[rangor gubbins]

Dear all,
I hope you can help as this is becoming really annoying now. My XBMCbuntu installations keep becoming corrupted (at least i think that is what is happening). They work for a while, then one day i go to turn it on and XBMC fails to start, i reset and then am greeted with the GRUB2 menu. It gives me a few options: load current installation, load the previous installation, or memtest. I've tried all and none gets it working again.
On a few occasions I have seen this type of text come up on the screen while XBMC is trying to start (see screenshots).




Anyone got any suggestions or seen this before?

I have reinstalled XBMCbuntu from newly burned CDs made from newly downloaded XBMCbuntu 11.0 .iso a few times and after a few months same thing happens.
I have memtested the RAM
Changed hard disk (now using an SSD)

Hardware specs:
mobo = gigabyte MA78GM-S2H
CPU = AMD 4050e
GPU = onboard 3200 ATI
2 GB of RAM
SSD = Kingston 60GB V+200 SSD (for OS)
HDD = 1TB WD ecodrive (for media)
Housed in a Antec Veris (the one with the iMon remote + LCD screen - which I've never managed to get to work with XBMCbuntu).

My thoughts are that its a hardware problem, either the mobo or CPU (RAM and disks have been replaced), or maybe the PSU? I normally leave the HTPC in sleep mode, sometimes left for a long time. Could this be a cause? Does XBMCbuntu auto-update? Could this be corrupting something? Anyone else got any ideas?

[Aenima99x]

Possibly the mobo is bad? Have you tried ports for the SSD & HDD?

[nickr]

Could be a duff hard drive too - there are lots of errors on ATA3.

Try booting from the CD and see if this works. Then you can do some tests on the hard drive from the live cd environment.

[rangor gubbins]

Yeah, my feeling is its the mobo as well.
I've tried two different drives for the OS and same problem with both (and both drives checked out ok after testing them outside the HTPC).

I haven't tried booting from the CD recently, but when this has happened before it would boot from the CD ok, and afterwards when i tried booting from the HDD again it had somehow come back to life and worked again for a while.

[FishOil]

Boot from CD and memtest

[rangor gubbins]

I've already memtested the memory both in the HTPC and in my desktop and it passed.
Could leaving it in sleep mode for extended periods cause the OS to become corrupted? Am i right in thinking that sleep mode stores the 'desktop' in the RAM?

[negge]

This may sound lame but often in cases like this replacing the SATA cables will help. Have you tried that?

[rangor gubbins]

Nope, not thought of that. I'll give it a go though.
Think I'll try using different sata sockets and new cables. If it corrupts again, its time for new hardware.

Any comments on these components:
Asus GT 610 1GB DDR3 DVI HDMI PCI-E Graphics Card - £26
Intel Celeron G530 2.40GHz Socket 1155 2MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £32
Crucial 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10600 Memory Kit CL9 1.5V - £16
Asus P8H61-MX R2.0 Socket 1155 8 Channel HD Audio mATX Motherboard - £35

[negge]

Can't speak for the rest but the GPU will do fine.

[un1versal]

Zotac ID84