[Tfug] Check file system and restore array

[Timothy D. Lenz]

Grub as always given an error about the floppy at boot. It does a drive 
seek, then says something like fd0 error, then boots from the hard 
drives. The cpu is an AMD Athlon 64x2 4200+ dual core. Motherboard is 
Asus M2N-E. And yes it runs 24x7 and is on a UPS. I built 2 of these, 
one for me and one for my dad, but then he decided to just use hulu. The 
one I built for him just has 2 WD 500Gb, drives in raid 1 and basicly 
the same cpu, only a 5000. How I ended up building that second system is 
another long story not really relevent cept it is the reason I will 
never buy another asus motherboard. His system was built with 32bit 
linux, mine was built with 64bit. Oh, and I built my system in a 4U rack 
case with very good cooling.

Buying anymore new hardware is not an option. I spent more then I could 
afford already on this problem when it was in the shop. Mixing parts is 
also not much of an option, The board in his system won't boot with ECC 
memory set to ECC. Won't get past post if ECC is turned on in cmos. It 
also doesn't reconize this cpu correctly. They screwed somethings up in 
the newer bios it has.

I did get the old power supply back, but I just put it away. I have 
worked on switch mode power supplies many times in VCRs and once parts 
start going bad in them, it's best not to bother with it. I know about 
caps testing ok, even looking ok, no domed tops, swrunk skin etc. It 
takes a $1000 cap checker to properly test them. The high frequency 
heats them internally drying them out. Always use 105 degree rated caps 
in switch modes.

I think any extra drives I have laying around are IDE. They may not show 
a problem if it's a sata problem. I'd have to dig around and see what I 
have. Would be good to have for testing new kernel builds though 
sometime down the road.

On 2/9/2013 2:05 PM, Bexley Hall wrote:
> Hi Timothy,
>
> On 2/9/2013 1:19 PM, Timothy D. Lenz wrote:
>> Looks like I might have some time in the next few days to work on this,
>> the reason I found and joined this list. Sorry for the long post, alot
>> of info to explain where it's at. I'm sure there is detail not needed
>> and stuff needed I I left out. Always seems to be.
>
> Before you go too far down this road, convince yourself that the
> *machine* is basically "sound".  Too many "apparently unrelated"
> problems mentioned here (disks, floppy, power supply).
>
> [Granted, floppies that sit idle for *long* periods of time can
> develop problems -- but most of those can fix themselves with
> a bit of "exercise".  If the floppy is *that* bad, I get suspicious
> of other issues...]
>
> I'm guessing machine runs 24/7/364 (shutdown for XMAS!  :> ).
> How old is it?  Approximate "vintage" technology?
>
> Any machine that misbehaves and has more than a year on the clock
> I immediately check for bad caps (typ the bulk decoupling caps
> proximate to the processor).  This could also have been the
> "problem" with the power supply (if you have the old supply, you
> could disassemble it and check -- but I suspect you didn't get
> that back from the shop).
>
> [Unfortunately, caps can often be hard to identify as "suspect"
> (though certain brands are more prone to failure) unless you
> have a good eye.  Even then, a cap can *look* perfect and still
> "test bad" (very hard to test in situ)]
>
> Pull the drives -- carefully noting which is which -- and install
> *a* scrap drives in the machine and see if it runs reliably
> (with less load on the *new* power supply).  If that appears to
> work, add more drives and see if it *continues* to run normally.
>
> [You can always recover the "old" system so long as you don't
> dick with those drives that you've set *aside*!]
>
> Nothing worse than rebuilding a system only to discover the
> hardware is unreliable!
>
> G'luck!
> --don
>
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