how to prove power surge damage
I have a server and several workstations.
Last week, everything starting going slow and not working properly.
Settings were effected, systems shutting down, etc.
On the server, there showed in the event log that it shut off at 5:20am and restarted.
That morning is when things started messing up. There was also an lightening storm
that night and morning. The Server was on a battery backup ups that when I unplugged
it from the wall, it made a pop sound [ server was not plugged in ] and then seemed to start
its backup power - it is over 4 years old.
The hard drives were functioning, but with errors and slowly.
When I did a ChkDsk on the weekend, they showed bad sectors non repairable and
then shutdown. I was able to recover the info from doing a copy of the drives and
backup the night before [ luckily ]. I had an old cloned drive that I replaced the old drives with
and restored the data to current.
Also during last week some workstations started acting the same way.
5 out of 15 did this. I did not want to run anything during the week, so on this
weekend I did. I ran chkdsk and 5 came back the same way with bad sectors.
1 this morning stopped completely and will not boot at all.
I also scanned the systems prior to running the chkdsk and they had no infections.
So, with all that info, how would I prove that this is a power surge?
That is the only explaination that I have for the so many systems to be effected and what has
happened since these systems are all new - less than a year old - and it only happened to a handful not all of them.
thanks for helping me play detective.
Last week, everything starting going slow and not working properly.
Settings were effected, systems shutting down, etc.
On the server, there showed in the event log that it shut off at 5:20am and restarted.
That morning is when things started messing up. There was also an lightening storm
that night and morning. The Server was on a battery backup ups that when I unplugged
it from the wall, it made a pop sound [ server was not plugged in ] and then seemed to start
its backup power - it is over 4 years old.
The hard drives were functioning, but with errors and slowly.
When I did a ChkDsk on the weekend, they showed bad sectors non repairable and
then shutdown. I was able to recover the info from doing a copy of the drives and
backup the night before [ luckily ]. I had an old cloned drive that I replaced the old drives with
and restored the data to current.
Also during last week some workstations started acting the same way.
5 out of 15 did this. I did not want to run anything during the week, so on this
weekend I did. I ran chkdsk and 5 came back the same way with bad sectors.
1 this morning stopped completely and will not boot at all.
I also scanned the systems prior to running the chkdsk and they had no infections.
So, with all that info, how would I prove that this is a power surge?
That is the only explaination that I have for the so many systems to be effected and what has
happened since these systems are all new - less than a year old - and it only happened to a handful not all of them.
thanks for helping me play detective.
ASKER
even if the ups is bad or defective? i know that it is said that the UPS's loose
their protection ability over time due to continueous use?
i will check all these. i would have to install the software to check the UPS
correct? being over 4 years old, i did not see any downloads on APC's website.
their protection ability over time due to continueous use?
i will check all these. i would have to install the software to check the UPS
correct? being over 4 years old, i did not see any downloads on APC's website.
ASKER
power company says no power surges - but the insurance company states there are a lot of claims in the area?
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ASKER
metal case
If the kit is that new, it should be under warranty anyway. AFAIK, the only issue will be if the supplier doesn't want to honour this warranty, claiming "Act Of God". Then, it would be down to them to prove the power surge as a result of the storm was the fault. If the power company say there was no surge, then they'll have to supply the replacements.
The issue for you is to get the kit replaced, so just take the simplest solution to this.
The issue for you is to get the kit replaced, so just take the simplest solution to this.
From what I read the only problem is data corruption, warranty won't cover that if the disk manufacturer's software can spare out the corrupted blocks. It really does sound like the disk heads picked up an electric field and "wrote" it to disk. You'd expect other damage from a power surge like PSUs blown rather than only crashed disks.
ASKER
thanks
-- If the UPS is a smart one, run the interface software and see if it logged any transients.
-- Call the power company and ask if they have records from the nearest substation.
-- Open the computer power supplies (thus breaking any warranty) and look for a damaged MOV across the input. Not all computer power supplies are so equipped.
-- Open any surge arrestors in the building (breaking any warranty and probably the surge arrestors too) and look for damaged MOVs.
Something I find curious is that anything running from a UPS should not have been affected. All reputable UPSs are designed to fail safe and isolate their loads for anything short of a direct hit.