IOATAController Error on Mac Pro

Question

Level 1

11 points

IOATAController Error on Mac Pro

I have a 2008 Mac Pro. About two weeks ago, it started freezing during the startup. After 9 days, the Apple Store decided it was a bad video card, which they would not replace, because it was not the original video card. I had bought a Nvidia upgrade video card from Apple to replace the original video card. Even so, they would not replace it because the video card was out of warranty just like the computer. I replaced the video card myself with an Apple branded Radeon 5870. It is working fine. I mention all this because I don't know if it is connected with my current problem.

About 15 minutes after startup, the console begins to report the following error every second:

"kernel: IOATAController device blocking bus"

I've noticed that until the error appears, I can open the optical drive bay. Once the error starts, I can no longer access the optical drive. I don't know if this is the cause of the error or a side effect.

Anyone has any knowledge of this error and how to fix or diagnose the problem? Thanks

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on Jul 8, 2012 9:08 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Jul 8, 2012 9:28 AM in response to Silica

The Hard drives are on a SATA Bus (unrelated).

The only things on the ATA Bus are the Optical drives.

Reply

Answer 2

Silica Author

Level 1

11 points

Jul 9, 2012 8:00 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks. Is there any way to know if the problem lies in the Superdrive itself or in the ATA controller on the mainboard? Other than putting in a new drive, that is. I unplugged the Superdrive, and the error message disappeared. But I don't think this necessarily means the drive is bad.

Reply

Answer 3

emacpro

Level 1

4 points

Dec 25, 2013 10:08 AM in response to Silica

I had this same issue for over a year! Toast would not open, unless I restarted my computer. I thought It was a RAM issue at first, but the problem kept occouring. I then bought a knew hard drive and reinstalled everything, but the problem reoccoured.. I read this artice and pulled that **** optical drive out and my computer runs like it did when I bought in 2008!🙂🙂

Thanks!

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac Pro

Model Identifier: MacPro3,1

Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon

Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz

Number of Processors: 2

Total Number of Cores: 8

L2 Cache (per Processor): 12 MB

Memory: 18 GB

Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MP31.006C.B05

SMC Version (system): 1.25f4

Serial Number (system): G880333GXYK

Hardware UUID: BDF0E84B-5A4A-566A-91C1-8CEA1BD818

Reply