lh 3000 noise from fans

[John P. Carr]

I just bought a used Lh3000 and it is very loud. It seems that it is running in a state of overheating where all the fans are on and making noise like it's about to take off down a runway. Is there a thermostat that might not be working? I once started it without the noise but the softer sound only lasted about 5 minutes before it went into overdrive.

[Andrew Rutter]

hi,

if its overheating one of the leds on the front will go red, Or it could be that the fans are failing.

You can check this by looking at the event viewer. Either of the navigator cd, downlaodable from the web in the diagnostics package or through the control panel.

If there isnt any errors showing just remove the sides and the fans are hotswappable so you can easily just pull one out at a time until you find the faulty fan.

You will get errors then saying that the fans are disconnected but when you have finished put the sides back on and clear the errorlogs and reboot the server.
There will be 2 lots of dual psu fans on the io side at the bottom, 2 io fans on the io side(left).
and processor fans on the right hand side. All hotplugable fans.
If all fans are ok and overtemp warnings then it could be the power management board in the base of the server or faulty cpu/vrm.

Andy

[John P. Carr]

Andy
Thanks for the insight. There are no error codes showing so I'll try the fan disconnect approach. Can these fans be disonnected while the server is up & when I disonnect the faulty fan should the sound go back to normal?
John

[amhakassa]

Hi John,

If you are running microsoft windows OS in this server you can download and install "HP Instant Top Tools" from this link below and find out the status of the fan

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?locale=en_US〈=English&pnameOID=19611&prodSeriesId=50440&prodTypeId=15351&basePartNum=COL3288&locBasepartNum=ns-11142-1&os=Microsoft+Windows+2000+Server&tech=Utility++HP+Instant+Toptools

1. Unzip the download in to a folder and run the setup.exe file
2. run HP Instant Top Tools after you installed it
3. Go to the status TAB and you will see if there is any issue in you fan or other subsystem of the unit

Check the BIOS ver you have on the unit and if it is earlier than 4.06.33PT fro U2 or 4.06.04RN for a U3, I would suggest too flash the BIOS as well (You can check the BIOS ver you currently have under IDENTITY TAB in HP Instant Top Tools)

Bios can be downloaded from this site

IF Server IS U2 Server
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?locale=en_US〈=English&pnameOID=19611&prodSeriesId=50440&prodTypeId=15351&basePartNum=ns1066&locBasepartNum=ns1066en&os=Cross+OS&tech=BIOS

If server is U3 Server
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?locale=en_US〈=English&pnameOID=19611&prodSeriesId=50440&prodTypeId=15351&basePartNum=COL3373&locBasepartNum=ns-11596-2&os=Cross+OS&tech=BIOS++System+ROM

The BIOS download creates a bootable disk and which you can boot from it to update the BIOS

I hope this will help

Good Luck
Regards
Amha Kassa

[John P. Carr]

Amha
Unfortunately Novell 5.1 is running on this server. But when I get to the site I'll check the BIOS. Are there any similar utilities to check fan operation for the Novell Netware operating system?
John

[Andrew Rutter]

hi john,

yes you can just disconnect them while its running. like i said earlier this will prompt errors in the event log but will not shut the system down if you do it one at a time

andy

[Andrew Rutter]

hi john,

did you get any further with this?

andy

[John P. Carr]

Andy
Thanks for the suggestions but I support this client remotely and probably wont be on site for at least another month. They've acquired a maintenance agreement on the unit & will first try to resolve the issue with a service call. Hopefully it will have disappeared when I arrive next but I'll let you know the outcome eitherway.
John