ProLiant DL180 G6 fan noise

[Ulyssesric]

I've setup a DL180 G6 in one customer's data center. Upon booting the fan will spin in high speed and generate loud noise, and then the fan will speed down to low noise level after 10 seconds. Is that normal ? Can I find any document that describe this behavior ? Thanks.

[Cederberg · Accepted solution]

Hi.

Yes this is normal. I believe it's part of the selftest procedure before the bios is loaded. It spins up the fans to see that they are working

[Ulyssesric]

Appreciate for the reply. I personally believe that it's normal; it makes sense to include fan speed control as part of power-on self-test, since a "server" should not reboot frequently.

But my client didn't take this explain; he insisted that the high spin speed will cause damage to the hardware, and he asked me to proof it's OK. He asked me to show him a write down document (spec, manual, technical reference, or anything like that) that mentioned this behavior, so that I can proof my (and HP customer service's) point.

I know it's not a technical issue now, but I really need help to get that "document" he wants. HP's website search provides no answer to that question.

Thanks.

[juan quesada]

hi there..

i dont think theres a document about it but you can actually show him any other server or blade enclosure and the behavior is the same.

fans will spin full speed before BIOS because BIOS is not controlling them, since nobody is measuring temp sensors and fan speed they run at 100% to protect againts overheating.. same happens to blade onboard administrator, you can remove it in hot and fans will go to 100% to protect the entire enclosure from overheating.

[Ulyssesric]

@juan quesada:

Thanks!

According to my client, they had 5 other HP servers in their data center, but none of them had similar situation. They claimed that they once owned an IBM server which behaved similarly, but IBM gave them a firmware patch and the "BUG" was fixed.

I guess that those poor serviceman just disabled that "feature" to avoid conflict with them.

Is there anyway I can do the same thing ? To disable a feature that is intended to protect the machine, due to stupidness ?

[Arkar]

I've installed and running HP ProLiant DL 160 G6 since 2 years ago. It is running properly and never had a problem for long time. But last night, i have a problem that the server fan has strongly noised. How should i do to clear that noise. Alos in last 3 days ago we have that kind of problem and it is stop automatically already. But now it is comming up again.

Please advice how can i stop or fix that noise.

Thank you,

Arkar