[mythtv-users] Disk Report, Is this Still Safe to use? (Was: Muti-Year Installation Major Disk Corruption)

[Stephen P. Villano]

On 2/8/15 1:45 PM, Douglas Wagner wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 11:25 AM, Philip Brady
> <phil.brady at hotmail.co.uk <mailto:phil.brady at hotmail.co.uk>> wrote:
>
>     i
>
>     > Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2015 23:33:46 +1100
>     > From: michael at thewatsonfamily.id.au
>     <mailto:michael at thewatsonfamily.id.au>
>     > To: mythtv-users at mythtv.org <mailto:mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
>     > Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Disk Report, Is this Still Safe to
>     use? (Was: Muti-Year Installation Major Disk Corruption)
>     >
>     > On 5/02/2015 10:16 PM, Jan Ceuleers wrote:
>     > > Cabling?
>     > >
>     > Power Supply, Heat, Full Partition
>     >
>     inodes?
>     Phil
>
>
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>
> Wanted to get back to this in case someone else ran across this in the
> future and this can help them.
>
> Investigation continues but there's something SERIOUSLY wrong with the
> old PC I had my backend in.  I can't track down what it is, but I
> don't think it was drive.
>
> Both bad blocks and SMART tests (short and long) came back with no
> issues on the drive at all, given this thing is only about 6 - 7
> months old, I'm inclined to believe that there's nothing wrong with
> the drive...to the point I did a new build/restore to it.
>
> To touch on a few items:
>
> * Cabling: Unlikely, no frays and nothing has been inside this thing
> since I set it up a couple years ago.  I did check all the connections
> and they were solid.  I guess there's a possibility of a wire burning
> out, but I have my doubts, these cables look in pretty good condition.
> * Power Supply: There's a potential culpret, the PS is probably 3+
> years old at this point (maybe more).  Usually when I lose a PS I end
> up losing the system (simply "turns off" and won't turn on and/or the
> whole thing doesn't boot properly).  There is the possibility that
> it's just on an edge where there's only BARELY enough power making it
> out of the PS to keep the system alive.  It would explain a few things
> (see below).
> * Heat:  VERY unlikely an issue.  All fans are active and working
> properly and this case is a top of the line Antec from a few years
> ago.  I ran my main gaming desktop out of this case for the better
> part of 4 years...if THAT wasn't going to overheat, this unlikely would.
> * Bad Memory:  Here again is a possibility.  I didn't get a chance to
> run memtest on it, I may go back and do so just to see what I can
> figure out.
>
> Reinstall:
> ----------------------
> So I went ahead and started the process of re-installation.  After
> determining the HD didn't look like it was at fault, I decided to just
> use the old hardware and see what I could do with it.
>
> That's when I ran into the installation errors.  LOTS of installation
> errors, across pretty much every version and implementation of
> Mythbuntu I could try. 
>
> * USB Key Install:  Mythbuntu 14.04 - I must have tried this 10 times
> in different iterations.  It'd get through the download/copy of
> packages and (I think) start the actual install of them (something
> about building a list of packages on the CD?  Whatever the step is in
> the install after the "copying packages" part) and the installer would
> core dump/seg fault on me, every time.
>
> * CD Install: Mythbuntu 14.04 - Same issue as above.  Also got several
> reports from one of the subsystems during the install that it was
> failing / dumping all throughout the process before the installer
> finally crashed on me.
>
> * USB Key Install:  Mythbuntu 12.04 - Decided to go back to 12.04 and
> see if I could make IT install properly..maybe my hardware is too old
> for 14.04 to work well?  *BUZZZZT* nope, that didn't work either. 
> Same core dumps/seg faults in the installation.
>
> I skipped trying to CD install of 12.04 as by this point I was pretty
> convinced something was wrong.
>
> Moved everything over to a secondary Linux system (Del Optiplex 740) I
> "inherited" from someone a while back and installation went through
> flawlessly...first time, no issues. 
>
> As if that wasn't enough to point a finger at some other piece of
> hardware on the box, I ended up dropping the Dell's drives (I swapped
> the Myth backend drives for the Dell drives and visa versa, in essence
> switching systems) back into the failed Mythbackend's box and booting
> it.  System came up, but is only stable for about an hour or two till
> I get some kind of kernel panic with it literally just sitting there. 
> If I happen to go into X (actually log in), it happens in about 5  10
> minutes of use.
>
> Kernel panic seems to indicate some kind of issue with CPU, I also
> thought I saw some kind of error with graphics card. 
>
> Given all this, I'm inclined to believe one of a couple things:
>
> * Power Supply:  My Primary suspicion is, given the age of the box,
> there's a potential that the PS is just not supplying enough power to
> the system anymore...causing all the misfires.
> * Motherboard:  My secondary suspicion is that the Motherboard has
> given up the ghost.  Given the kernel panics and seg faults I was
> getting during installation on this box, I wonder if there's not just
> something broken with the MB itself...could account for the CPU and
> Video Card Errors.
>
> I suppose it COULD be the CPU that's broken, but I've never seen a CPU
> give out (It's got a hella good aftermarket cooler on it).  I don't
> think the video card is to blame (I can't see where the video card
> would be the culpret in all the issues) but maybe I'm not looking at
> something right.
>
> Anyway it goes, the old Myth box is pretty much ADR (Ain't Doin'
> Right) and at the moment, I just don't have a whole lot of need to
> take that diagnosis any farther than I already have.
>
> --Doug
>
>
In my experience, a power supply can mimic motherboard and memory errors
and do really interesting things to a filesystem. Another good mimic is
heat, you said you had a good aftermarket heatsink/fan combo, is it full
of dust? If it gets dust clogged, it won't do its job and you'll get
errors as the CPU actually does work and heats up.
Frankly, it's a bit of a toss up, but I'd shoot for a power supply
first, after inspecting the CPU heatsink to be sure it's clear of dust.
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