Hi guys,

I'm having trouble with my Unraid install. It seems to be in a boot loop ever since i've replaced a broken drive and installed a new parity. It ran fine for over 6 years now. It sometimes boots (and crashes after a minute) and sometimes it boots to bios while starting unraid.

Here's what i tried so far.

1. Mem-Test failed, but running it with one stick (tried multiple in multiple slots) does not fix the issue

2. removing XMP

3. Switching USB drives did not fix it

4. Updating to the latest minor version

5. Removing all plugins from the plugins folder

Sometimes it starts up just fine, but as soon as i click anything it stops again and reboots. Sometimes it boots and loses my 2 cache drives - i can reassign it and start up the array, but something still is off.

Anyone got a clue what i could try? I was able to get diagnostics just now!

tower-diagnostics-20260111-1758.zip

Edited January 11Jan 11 by Zoba

51 minutes ago, Zoba said:

Mem-Test failed, but running it with one stick (tried multiple in multiple slots) does not fix the issue

Unclear whether you mean memtest still fails with one stick, or memtest passes with one stick but the boot loop issue is not fixed.

Even if memtest does pass with one stick, how long did you let it run?

You must not attempt to run any computer unless memory is working perfectly. Everything goes through RAM. The OS and other executable code, your DATA. EVERYTHING. The CPU can't do anything with anything until it is loaded into RAM.

Also

True, but it feels like this issue is connected to VMs. I'm running home assistant in a VM and had the array running for half an hour. As soon as I start the VM service back up, the connection stops.

33 minutes ago, Zoba said:

True

Don't know what this is in response to. Still no clarity on

58 minutes ago, trurl said:

whether you mean memtest still fails with one stick, or memtest passes with one stick but the boot loop issue is not fixed.

Also, did you read the link?

4 hours ago, trurl said:

Don't know what this is in response to. Still no clarity on

Hey, sorry the memtest was on all sticks. Running the test on a single stick on the last slot returned no errors. I read the link but as I said, the system ran exactly like this for years. I updated to the latest bios version now and will run things with a single dimm.

If this works, I'll try the rest of the ram.

It did not fix the issue. Still crashed in less than 10 minutes

2 hours ago, Zoba said:

I read the link

Did you make any of the recommended changes?

The description sounds like some hardware went bad; in no particular order, PSU, board, CPU or RAM would be the more likely suspects.

I've ordered a new Mainboard and got a 3800G lying around. Will test it once it arrives.

After switching the Mainboard I still ran into the reboots. I then tried to restart with all the hdds disconnected (my cache ssds were still connected) and got greeted with this:

Replacing the flash drive did not yield in betterment but i can boot and run the nas for ages without the drives. Therefore i expect either the sata controller or the hot swap bay of my case to be shot.

8 hours ago, Zoba said:

Therefore i expect either the sata controller or the hot swap bay of my case to be shot.

Not sure those would be a factor with a USB flash drive; please post new diags.

Here's the latest diagnostics. The boot is still very unstable. I've ordered a new PSU to also make sure that isn't the root cause. If that fails too, i'll get a new sas controller.

nas-safemode-diagnostics-20260114-1921.zip

Was it showing the flash drive errors when the diags were saved? Not seeing any issues.

No it was very unstable, only got the flash backup and swapped sticks. This diag is after the switch but even this takes multiple reboots and luck for it to stay on. Will replace the psu later and use the onboard sata from the new Mainboard instead of the pcie sata controller to do a minimal test. I'll probably even start without the drives first to check if that is stable.

Okay, swapped everything. It was the CPU. Fucking hell..