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ProLiant ML350 G5 power supply questions

 
cidzor
Occasional Visitor

ProLiant ML350 G5 power supply questions

I have an HP ProLiant ML350 G5 server, and one of the two power supplies has failed. I purchased a replacement power supply (part number DPS-800GB A). As it turned out, the replacement PSU was bad. It popped and shot a nice little blue arc out the server's VGA port when I plugged it in, and now all it does it make a kind of "fizzing" sound when it's plugged in.

 

Luckily, the server is okay, but now I'm getting a little nervous about replacing it and have a couple of questions...

 

1. Is there any way to test this power supply before I plug it into my server? This server is fairly critical, and that incident with the last one made me nervous. I'd like to know if the power supply is going to fry BEFORE it goes in my server. The connection seems to be fairly proprietary, so I don't know of any way to simply plug it into a less critical system for testing purposes. If I just plug the power supply into a wall outlet without being in the server, should I see the green LED on the back of it?

 

2. I didn't notice this until after the incident. The new power supply I ordered is the same model as the old one, but I did notice one difference. The one that's still installed (and working) has a label on it that says REV: 03M. The label on the "new" one (that was dead) said REV: 06M. Is that a problem?

 

I have RMA'd the replacement power supply and am currently waiting on the new one to arrive.

 

Thanks for any help/advice.

7 REPLIES 7
Johan Guldmyr
Honored Contributor

Re: ProLiant ML350 G5 power supply questions

Wow, scary stuff.

1) I don't think you'll get any green led if you hook it up to a wall outlet no :/ Unless you could get a spare server I think it'll be quite difficult for you to test the PSU before plugging it in.

2) I don't think this is a problem either, the ML350 G5 and DL360/380 G5 power supplies tend to fail a lot (maybe due to quantity..) and the higher REV on the PSU the better.

Hopefully the PSU you got was just not that healthy. Hopefully it hasn't broken anything more (or that the part where the PSU connects to the server is broken).
Robert Egloff
Frequent Advisor

Re: ProLiant ML350 G5 power supply questions

I've ran into this problem with old power supplies that have been sitting for a while. Must admit, I haven't seen it since an old G2 that has been sitting for over a year; however.

 

When you get the replacement - get some canned air or possibly a vacumn and clean out the dust real well. That could have potentially been the issue with the replacement.

 

Might want to check inside the server where that PSU connects to the power backplane too - can't hurt to clean it either way :)

cidzor
Occasional Visitor

Re: ProLiant ML350 G5 power supply questions

Still waiting for the replacement. I didn't really think to blow dust out of the new power supply, but you are right, that can never hurt. I'll do that with the next one.

 

Hopefully that power supply was just bad. On closer inspection, there doesn't appear to be any real damage to the server or the connection where the power supply plugs in.

 

I also just realized, the "blue arc" I saw may have been something else. I never noticed it before, but there's a blue UID light right next to the VGA port that briefly flashes when the server gets power. I do know for sure the power supply is most definitely bad, but the timing of that blue flash right at the same time I heard that loud pop made it look like something much worse (and at that point I was in a panic just scrambling to get this thing unplugged and out of my server).

 

Thanks for the advice. I'll post an update here when the replacement arrives (the company I ordered it from is giving me sort of a run-around on the RMA).

Robert Egloff
Frequent Advisor

Re: ProLiant ML350 G5 power supply questions

Yeah, even if it's brand new, never used - it may have been sitting on a shelf for sometime..

cominseguros
New Member

Re: ProLiant ML350 G5 power supply questions

To me has been exactly the same and do not know how to fix it.

 

Sorry for my English.

 

Did you get any solution?

 

Than you...

_LiquidFam_
New Member

Re: ProLiant ML350 G5 power supply questions

I know this is a dumb question, but am I supposed to plug in both power supplies at once?  Right now I get a power redundancy failure.  I'm gonna try to plug in both psus.

_LiquidFam_
New Member

Re: ProLiant ML350 G5 power supply questions

ok... yeah you are supposed to plug in both psus to the wall.  The flashing orange light is gone and I didn't even pop a breaker lol