[SOLVED] Motherboard Died

2aprepper · 08-30-2022, 02:19 PM

I have an older ATHLON II PC that I've been using as a headless file and music server for a few years. Ubuntu 20.04 is the OS. It has two hard disk drives plus an external USB storage device. It took me a long time to get it configured just right the way I want it and it has been running well. This morning its motherboard died. I need to replace it. I realize I'm going to have to go through some painful reconfiguration once I do replace the MOBO but I want to minimize that as much as possible. I'm going to get a new barebones PC - no drives or graphics card as I have those. I'll probably need new RAM and of course a more modern CPU. I guess my questions are as follows:

Can someone else who's been in this position give me an idea of what I'm in for?
What would be the least painful way to go about this?
Any recommendations as to a good barebones system to look at?

Thanks in advance. I really appreciate any ideas you may have.

Dave S.

TB0ne · 08-30-2022, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2aprepper

I have an older ATHLON II PC that I've been using as a headless file and music server for a few years. Ubuntu 20.4 is the OS. It has two hard disk drives plus an external USB storage device. It took me a long time to get it configured just right the way I want it and it has been running well. This morning its motherboard died. I need to replace it. I realize I'm going to have to go through some painful reconfiguration once I do replace the MOBO but I want to minimize that as much as possible. I'm going to get a new barebones PC - no drives or graphics card as I have those. I'll probably need new RAM and of course a more modern CPU. I guess my questions are as follows:

Can someone else who's been in this position give me an idea of what I'm in for? What would be the least painful way to go about this? Any recommendations as to a good barebones system to look at?

Can't recommend a system, but unless you've got some specific RAID setup with the two drives, you should just be able to plug them into the new system and boot. I would *STRONGLY* recommend disconnecting the external disc, and using a USB-to-SATA enclosure (usually about $20) to make backups of your data if you don't already have them, before you plug the drives in 'for real'. Boot from a live USB stick, plug in the drive(s), and make your backups. And again, unless you have RAID, plug in the two internal drives and fire it up. It may "just work". Test first, then plug in external USB.

Beyond that, should be fairly easy. And these days you can get a decent MOBO with good integrated graphics (you're running headless, so that doesn't even matter), pretty cheap. I'd suggest getting a whole system, since the power supply is probably getting old as well. I've seen barebones systems for $199, that have case, PSU, MOBO with integrated audio/video/wifi/bluetooth. No memory or CPU, but you can spec those as you wish.

2aprepper · 08-30-2022, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TB0ne

Can't recommend a system, but unless you've got some specific RAID setup with the two drives, you should just be able to plug them into the new system and boot. I would *STRONGLY* recommend disconnecting the external disc, and using a USB-to-SATA enclosure (usually about $20) to make backups of your data if you don't already have them, before you plug the drives in 'for real'. Boot from a live USB stick, plug in the drive(s), and make your backups. And again, unless you have RAID, plug in the two internal drives and fire it up. It may "just work". Test first, then plug in external USB.

Beyond that, should be fairly easy. And these days you can get a decent MOBO with good integrated graphics (you're running headless, so that doesn't even matter), pretty cheap. I'd suggest getting a whole system, since the power supply is probably getting old as well. I've seen barebones systems for $199, that have case, PSU, MOBO with integrated audio/video/wifi/bluetooth. No memory or CPU, but you can spec those as you wish.

Not running a RAID so there's one less thing to deal with. This computer is the backup for my other systems and it's redundant at that so I'm not losing any data. It's just the entire Ubuntu system and all the particular settings for everything. I run a DLNA music server on it as well as a couple of databases for local apps we use in our business. The DBs are clones of a main DB that's off site so even that data is recoverable.

I'm curious why you suggest using the USB-to-SATA enclosure.

Thank you for your advice. It is well received and very much appreciated.

Dave S.

uteck · 08-30-2022, 09:17 PM

You should be able to plug the new drives into the new mobo, but the system will still have the configuration of the old nic stored.
to remove it delete /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules then reboot so the system makes a new config file.
Your system should then just work, unless the name of the new nic is not matching other configs for other services, then you have to update their config with the new name.

Crippled · 08-31-2022, 12:25 AM

2aprepper, there are two ways you can go about it depending on your budget. You can purchase a prebuilt desktop mid tower which would be the easiest and least expensive or you can build your own computer from scratch like I have done 4 times so far. Building it yourself will get you better performance and easier to upgrade in increments in the future if you choose your hardware wisely as well being very satisfying build it. Get at least a mid tower case but I recommend a full tower case if you can find one you like for better cooling and easier to work on. Be careful on who the manufacture of the hardware because some that have been known for high quality have dropped in quality. I recommend going with going with Gigabyte for your motherboard and stat away from MSI and ASUS if you want a reliable machine. Don't cheap out on a power supply. As for RAM I would stay away from RAM from Corsair. The rest you probably be O.K. with. Just make sure you check your temperatures in case you need an aftermarket CPU cooler which then I would recommend getting a Noctua NH-D15S which I found works great. This is my latest computer. This is my current computer that I have built.

Code:

System:    Kernel: 5.18.0-4mx-amd64 [5.18.16-1~mx21+1] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.18.0-4mx-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: Compiz 0.8.18 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21.2_x64 Wildflower October 20  2021 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: B450 AORUS ELITE serial: <filter> 
           UEFI: American Megatrends LLC. v: F64a date: 02/17/2022 
CPU:       Info: 8-Core model: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen+ family: 17 (23) 
           model-id: 8 stepping: 2 microcode: 800820D cache: L2: 4 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 118179 
           Speed: 2065 MHz min/max: 2200/3700 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2065 
           2: 2259 3: 2190 4: 2064 5: 2134 6: 2177 7: 2765 8: 2173 9: 1913 10: 2183 11: 2178 
           12: 2198 13: 2371 14: 2171 15: 2152 16: 2267 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected 
           Type: l1tf status: Not affected 
           Type: mds status: Not affected 
           Type: meltdown status: Not affected 
           Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected 
           Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: disabled, RSB 
           filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds status: Not affected 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: AMD Baffin [Radeon RX 550 640SP / RX 560/560X] vendor: XFX Pine 
           driver: amdgpu v: kernel bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:67ff class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: compiz v: 0.8.18 driver: loaded: amdgpu 
           display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x286mm (20.0x11.3") 
           s-diag: 583mm (23") 
           Monitor-1: HDMI-A-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 85 size: 575x323mm (22.6x12.7") 
           diag: 660mm (26") 
           Monitor-2: DVI-D-0 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 82 size: 598x336mm (23.5x13.2") 
           diag: 686mm (27") 
           OpenGL: 
           renderer: Radeon RX 550 Series (POLARIS11 DRM 3.46.0 5.18.0-4mx-amd64 LLVM 11.0.1) 
           v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.5 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: AMD Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / RX 560/560X] vendor: XFX Pine 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 07:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aae0 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 09:00.3 chip-ID: 1022:1457 class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.18.0-4mx-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: f000 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: wgpia0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 7.74 TiB used: 6.48 TiB (83.7%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 model: PCIe SSD size: 476.94 GiB block-size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> 
           rev: ECFM22.9 temp: 27.9 C scheme: GPT 
           ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HUS728T8TALE6L4 
           size: 7.28 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD 
           rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> rev: W414 scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 475.67 GiB size: 467.14 GiB (98.21%) used: 16.55 GiB (3.5%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/dm-0 maj-min: 253:0 mapped: root.fsm 
           ID-2: /boot raw-size: 1024 MiB size: 973.4 MiB (95.06%) used: 208.6 MiB (21.4%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 
           ID-3: /boot/efi raw-size: 256 MiB size: 252 MiB (98.46%) used: 274 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat 
           dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 
           ID-4: /home raw-size: 7.25 TiB size: 7.2 TiB (99.20%) used: 6.46 TiB (89.8%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/dm-1 maj-min: 253:1 mapped: 1.home.fsm 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 24.01 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/dm-2 maj-min: 253:2 mapped: swap 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 41.2 C mobo: 16.8 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 48.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 282 
Repos:     Packages: 2524 note: see --pkg apt: 2515 lib: 1325 flatpak: 9 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
Info:      Processes: 381 Uptime: 12h 18m wakeups: 1 Memory: 23.4 GiB used: 2.93 GiB (12.5%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 10.2.1 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: UEFI

2aprepper · 08-31-2022, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by uteck

You should be able to plug the new drives into the new mobo, but the system will still have the configuration of the old nic stored.
to remove it delete /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules then reboot so the system makes a new config file.
Your system should then just work, unless the name of the new nic is not matching other configs for other services, then you have to update their config with the new name.

That's what I was hoping for - sorta plug-n-play more or less. Thank you.

2aprepper · 08-31-2022, 09:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crippled

2aprepper, there are two ways you can go about it depending on your budget. You can purchase a prebuilt desktop mid tower which would be the easiest and least expensive or you can build your own computer from scratch like I have done 4 times so far. Building it yourself will get you better performance and easier to upgrade in increments in the future if you choose your hardware wisely as well being very satisfying build it. Get at least a mid tower case but I recommend a full tower case if you can find one you like for better cooling and easier to work on. Be careful on who the manufacture of the hardware because some that have been known for high quality have dropped in quality. I recommend going with going with Gigabyte for your motherboard and stat away from MSI and ASUS if you want a reliable machine. Don't cheap out on a power supply. As for RAM I would stay away from RAM from Corsair. The rest you probably be O.K. with. Just make sure you check your temperatures in case you need an aftermarket CPU cooler which then I would recommend getting a Noctua NH-D15S which I found works great. This is my latest computer. This is my current computer that I have built.

. . .

Back in my college days I worked for a small computer company near the campus. We built hundreds of XTs and 286 when they were the hot ticket item. Then 386 (sx) and all those came out and we forged ahead with those. I personally built dozens and dozens of the above platforms. Of course back then it wasn't so complicated. Things were more standardized and there weren't that many choices. Nowadays - crazy!

I have similar components selected for my build. I don't need mega-gaming performance or anything like that so I can get off a little cheaper. Some of the stuff I'm seeing on Newegg and elsewhere are crazy expensive. Some of those cases are out of this world!

I assume you've had bad experiences with the brands you mentioned?

TB0ne · 08-31-2022, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2aprepper

Not running a RAID so there's one less thing to deal with. This computer is the backup for my other systems and it's redundant at that so I'm not losing any data. It's just the entire Ubuntu system and all the particular settings for everything. I run a DLNA music server on it as well as a couple of databases for local apps we use in our business. The DBs are clones of a main DB that's off site so even that data is recoverable.

I'm curious why you suggest using the USB-to-SATA enclosure.

Would only recommend it if you didn't have backups. Just the safest way to go, since you could boot a live distro from USB, plug the hard drive in and have it available to back up. Plugging it into the MOBO before that could (unlikely) cause corruption...just being safe.

And uteck makes a great point about the network config...those interfaces are going to be different, so you'll have to reconfigure them.

Crippled · 08-31-2022, 10:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2aprepper

Back in my college days I worked for a small computer company near the campus. We built hundreds of XTs and 286 when they were the hot ticket item. Then 386 (sx) and all those came out and we forged ahead with those. I personally built dozens and dozens of the above platforms. Of course back then it wasn't so complicated. Things were more standardized and there weren't that many choices. Nowadays - crazy!

I have similar components selected for my build. I don't need mega-gaming performance or anything like that so I can get off a little cheaper. Some of the stuff I'm seeing on Newegg and elsewhere are crazy expensive. Some of those cases are out of this world!

I assume you've had bad experiences with the brands you mentioned?

Yes, with my latest build. My first 3 computer builds had ASUS motherboards that were great and the specs were correct from the manufacture unlike my last computer build which ASUS lied that it had RAID which it didn't. What it had was a software RAID that you had to download and only worked on Windows. A software RAID is a FAKE RAID. The previous ASUS motherboards had hardware RAID arrays. ASUS support was horrible as it took 13 phone calls from them to admit that it didn't have RAID. That motherboard started causing kernel panics after 11 months which I couldn't find the problem until the motherboard was 13 months old when it completely fail because the computer wouldn't boot anymore. Then I installed a MSI motherboard that the first one went up in smoke when I attempted to boot the computer the first time. BestBuy gave me another one which lasted less than 2 months. MSI is complete garbage worse than ASUS. One of the Corsair RAM modules failed in less than 2 years. I never experienced such poor quality hardware on my previous 3 computer builds.
As for my computer build, it's not for gaming because I don't game. I just wanted a fast computer that I can do incremental upgrades. I ran a RAID 10 before on it but it gets expensive when you want to upgrade storage space. That's why I went with an SSD for Boot and Root for speed and a HDD for the Home partition. I back up to an external HDD. Runs fast with MX21.2 Linux Xfce on it.

pan64 · 08-31-2022, 11:44 AM

an RPi4 or similar SBC can do the job.

2aprepper · 08-31-2022, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

an RPi4 or similar SBC can do the job.

I run an Rpi4 pie-hole. Great little computer.

2aprepper · 08-31-2022, 12:23 PM

My solution was to find a used MOBO that will accommodate all the hardware I presently have. Basically just swap that one in for the dead one. Same CPU and RAM - all should work well. Like you guys said - probably have to reconfigure the NIC but no big deal. I really can't justify the expense of a new build for this.

$95 solution - hope it works out.

Thanks you guys for your help.

Dave S.

2aprepper · 09-05-2022, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2aprepper

My solution was to find a used MOBO that will accommodate all the hardware I presently have. Basically just swap that one in for the dead one. Same CPU and RAM - all should work well. Like you guys said - probably have to reconfigure the NIC but no big deal. I really can't justify the expense of a new build for this.

$95 solution - hope it works out.

Thanks you guys for your help.

Dave S.

So I jumped the gun with this posting. Problem is NOT solved. I think I've narrowed it down to a dead CPU. The symptoms started after we had a planned power outage in the middle of the night. I came into the shop the next morning after power had been restored and this computer was not powered on - it has one of those digital switches (which I hate). This has happened before - sometimes the power will bounce suddenly and I always had to go out and turn this computer back on. Well this time, it did not turn on. So at first I thought maybe the PSU got fried. But in testing, that was not the case. I jumped the green wire to a black wire and all the connectors showed me the correct voltages. So next I checked the switch itself. It works. That led me to believe the MOBO had gone south - which it did - I spotted a vented capacitor - one of the 1800uf 6.3 volt ones. I had another one so I soldered it in. That did not solve the problem. So I got a new refurbished MOBO - STILL doesn't turn on. I even swapped out the switch with another one just to be sure. Nothing. I'm thinking that whatever caused that cap to vent also took out the CPU. Had to be a transient spike. We had one a few weeks ago during a thunderstorm which took out my main router and an access point router in out system. That's the only thing I can think of. I don't know any other thing to troubleshoot. The only thing in common is that CPU - Athlon II (socket AM2). I can't even find one for sale. The only ones I can find are socket AM3 or newer. Huge bummer because this was working just fine. I really didn't want to have to go spend a bunch of money on it.

Unless anyone can give me an idea of what else I might look at, I'm buying new.

Crippled · 09-05-2022, 02:16 PM

@2aprepper , since it seems like you are on a tight budget, buying a refurbished PC tower might be the least expensive way to go, or you can get a CPU motherboard combo. I would suggest you look around on here which way is the best way to go for you. https://www.newegg.com/

2aprepper · 09-05-2022, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crippled

@2aprepper , since it seems like you are on a tight budget, buying a refurbished PC tower might be the least expensive way to go, or you can get a CPU motherboard combo. I would suggest you look around on here which way is the best way to go for you. https://www.newegg.com/

Thanks Crippled - I did find a CPU on eBay for 6 bucks but I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and go new. I have a case, PSU, MOBO, RAM and a Ryzen 5 all spec'd out in my wish list on the Egg. I don't want to hassle with refurbished PCs. My budget isn't that tight but I just wanted to try and get through it as cheap as possible. This computer was one of the old ones we replaced a few years ago. I have it loaded with Ubuntu 20.04LTS, 8 TB of various storage devices and a shi*ton of software. Of course I never backed it up. It IS my backup! Fortunately we have critical stuff backed up off site.