DL370 G6 Fans running high all the time

[Biccy-boy]

Prior to installing an NVidia Quadro FX5600 card into my DL370 G6 it was as quiet as a mouse. Since then the fans start off quiet then slowly build to a cllimax where they stay all of the time until re-powered.

I've checked the temperatures and power loading in HP Managment web page (the Quadro is a beefy card) but I cant see anything amiss. Updated BIOS and iLO and still nothing.

The system is a dual Nehalem CPU (16-cores!) with a single CPU. NIC in slot 10, NVIDIA in slot 7/8, SAS card in slot 6 (next to NVIDIA) and another card in slot 2. It only has fans #2, #4 and #5 and it is #5 that is the loudest (above the PSU).

Any ideas of what I can tweak or where I can check to see what is causing the system to require such a high fan speed?

[TTr]

Are you some kind of a gaming freak that bought a server to use as a gamer desktop?

The fan controls and settings are in the BIOS. Outside that, the fact that you have 16 cores and may PCIe cards installed probably forces the fans to run higher than normal.

[rick jones]

The BIOS *might* be acting a bit on the conservative side, but generally speaking, it does not increase fan speed on a whim. Likely as not, one or more of the temperature sensors in the system is registering a temperature that induces the BIOS to speed-up the fans.

Presumably it was one or more of those temps (btw, what is ambient in this situation?) you see in the iLO that is inducing the BIOS to speed-up the fans.

If it was quiet before, and started getting loud afterwards, it certainly suggests the NVidia card you installed has upped the heat-load on the system non-trivially... If you can, you might try pulling the NVidia card, running the system for a while, make note of the temps reported via the iLO, and then compare them with the temps reported via the iLO when the NVidia is present.

Not being a graphics expert I looked-up the specs for that card, and given it has a fan of its own, and external power, it likely does put a non-trivial heat load onto the system... 171W Max power consumption per:

http://store.nvidia.com/store/nvidia/en_US/pd/productID.67049700?resid=qD@RNwoBAkcAAB0LI8AAAAAV&rests=1257899959158#

[Biccy-boy]

Thanks for the responses.

This solution is actually a broadcast-quality (right up to 1080p) video playout server for a professional worldwide software company with 3D rendering in real time (not keyed or super-imposed) and frame-accurate delivery.

Previously I have used xw9400 and DL385G5 in this role with the same Nvidia card and AJA Xena 2Ke SDI card without issue but HP have ceased support for the NVIDIA in the DL385 series now.

I did check the temperatures but didnt think to compare them before and after which I will do today.

If only I had the time to play games....lol

[neutronstar13]

Pickup the other 2 fans for the system to make the fan rack full (519559-001), then the system will be able to ramp down and still put out the same amount of air.

We had the same problem with ours, and there are only 2 SATA drives and a 4 port NIC card.

[Reece Wilkinson]

This might help you make that server quiet again.
We just bought 2 of these servers and had issues with them right out of the box.
I ran across the fan issues you are describing in one of the many on-site tech visits.

Here's a few things to look for.
1. Power - I know this may sound strange but I'm guessing you grabbed a power cable from somewhere to power the video card, right? Well, take a close look at which connector you used. Some say BP1, BP2, BP3. Those are for the Backplanes on all the drives on the front of the server. DO NOT use any of them for the video card. Try taking out the fan cage and you should find more power connectors underneath the motherboard where the power supply backplane is sitting.
2. Fan Cage - take it out and look at the connector at the bottom. If you see any bent/missing pins you need to replace the entire power supply backplane (all connectors are built onto the backplane.
3. Ordering - We were having the fan issue as well as RAID problems because of those power connectors being in the wrong order. So far I have not found any documentation that tells you which way to connect the 3 hard drive bays (fully populated SFF or LFF disks) but the order DOES matter. I think from left to right (looking from the front) it goes: BP1, BP2, BP3. BP1 would be on the 2 OS drives (if LFF) and BP2 & BP3 would be one the other two 6-drive bays (if LFF).

Anyways, try swapping power and checking those pins and you should get that server to quiet down. We spent nearly 2 weeks of 4-hour(FAIL) with an on-site tech before we got both systems up and running without issues. The server with the fan speed issues literally had every part behind the hard drives replaced.

[madsmaks]

I thought it might be worth posting my experience of this problem as I encountered exactly this issue last week when upgrading the disks in a Proliant DL370 G6 server. Initially I added a Western Digital 500GB Blue SATA drive and a Seagate 3TB ST3000LM016 drive. After around fifteen minutes of use the fans had gradually increased in speed to 100% making it impossible to work in the same room.

I upgraded the BIOS and firmware of every component I could but with the same result each time. It didn't matter whether the server was sitting in the BIOS doing nothing, at a Windows 98 command prompt, running a Linux LiveCD or running Windows Server 2012 R2 with all of the drivers and updates installed.

In the end the problem was resolved by simply removing the Seagate 3TB drive from the drive bay. The server was happy with six HP 500GB SATA drives and the odd Western Digital 500GB drive but as soon as the Seagate drive was re-inserted the fans gradually increased in speed again until they ran at 100%.

I replaced the Seagate drive with a Toshiba 2TB drive and the server has been as quiet as a desktop PC ever since.

Hope this helps someone else.

Jon

[Vktor]

Maybe in bios settings press F9 on the Advanced sub menu options you'll find the setting for fan speed.

if there are no options in the BIOS for fan speed then only through DL370 G6 ILO