DL380G4 - Fan Noise

[MTC]

Hi All,

I have just purchased some DL380 G4's. Now the fans on these are very very loud. The fans remain the same speed from POST. I normally expect that when the OS loads, and the management drivers run that the fans should drop speed.

I have the latest BIOS, & PSP 7.30 installed. All the management agents are running.

If I go into Insight Diagnostics, it reports that all fans are running at Normal Speed.

The server room is very cool.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your help

David

[MTC]

I forgot to mention,

Server is running Windows 2003 & SP1

Single Processor Xeon

[Mahesh Kumar Malik]

Hi David

Fans have variable speed. When the temperature in server reaches to desired level, they will switch over to reduced speed. Please ensure environmental temprature is within limits

Regards
Mahesh

[Terry Hutchings]

Do you have other DL380 G4s which don't have this problem?

I would verify whether the fans are spinning at the higher speeds by bringing the machine down to just 3 fans (server requires 4 to stay up) and see what the other fans do. As long as you put the fan back in within 60 seconds server will not shutdown when you do this. What do the other fans do when you do this?

[MTC]

If I pull one of the fans out, the other fans in the system do NOT spin up as I would expect.

The only thing that happens is the server sounds a little quieter due to one less fan.

[Terry Hutchings]

How many fans do you have installed total? If you have 6 installed and you reduce it to 5, it won't make any difference at all.

[MTC]

I have also done another test.

I have added another 3 fans to the system

(it comes with 4 + 1 cpu fan) so I now have 6 + 2 cpu fans (only running 1 cpu) and the server has made no change to fan speeds.

[Terry Hutchings]

I'm not aware of any issues with the fans in DL380 G4's. Are all the G4s you received exhibiting the same problem? This is happening with just 3 fans installed?

The fan speed in the server isn't dependant on any agents or driver. The only difference the system management driver will make is to allow for a range a speeds, instead of just high speed or normal.

[MTC]

There is no difference between 3 fans or 6 fans...

[MTC]

All G4's that I have purchased are doing the same thing..

These servers do not act like any other compaq / hp servers that I have ever purchased. Normally the fans will run at high speeds until the OS loads the health driver.