"Exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen" when playing media

This change was made by a bot.

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v3.18 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.18-rc1-utopic/

I haven't tested newer kernel yet, but already found another interesting thing. When I boot the system and use VLC to play media, no problem occurs. But after using Clementine, QuodLibet, Audacious or Banshee even once, the ugly log is shown regardless of player being used (including VLC).

Using Tomahawk causes the same problematic results. All packages mentioned in #7 (as well as Tomahawk) were from the standard Ubuntu 14.04 repositories.

I was not able to boot my system with v3.18-rc1-utopic, but I've tested Fedora 21 beta with kernel 3.17.1-302.fc21 and the problem still was there. I also noticed that the error was reported when my DVD was ejected after successful burning (AFAIR), too.

I made a "copy to image file" of Fedora 21 beta LiveDVD. This is what I saw when DVD started to spin:

ata5: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen
ata5: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
ata5: SError: { DevExch }
ata5: hard resetting link

ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata5: EH complete

and this is what I saw when DVD stopped spinning:

ata5: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4000000 action 0xe frozen
ata5: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
ata5: SError: { DevExch }
ata5: hard resetting link

ata5: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata5: EH complete

It looked as if the logs were triggered by the DVD-RW drive. Observation about media players triggering these logs remains valid, though.

#9 EDIT:
"I was not able to boot my system with v3.18-rc1-utopic (...)" -> "I was not able to boot my system with v3.18-rc2-utopic (...)"

I have a similar issue on Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca Cinnamon 64-bit. I didn't have such issue on Mint 14.

my dmesg spits out quite a lot.
I am thinking this is related to how my system becomes super irresponsive sometimes

running Ubuntu 16.04.1

I'm faced with this issue using ubuntu 16.04, Kernel 4.4.0-53

Replacing the SATA cable fixed this issue for me.