what could be bad?

system specs:

AMD 3000 754 pin
Asus K8S-MX
2 512MB RAM
256 MB nVidia 6600 AGP
2 120GB Seagate SATA on Raid 0
Gigabyte Dual Layer DVD burner
Creative 5.1 Soundblaster


2 nights ago, had left system running on scans and downloads... in the morning the power went out and system powered offsmoothly thnx to the APC backup. this morning when powereing up, this happens:
shows the 2 hdds in Raid screen and does not load the OS. rebooted and attempted safe mode and locked up. rebooted again and no hdd detected on raid screen. reseated all connectors and still nothing. loaded the defaults in bios and got some positive result.. hdd detected but no OS. did have a copy of UBCD and managed to show that the OS, partitions and folders were present and on next reboot, all back to normal. sounds like the bios defaults worked but have been having issues where if i keep the system powered off for even 3 minutes without the power cable, looses all settings in bios even if CMOS battery is replaced (replaced 4 times so far in 6 mnths). am on a lil' budget so here's what i'm lookin to change if any of you all think i need replacing stuff:
ASUS A8N - SLI
AMD 3200 939 pin
2 nVidia 6600 PCI-E on SLI

keeping the RAM chips, hdd and optical drive.. would that be a good option as board does have upgrade options for a FX proc and even faster nVidia cards later...

 

If BIOS is messed up, then its the Motherboard... i think lol. Could be a short in the MB somewhere from the power going out...happened to my Video Card.

Ofcourse im no expert lol but if you happen to have an older Motherboard you could give the HD's a test run on, you can further understand your problem. So my suggestion(plz dont kill me if im wrong) would buy new motherboard =P.

 

Tell you what it OBVIOUSLY is not CMOS battery but maybe you could check the memory modules (RAM) as one of these (or both) maybe failing and will cause a significant problems but completely different from system to system. A way to check is to download "MemTest86" load it onto either floppy or .iso (if no floppy) and run it at start up.

BORSUNG LOL seems rather insensitive at a time of an individuals distress, NO OFFENCE INTENDED.

 

non taken. any suggestion is helpful... but, memtest did run and pass. this morning, my brother fired it up and worked just fine and when i gave a go.... same result. a lil' worse this time. one of the sata drives is makin very fast clicky for few secs and repeats. got only one unit with sata support. bios was flashed to latest version and all. RAM was recently upgraded from an old 512 as well and was just fine too. anyhow.. got an old intel sys with an ide hdd so plannin on slappin that in as master to see if i can access contents. funny thing is... attempted to boot into recovery console and after selecting 1 for c:/windows, noting happens and not c:/windows at all. could not see the partitions if attempting a complete reinstallation either.. possibilities are one of the drives or the mobo itself....

 

Just a shot in the dark sidvarman, but some Power supplies have adverse reactions to falling back to APS power, and the spike can affect numerous devices namely HD's and Motherboards swapping out the power supply is an easy task and might give you positive results, thats my 2 cents worth.

 

i dunno if the APS doubles as a surge protector but if you dont have one of those it could have shorted your motherboard but if thats the case it wouldnt even be getting as far as u said....

 

thing is i dont think i could risk asuming that the power supply is defective and not have caused trouble on the mobo. right now... i am reloading the OS with the drives set as raid 1 and that too maybe on 5th attempt managed to set it up as after reboot, the system was hanging on the screen wher the 2 drives would show up and the raid but no drivers were showin.. and would not show as non or not detected.. just sit there... i think i'd be safer with a revamp on the system. maybe over reacting or something but thus far hdd tests have gone good, memory thru memtest and one from Microsoft's site also gave it all clear so maybe the mobo here.
how does the ASUS A8N - SLI DLx or non DLx sound as a replacement? on a budget and really need a workin unit that'll hold up for at least 6 mnths. all i do is set it to get free ISO images from net at night, play the odd game like KOTOR 2 or Doom 3, Quake 4. keep the case open due to heat arnd here. no spywares, malwares, etc.
mobo available arnd here are Asus, MSI, Gigabyte... Biostar too if i dig deep. if any of you could suggest a comparable equal in today's prices, would be GR8.
lookin for PCI-E SLI, at least few free PCI slots for a sound card or tuner to go in later.

 

Thinking about what you have posted so far, and I must admit I am coming up short as well, nothing really pops to mind, but how about plugging your computer into the power main, bypassing your UPS!!! Have heard of people having problems with UPS power over time. Hey, it may be lame but it is cheaper and easier than changing the MB. Keep posting sidvarman, the solution is just a post away, and Good Luck

 

did plug system directly to the wall socket and not much help... works fine either way.. the ANNOYING part is.. maybe abt 3 out of 10 times, system does not see the 2 hard drives. do get detected if i keep everything off for maybe 5 minutes.. as the system does not get to Bios.
what is the cause for system loosing all time, bios settings if the power is shut off? CMOS battery? replaced few times and have an old intel 4 on which the cell has not been changed for 3 years and is used maybe 3 times a week..... kept off, even from the main power. this AMD unit, if power goes out, i shut everything off and when power back up after 10 minutes or more, battery low, press F1 to load defaults or F2 for setup utility. ran the system without the sound card (performance was rubbish), ran without the graphics card (no comment on performance), no DVD drive, etc... its one of those intermittent issues. even MS OS activation folks are getting bugged the no. of times I have reloaded.....
all friends are like but when i consider an intel as replacement.. go