[SOLVED] HP Z220 SFF Workstation System-wide failure, want to know root cause

[Fatalzo]

For about 2 years I have been using an upgraded SFF Z220 from HP.

SPECS:
Case - Z220 SFF Workstation Case (the one meant to lie on its side like a pancake rather than a tower)
DVD - Stock DVD drive
RAM - 16GB Vengeance RAM
HDD - Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB
Motherboard: Stock Motherboard
PSU: Stock PSU
CPU: Intel Core I5-3470 @ 3.2 GHZ
GPU: MSI GeForce GT710 2GB
Casefan: None (Z220 doesn't come with one)
CPU Cooler: Stock Cooler
Monitor: HP 24yh
(By stock I mean the propietary ones that come with the computer (in this case components for the Z220 PC))

However, about 2 months ago, there was a power surge while I was playing a game on it!
The day after (and to this day) it has been occasionally making weird beeping and grinding noises from time to time.
Also, starting about a month ago, vertical lines started appearing on the screen at random - it could happen when I was playing Scrap Mechanic or just surfing the web.
About a week ago, data started getting severe corruptions - certain animations in games started going crazy, Scrap Mechanic wouldn't launch half the time, and when it did, the text would look like fuzz, and the start menu has had weird EXE icons from time to time.
A few days ago, the screen started flickering at random.
Today it has been making several more strange sounds, it's been seriously slowing down and the CPU is at a constant 20% for some reason.

The hard drive bay has been getting really hot during use, and it almost has a sort of smell to it while it runs, sort of like when you turn on a space heater. I imagine that's not healthy...

With how it's running, it's a miracle it even boots anymore.

But I want to know, what is causing this? I would like to believe the power outage just messed with my disk, but a failing disk wouldn't cause the GPU to act up and the DVD drive to completely die...

Oh yeah, the PC doesn't even recognise the DVD drive anymore. Well it does, but only sometimes. And that's not important because it doesn't open and it also cannot read the disk that is now forever stuck in there.

 

[Bob.B]

For about 2 years I have been using an upgraded SFF Z220 from HP.

SPECS:
Case - Z220 SFF Workstation Case (the one meant to lie on its side like a pancake rather than a tower)
DVD - Stock DVD drive
RAM - 16GB Vengeance RAM
HDD - Western Digital WD10EZEX 1TB
Motherboard: Stock Motherboard
PSU: Stock PSU
CPU: Intel Core I5-3470 @ 3.2 GHZ
GPU: MSI GeForce GT710 2GB
Casefan: None (Z220 doesn't come with one)
CPU Cooler: Stock Cooler
Monitor: HP 24yh
(By stock I mean the propietary ones that come with the computer (in this case components for the Z220 PC))

However, about 2 months ago, there was a power surge while I was playing a game on it!
The day after (and to this day) it has been occasionally making weird beeping and grinding noises from time to time.
Also, starting about a month ago, vertical lines started appearing on the screen at random - it could happen when I was playing Scrap Mechanic or just surfing the web.
About a week ago, data started getting severe corruptions - certain animations in games started going crazy, Scrap Mechanic wouldn't launch half the time, and when it did, the text would look like fuzz, and the start menu has had weird EXE icons from time to time.
A few days ago, the screen started flickering at random.
Today it has been making several more strange sounds, it's been seriously slowing down and the CPU is at a constant 20% for some reason.

The hard drive bay has been getting really hot during use, and it almost has a sort of smell to it while it runs, sort of like when you turn on a space heater. I imagine that's not healthy...

With how it's running, it's a miracle it even boots anymore.

But I want to know, what is causing this? I would like to believe the power outage just messed with my disk, but a failing disk wouldn't cause the GPU to act up and the DVD drive to completely die...

Oh yeah, the PC doesn't even recognise the DVD drive anymore. Well it does, but only sometimes. And that's not important because it doesn't open and it also cannot read the disk that is now forever stuck in there.

Take the cover off the case and run your games see if anything changes.

 

[Fatalzo]

Take the cover off the case and run your games see if anything changes.

Nothing changes, apart from the fans spinning up.

We tried this before to see if something was wrong with that regard, but the only thing that happens internally with the case off is that we see the fans revving up.

The fans spin a lot slower that way, but probably due to increased ventillation - Despite the reduced heat, the problems still occur.

 

[Bob.B]

Nothing changes, apart from the fans spinning up.

We tried this before to see if something was wrong with that regard, but the only thing that happens internally with the case off is that we see the fans revving up.

I think you will need to start swapping parts.
But first run a pass of chkdsk with the R option.
When it finishes take a look at the log file.

 

[punkncat]

So far as I am aware that case still has a motherboard video output, yes?

Boot to BIOS and check to see if the iGPU/GPU selection is set to auto, if there is such feature.

Take out the video card, connect to the motherboard and see if anything changes.
I personally suspect a PSU problem in relation to the power surge. Taking out the card is going to free some overhead on what I suspect is a failing power supply. It may make no difference at all...
Might also be a good idea if you happen to have another drive around, and particularly an SSD to consider a replacement of the smelly HDD. You could attempt to boot from an install USB, but system requirements during that are low enough to mask some issues.
Might be worthwhile to check the health of the storage drive and see if Windows is already throwing an error on it.
Check Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor for info as well.

 

[Fatalzo]

I think you will need to start swapping parts.
But first run a pass of chkdsk with the R option.
When it finishes take a look at the log file.
[/QUOTE

So far as I am aware that case still has a motherboard video output, yes?

Boot to BIOS and check to see if the iGPU/GPU selection is set to auto, if there is such feature.

Take out the video card, connect to the motherboard and see if anything changes.
I personally suspect a PSU problem in relation to the power surge. Taking out the card is going to free some overhead on what I suspect is a failing power supply. It may make no difference at all...
Might also be a good idea if you happen to have another drive around, and particularly an SSD to consider a replacement of the smelly HDD. You could attempt to boot from an install USB, but system requirements during that are low enough to mask some issues.
Might be worthwhile to check the health of the storage drive and see if Windows is already throwing an error on it.
Check Event Viewer and Reliability Monitor for info as well.

I'm confused as to how a power surge would kill a PSU.
I don't have any spare parts. I will run a Chkdsk.
Nonetheless, the PC does have an external SSD which also has weird corruption, and trying to get a video output from the motherboard is worthless - it's even more garbled and corrupted.

Interestingly, the motherboard's IGPU has always been messed up - It's really stretched and colors are messed up, and there is occasional artifacting of colors and textures swapping eachother.

 

[punkncat]

To be fair, I would not chase this with money. Consider that SFF refurbs are plentiful and still cheap. You could replace this system in the $80-$120 range. Throw in an SSD and be up and running again.

 

[Fatalzo]

To be fair, I would not chase this with money. Consider that SFF refurbs are plentiful and still cheap. You could replace this system in the $80-$120 range. Throw in an SSD and be up and running again.

I did a CHKDSK and it said 0KB in bad sectors. That's good!

Anyway, the SSD also seems to be corrupted (albeit slightly less) so I feel like it's more of a CPU/Motherboard issue.

Interesting note - after the chkdsk, I had to start Event Viewer 4 times because it kept complaining about "snap-ins" and "mmc" and crashing.

More clues linking to the motherboard/CPU being the culprit is that the corruptions are quite random - sometimes I will open a textfile and it will be random garbled garbage, and other times it will be just fine.

With the screwed up IGPU output, and the fact that this motherboard has randomly killed 3 wifi cards, 1 USB hub, and is already working on killing the GPU and the integrated USB hub, it's safe to say that the root cause is the motherboard.

Thank you all for helping me!