RAID failing in ML350 G5

[pmiller02]

I've had a number of problems with my brand new Proliant ML350 G5 dual Xeon, 4GB RAM, E200i + 128MB BBCW, and P400 2 x 73GB 4,5" 15K SAS (RAID 1+0) 4 x 300GB 4,5" 15K SAS (RAID 5), Windows Server 2003 R2 + SP2. I chose to add the P400 array controller and use that rather than the E200i, but a day or so after setup 1 of the disks in each of my RAIDs (stots 2 and 3). I replaced both drives with new, a day later predictive failure on another drive. Reboot and RAID rebuilt - was ok for a couple of days then 3 drives failed 1 in RAID 1, 2 in RAID 5 so all data in it lost:(. my question is: can it be drive failures, or is it a power issue (like I've found evidence of in other posts), the SAS drive box or the P400 smart array controller ?? I'm considering connecting my array to the included E200i to test it.

[KarloChacon]

hi

seeing you situation I would replace power backplane and/or Hard Drive Backplane (Drive Cage)


multiple HDD failure can be caused by a faulty drive cage or the power that must be provided to Hard drive cage is not proper

regards

[pmiller02]

HP insist I install 5.20 firmware (even tho from the page http://tinyurl.com/55Z57Q I thought it was for ML360 servers) and then install 4 new drives that they are shipping to me, not convinced but we shall see.

[KarloChacon]

they preferred sending you 4 HDDs instead of backplane ... no way

[pmiller02]

Turns out the firmware I was directed to didn't fix the problem, however booting the server from the CD with downloaded firmware iso bundle (showed to me by engineer who came on site) found different firmware for the Hard drives and ever since that was put on the server has run considerably more quietly and generated nowhere near the levels of heat it was before, and surprise surprise no drives have failed! If the engineer hadn't pointed me to the iso online I'd still be replacing hardware I think.
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/cd/p1040529012/v46708/firmware-8.20-0.zip