Need HW troubleshooting/fix advice -- BIOS vs motherboard vs HD

[ddaupert]

Friends and neighbors,

Few months back my APC battery backup failed concurrent with a power surge. Seems the BIOS was affected. First boot attempt failed. After that, I was able to enter BIOS, select the harddrive holding system files, and then the system boots. Now the system will not boot up normally. I have to do that procedure every time.

Lately I'm getting popup messages that HD failure may be coming, but no specification of which of two HDs I have. Also, the system is getting more unstable, so some sort of doom approaches.

But when I run command line checks on each HD I get OK reports on both.

So I'm thinking. Maybe the popup HD failure messages are bogus? Maybe first try flashing the BIOS? Not sure how -- I don't run windows, and the manufacturer doesn't make BIOS flash tools available for Linux.

I'm open to ideas.

specs:
Motherboard: ECS Golden Z77H2-A2X(1.0) LGA 1155 Intel Z77
SSD: 256G|CRUCIAL CT256M4SSD2CCA R
HHD: WD AV-25 1 TB AV 2.5 Inch, 5400 RPM, SATA II, 16 MB Cache - WD10JUCT

Thanks.

Dennis

[aht0]

I'd suspect PSU. It's always the first thing hit in a power surge and it's connected to the rest of the system. Some component in it gets damaged/hurt and whole system would start acting up funny, with you suspecting random other components. Because PSU, well, appears to be working (powering system up). And I've once seen "have to select boot device manually"-thing.. 150W low-power PSU died in my AMD AM1 system some weeks later. Since you did not list yours, you haven't probably thought on yours. Fluctuating power may be also what's triggering warnings about HDDs (check when exactly you are getting such warnings. Is your machine under load or idling)

If you have spare PSU lying around, try replacing it, see if the system is still unstable.

You could try flashing BIOS using bootable DOS or FreeDOS memstick. Not sure if ECS is offering DOS utilities for BIOS flashing, most manufacturers do though. DOS is nice for flashing because it allows direct hardware access.

[ddaupert]

You are correct, I did not suspect PSU. Given some of the instabilities that are stacking up, the thought would not cross my mind. Cut and paste from one app to another is getting iffy. When I try to download some file using a browser and place it in some directory or another, I cannot maneuver through the file system. Couple days ago audio stopped working.

I appreciate your suggestions very much. I do not have another PSU to swap in, so will need to figure out some other way to check it. If nothing else, perhaps a local PC fixit shop can test it. Regarding the flash situation, I'm not sure if ECS does supply a DOS utility. Their support download page asks the user to first select which windows OS is in use; then the associated link will appear. I suspect the utilities are intended for use from within a running windows session, rather than at the DOS level. But I'll tuck the info away that you gave about a bootable DOS or FreeDOS memstick. That may very well come in handy.

[aht0]

Are there any ways for you to monitor the voltages in your system? Power fluctuations as a rule should not exceed 5% under and 10% over the defined voltages. In such limits system should work fine.

What's the make and model of current PSU?

Downloading, file browsing and copy paste issues are related to HDDs but also may very well be caused by PSU not giving them enough juice. Any way to check those HDDs in another system, separately?

[torsionbar28]

Few months back my APC battery backup failed concurrent with a power surge.

These APC battery backups have surprisingly poor surge protection ratings. The cheapest dollar store no-name surge protector offers better surge protection than a high-end APC battery backup. It's surprising, I too was shocked (pun intended) when I first learned of this. The APC Backup Pro 1500 that I used to own (it too was fried in a thunderstorm) is rated for only 354 Joules of surge protection. For $19, you can get a surge strip from Tripp Lite that offers 2160 Joules of protection.

Battery backups are designed for power loss, not for power surge. To get the best of both worlds, I now plug my UPS into a quality surge protector rather than directly into the wall.