How to silence a DL140

[sreekant]

Hi folks
I bought an el-cheapo used and tired DL140 to use as a computer for kids to play games on the TV. Put a Radeon card with DVI and a USB sound card. It is working fine.

However it is like a jet engine. I guess that is why these things go cheap secondhand. I already bought it so can't backout now.

How can I make this turbine silent. I tried to disconnect the fans as a test and if I remove more than one fan it does not even turn on. I guess it is the safety mechanism.

I hope to remove parts and put them in a bigger box with a good shielded mini desktop table fan blowing tons of air on it.

However how do I tell/fool the system board that everything is ok without the fans? Any bios setting or any resistance on the fan connector to fool the fan sensors? Any other ideas? Some voodoo?

Thanks
sree

[Jan Soska]

ehm, first time hear to use rack server as gaming machine...
I am afraid server is made for stability a performance, not for silence...

Jan

[Jimmy Vance]

Even though it's a really old system, make sure it has the latest BIOS installed as there may be an option to control fan startup speed. The older DL series are sort of outcasts. On the older 300 series and up ProLiants, if you load the health drivers the fans will usually spin down and only go to jet turbine mode if the system gets hot.

You'll have to try some of the various server OS health drivers to see if you can get one to work with your OS.

It's been several years since I've had any DL140's powered on, but I don't recall the ones I had running the fans at high speed all the time.

[sreekant]

I know it is an old system. I just put it for the kids to play things like kidzui and marble blaster. 4 cores of xeon and 3gb ram for a flash game! How times change!

Anyway the system starts with spaceshuttle launching sound and then slows down to a 787. I may be exaggerating a little, alright a lot. But this noise is not for the living room, right. I know rackmounts are not made for living room but I am trying to make it work. Why through a perfectly good system.

Any ideas on how to tell the board to not shutdown when the fans are not connected?

Thanks folks
Sree

[Jimmy Vance]

After looking back at my post I said the older DL series are outcasts. What I meant was the older 100 series boxes not the whole DL line were outcasts.

Anway, as far as disabling fans, I know of now way to modify the system. The fan circuit is probably monitoring resistance or current draw to tell if the fans are operational or not.

[sreekant]

Any further takers?

I just want to try and rip one to fix it in a different box.

However don't want to do that if I still have to keep the noisy fans connected.

Thanks
Sree

[WFHC-WI]

Hi sree,

This model isn't really known for it's loud fans (like some are), so perhaps the fans themselves are defective. Look online for a replacement fan.

That being said, the server will likely never be as quiet as a desktop and there aren't any overrides to allow the system to operate without fans.

good luck, we appreciate the points if you appreciate the answers.

[Saberus · Accepted solution]

I think the graphics card may be a culprit.

As far as fooling the fan-speed sensors, you may need to build a set of resistors to plug into the fan ports, but I can't even begin to ponder what you would need to consistently fool the system. But if you get larger fans that can be powered by the PSU directly, and can route the fan-speed sensing line to the onboard ports, that could work.

I think the least amount of headaches in this case would be to place the server in a sound-dampening case that can still let in enough air.

All in all, remember that this is a rack server, and was designed as such. the decibel rating was never meant to be acceptable in an office space.

[sreekant]

Thanks for the replies. All in all I think I may go for a envelope to the whole rack unit. Perhaps the easiest way. Thanks for the ideas. I just thought i fI could fool the fan sensor then I can remove the board, put it in a different box, put big fans running on ac mains even a little ways from the board and run it cool. Oh well.

Thanks.
sree