Any ideas on this one?

[IGemini]

So, I set up the machine listed in my sig basically to serve as a backup HTPC/media server. I'm a Linux noob in general but I'm starting to learn my way around. Biggest challenge was getting the HDMI audio to work...apparently PulseAudio is quite unfriendly to nVidia HDA. I did get it to work through changing a few conf files and transferred video media I wanted to backup (a mix of DivX-type and mkv mp4s of varying quality), had not really run the machine a lot for a month or two. But all the media I had on there would play though XBMC, and without any issues.

Recently I ran it again and did a software update, but it seemed to freeze for a while (>20min) so I forced a reboot. Afterword it didn't seem to want boot into Mint so I got the new v12 Lisa build, but would throw a kernel panic after an otherwise successful install, or would show an I/O error on the hard drive. After that I swapped out the PSU thinking it might've failed (not unreasonable, it was a Hiper 520W that had already been replaced once, went to the TT RX 700W, both of which are way overpowered for this system), and pulled the hard drive and reformatted to NTFS on W7 and back to ext4 for Mint 12. Install worked this time, working on getting everything updated.

A bit complicated but as concise as I can make it. My theory is the file system got clobbered but the PSU is still suspect, I plan to test it soon. I'm just picking brains at this point, anyone else have any theories what went wrong?

 

[Nothinman]

Recently I ran it again and did a software update, but it seemed to freeze for a while (>20min) so I forced a reboot

Don't do that unless your'e 100% sure there's no other choice. And even then you should probably hit Alt+SysRQ+S to force a filesystem sync, Alt+SysRQ+U to attempt to unmount everything while watching your hard disk light to turn off and only then hit Alt+SysRQ+B to reboot.

A bit complicated but as concise as I can make it. My theory is the file system got clobbered but the PSU is still suspect, I plan to test it soon. I'm just picking brains at this point, anyone else have any theories what went wrong?

It definitely sounds like a hardware problem, but if you've got multiple suspect devices then you've just got to find a way to narrow it down.

 

[IGemini]

At the time I was sure I had no recourse but to reboot, but knowing the shortcuts is helpful, Linux is more plastic about drive function than Windows. I swapped the Hiper back in and it has been working well enough for the time being, managed to finish rebuilding my system with Mint 12 yesterday. The PSU is definitely on its last legs but that'll be replaced after the holiday, on powerup it sometimes has trouble delivering enough energy to POST.