Fan faults on HP 4000/8000 which clear with no user intervention

[Neil_77]

Hi,

we have a number of HP Procurve 4000M and 8000M switches on our LAN.

The switches are about 3-4 years old and recently we have started to see some fan failures on some switches, and have replaced the fan trays accordingly. (I guess thats not too unexpected for switches of that age)

However, on a few occasions, the fault light at the front of the switch has been flashing indicating a fan failure and the event log fills up with fan failure events. But with no user intervention, the fault light goes off again and the fan failure events are no longer generated.

Is this something I should be concerned about? Does the fan tray still need to be replaced on a switch exhibiting this behaviour?

Thanks.

[Ron Kinner]

I expect the fans have a third wire which reports the speed back to the CPU and that this output may be getting intermittent. That would explain the alarm coming and going. Probably a sign that it is time to change the fan.

Ron

[robdal]

Fan Failure on the 8000M switch has become an increasing problem in our network. We have appr. 65 switches, and since september 2004 fans have failed in four of our switches. Anyone else with the same problem?

Just for the record, because of HP lifetime garantee I've had no problems replacing the failed fans.

[SCOOTER]

Gents,

Yes I would change the fan. After calling support the suggestion was to replace it.

If you don't and are not using a syslog server then the log fills up pretty fast and becomes useless for troubleshooting.

Regards,

SCOOTER

[Neil_77]

Guys, thanks for the responses - I've ordered replacement fan trays now.

robdal - we are in a similar position as yourself, around 60 switches and over the last 6months or so we are beginning to see more and more fan failures.

The switches are 3-4 years old so I guess they are just at the age when these sort of things will fail. Like you say though, never any problem getting the replacement parts through HP's lifetime warranty.