Computer damage due to blown fuse in voltage regulator

[retired66]

Probably need to preface my remarks by explaining that i am located in a 3rd world country with inconsistent power supply issues , blackouts , etc. About a month ago i turned on my computer one am and the voltage regulator blew a fuse . Replace the fuse and had power to some items but not computer itself . Later determined that power supply had been damaged so installed new power supply and voltage regulator and added additional fan .

Of late i am starting to have some other issues that i am trying to pin down . Note , i run Linux - Ubuntu but don't know if that matters in regards to my basic search for advice ? Was unable to boot my machine one am as the initialization process would not complete but was able to get back to my original data via command (DOS) terminal common to Linux . Further diagnosis shows my hard drive with 8 bad sectors with a warning .

I guess i am asking if the blown voltage regulator could have also done some damage to the motherboard and/or hard drive which is causing some of my issues ?Trying to determine how to proceed in either buying new or doing upgrade of existing unit . Am presently using a computer build that is approximately 5 years old with some added memory and a hard drive that is approx. 6 months old .

My first thought is to replace hard drive after backing up data but am also thinking if there are motherboard issues would that likely cause issues in new hard drive ? Second thought is to replace board , processor & hard drive . I live on a fixed income so a new purchase is not as easy on me as replacing components named . Just not sure my logic is logical and would appreciate how others might approach solving my issues .   

Thanks in advance for any input you might have to offer ..

[Geek-9pm]

My wife and I lived in a backward country for some time. Power failures were common.
Years before this I was trained in Broadcast and electronic repair.

My experience with computers shows hard drive failure is more common that either power supply or motherboard failure. For awhile In worked in Hard Drive research in California, i  Silicon Valley. In that part of the world power failures are very rare.

Many third world contrives are in  the tropical zone near the equator. In some areas electrical storms are very frequent  with  houses not properly grounded to protect fro electric discharge from a rainstorm. This along with a developing electrical system can promote serious damage to electronic devices.

Can you boot Linux from a 'live' CD and run the computer well? If so, this may indicate the problem is in the Hard Drive.

[retired66]

Thanks for your input .

Most recently when i could not get in through the normal boot process and had a "no init found" message i used an old 9.10 live cd to get to the desktop and then via terminal command was able to bring back the current 10.10 . However , i did not spend any significant time actually using the live cd to do anything such as surfing but in the past with similar issues regarding "corrupt files" , "unmounts" , etc i have been able to function with the live cd .

Since you seem to have some familiarity with Linux i will mention that the most recent "no init" problem was caused by my clicking the mouse to switch to another desktop account . I only mention that because this am when i switched to another desktop i noticed that the Log in/Log out - switch - turn off function in the top toolbar had disappeared and been replaced by an ic client . The same thing occurred on a third desktop account but not on the admin  desktop..   :-)

Just really funky stuff going on so that's why i am wondering if it might be motherboard vs hd .

[Geek-9pm]

The motherboard components that read your CD and the same or almost the same as the ones that read the Hard drive.
The Linux Live CD is able to do most of the things you want.
That is why I said that if the Linux CD works normally with mostly satisfactory performance, the issue is poor quality of the Hard drive.

Try a spare hard drive and install again.
Or reformat the old drive and install again.
Your important things should be on a DVD or CD as backup.

A full format of a hard drive may resolve the internal issues of the hard drive sector map. An old trick I have used is to divide to partitions and determine if the errors are in a specific area.

If is piratical to have the errors in a small partition and use the rest of the drive a new installation. The boot partition does not have to be the first partition.

Often more errors re at the start and the end of the physical disc.

Seagate and others have floppy disks programs to diagnose hard drives.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

[retired66]

I read you and i will download the Seagate tool as i am using one of their hard drives . I may or may not be able to run the executable program via 3rd party Wine platform as some will be allowed and some won't based on source & signatures . After backup will reformat and try fresh install and see what happens . Let you know what happens. thanks again for the input.

retired

[Geek-9pm]

You could download SeaTools for DOS

SeaTools for DOS tests SATA or ATA drives from a bootable CD-ROM or floppy. It can test a SATA (Serial ATA) or older ATA (PATA/IDE) interface hard drive. Because the software boots to its own operating system you can test your drive regardless of the OS installed on it. You can even test a new or completely blank drive. In addition, this version offers limited repair and data erasure.

This is needed for testing a computer with a weak or incompatible operating system.
It is the more versatile method.