per cmd
Apr 4 16:31:03 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 842.838390] ata3.00: configured for PIO0
Apr 4 16:31:03 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 842.840503] ata3: EH complete
Apr 4 16:31:08 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 847.976067] ata3.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xa0)
Apr 4 16:31:08 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 847.976104] ata3.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
Apr 4 16:31:08 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 847.976114] ata3.00: irq_stat 0x40000001
Apr 4 16:31:08 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 847.976139] ata3.00: cmd a0/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0
Apr 4 16:31:08 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 847.976142] cdb 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Apr 4 16:31:08 f-3000-laptop kernel: [ 847.976146] res 51/20:03:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 Emask 0x5 (timeout)

Laptop is eMachines E620 with otherwise basic setup but 2x ram.