DL380 G4 Fan noise problem, fresh install of Win2k3, latest PSP + FW

[Mike X Li]

We recently bought a used DL380 G4 with Dual 3.6Ghz, upon booting the system my initial impression is how loud the fans are.

We installed a fresh copy of Windows 2003 R2 Enterprise, along with PSP and latest FW upgrades.

I've searched over and over, most suggested updating with the latest PSP and FW will fix the problem, so we upgraded the system and installed all the drivers and software bundles in the PSP disk. The fans still won't spin down.

It's the same speed from power on.

In the HP Maintanance Home Page, under Insight diagnostic, all of the 8 fans are showing their speed as "Normal". Green LEDs on all of the fans.

I've also tried clearing the NVRM within the HP software, as well as using the DIP switch #6. Fans are still the same.

To test if the fans are working properly, I removed 1 of the redundant fans, the rest of the fans immediately spin up to high speed and they sound like they are having a lift off...

There's got to be a solution to this right?

This box is louder than 4 x Dell PE2950 combined (all of them have 2 x Quad Core Xeon 3.0Ghz, 4 x 15k SAS drives), the thermal generated by hardware shouldn't be much different.

Anyone has a solution please help!

[KarloChacon]

hi

I can recommend you if you have not done it yet

it is reseat all Fans
reseat power backplane
reseat power supplies
reseat riser cage

since I see you have done everything if my steps above do not work
I can say System Board is having issues.

bye

[Mike X Li]

I'll try your suggested methods... I did reseat all the fans and cleaned them with air blast cans...

but is the "Normal" fan speed reported in HP diagnostic tool really normal?

Does yours report a different fan speed ?

I know the fans are being controlled, if i pull one out, all others start spinning up like crazy.

[Chris Rinker]

I have a DL380 G4 with a similar problem on Windows Server 2008 x64. The fans were fine after the initial OS install, but after installing PSP 8.11 they went full bore.

The fans are still normal during POST and initial OS boot, but kick to high gear every time during the OS bootup and continue full speed as long as windows is running.

I can see no errors, all fans report present and active, but I cannot find any RPM indications or controls.

I am fairly new to HP servers, so I am unfamiliar with the software. Please clue me in if I am missing something. I am not even sure where to start troubleshooting. It certainly looks to be driver(PSP) related, but could just be incomplete setup for all I know.

I just installed PSP 8.15A today, no change.

[produKt]

I have a ml370g2 and had similar issues.

I installed the "HP ProLiant Advanced System Management Controller Driver for Windows Server 2003\2008" and now the fans stay at fullspeed during BIOS post, and up until it loads the driver during windows startup, then they go down to about 1/3rd the speed.

If the system is under stress and a temperature threshold is met, the fans spin up again until it's cooled down. Quite a good management system yet still too noisy for a home server.

Perhaps you can try the same thing i did?

And I note that you didn't say if you've checked the BIOS. Being a used server, i wouldn't be surprised if the fan speed was set to high - thus overriding all other settings

[Mike X Li]

Could you tell me where did you download the HP ProLiant Advanced System Management Controller Driver ?

I tried searching for it but couldn't find any.

I had cleared the BIOS/NVRAM, by software and hardware. And there is no setting in BIOS for the fan control.

I've tried using the HP StartSmart CD to install OS, also directly from a Win2k3 CD, then install PSP. both method are same sults.

[Chris Rinker]

I found that I was confused about the ROM version. I had P51 dated 2005, I needed P51 dated 2007.

I downloaded the ROM utility from the system drivers page at support.hp.com, ran the bootable floppy creator, booted the floppy and flashed the system ROM.

Did the trick for me. Fans had spun up to full speed right when Windows loaded, but now they've been running fine within Windows for several minutes.

Incidentally, then Insight manager reported their speeds as "normal" before, and the same now.

[Mike X Li]

How loud is your fan now? If you were to put the server in a small room, next to your desk, would you survive being in the room for a day?

I've checked and checked, everything is up to update on my G4.

Are all of the fans on your G4 running at same speed all the time? on mine, all 8 fans are the same speed.

I don't see a reason for so many fans running at such high speed, it's just not so green and the life of the fans must be short.

[Chris Rinker]

Before, I could not sit by it and I was really concerned about the life of the fans. Now, though I'd like not to sit next to it all day, it is only as loud as the rest of my servers.

What is the date of your P51 system ROM? Mine was 4/27/2005, now it is 7/19/2007.

[Mike X Li]

Yes i checked the ROM version it is the latest 7/19/2007 one. and it says P51.

I think I have no choice but to sell the server and look for a quieter one...

[Chris Rinker]

I am certainly no HP expert, good luck finding one. Too bad my problem, although similar, was different from yours.

You said originally that the fans are loud from power on. Then you said that they spun up to high speed when you removed one of them. If both of those statements are true, then maybe "normal" is just louder than you expected? Generally, there is just low and high, so if they are spinning up more, then they started out as low. I would certainly not classify this server as one I'd want in an office that people worked in, it should be in a server closet/room. Low may be annoying, but high is hard to talk over without nearly yelling.

My server was fine during POST, noise was as a rackmount server generally is, only during Windows boot did it get loud. If yours is abnormally loud from power on, then it'd have to be hardware or firmware. Since you've flashed the ROM, I'd guess a thermistor problem somewhere on the motherboard.

[Mike X Li]

Yea I really think that "normal" is just louder than i expected, and I've never owned a HP before. My DELL PE2950s are so quiet that I can be on the phone right next to it without disturbing. While the DL380 G4 makes a loud whining sound it hurts my ears if I sit by it for too long, and talking on the phone is impossible without the other party being annoyed.

These are great servers, i like them. but it could've used some better fan management.

[Alistair Wallis]

I have the same problem
DL380 G4 Dual Xeon 6GB RAM. The server was fine with all other OS' installed ( win 2003 std, then enterprise, then VMware ESXi ) Only now when I installed Win 2008 X64 did the fans go beserk. The system boots normally, but once into windows the fans go full speed and don't slow down. This must be a driver issue, but I can't find out which or where.
I have loaded Smartstart 8.2 and all the drivers but no effect.

[Greg Wilkerson]

Has ANYONE resolved this? This thing makes more noise the the three others around it! Like a few other, I am new to HP servers. Can I just remove a few of the fans? There is NO WAY this server is going to over heat. It's in 60 deg. basement, and not in a rack. I could even take the top off. But, I really need this thing to quiet down. I could go buy a household fan and just blow that on it. Is there some kind of diagnostics that I can run? I'm running esxi 3.5 on it, if that helps.

[Greg Wilkerson]

One other thing. I found a thread on the VM site that says I need to install the HP management agent to control the fan speed by BIOS. The thread provided this link, but it is dead. Can anyone help me out with this?

http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/23616.html

Thanks.

[Chris Rinker]

I resolved my issue, flashed BIOS.

First, the issue involved installing Windows Server 2008 X64 and the fans going full bore once Windows loaded. The fans were fine before, while still running Server 2003, and even right after installing server 2008. This all happened once I installed the latest PSP.

Even though I verified the BIOS version, I did not realize that the date was different. Once I flashed with a newer dates BIOS, everything was fine. Don't pay much attention to the BIOS version, check the date of it. Why they did not increment the version I have no idea.

[Guy Bloomfield]

I solved the loud server issue by removing three of the fans. It has 8, but 3 are marked as 'redundant' while the other 5 are primary. If you open the case you'll see two rows of removable fans.

If you're standing in front of the server, the closest row of fans has 6 fans. The left most and right most can be removed. The furthest row has two fans. The right most can be removed.

Doing that made my G4 usable. Itâ s still louder than my other servers but I canâ t hear it one the next floor anymore. With all 8 fans in this thing was ridiculously loud. I canâ t imagine using it with all 8 fans unless your server room is lined in concrete and you wear ear protection when you enter.

[TarunJain]

Hi Guys,
HP DL380 G4 and ML350 G4 fans are always louder then others so don't compare it with Dell or IBM.

If you really want to compare fairly them compare within same models i.e. one DL380 G4 with another DL380 G4 to confirm whether your unit has any issue or not.

Mike,
You have checked and found that fans are still spinning slowly from their maximum speed (rotating on maximum in degraded mode),
Therefore I think your server is normal. (It's a normal beast alright)

Greg,
You can download management agents from following link:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3288132&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=397634&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4025
Hope this will help
Tarun

[Greg Wilkerson]

Heh Heh! I tried pulling a couple of the fans. Pulling the first one, no matter which one, does nothing. Pulling the second one, puts the rest of the fans in screaming mode (it actually startled me). The fan attention led lights on the motherboard. Putting the fan back puts the fans back in just "excessively loud" mode. So, that's not going to work.

Tarun, I'm not Linux guy, but I keep getting an error about not being able to find the "restore_file_info.sh" when I run the "PreInstall_Setup.sh". I'm going to try to do the install without running the pre-install. But, after my experiment about pulling the fans, I'm not too hopeful about quieting them down.

I'm afraid I'm going to have find another way to muffle this. Either that or buy something else.

[Ulises Llull]

Solution is as has been posted earlier: Apply the 2007 Systems ROMPaq Firmware Upgrade for HP ProLiant DL380 G4 (P51) Servers.

Find it here:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=397634&swItem=MTX-f8105bcfcba8403f8b793e23f5&prodNameId=397636&swEnvOID=2023&swLang=8&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=1

[Marc.Cortinas]

Hello,

I had the same problem and it was resolve upgrading BIOS to P51 and the issue was resolved.

Thanks for this post (and support)

Best,
Marc

PS: HP Proliant DL 380 G4 with Windows 2008 x64
(i've installed psp8.5)

[leur2011]

Server fans usually screaming if you have one power supply installed and screamed more if you have a failed fan. In this thread, no one mentioned how many PS they are using.

[Chris Rinker]

It is understandable for the fans to speed up when other fans fail. That is not a factor in this thread, all fans and power supplies were in and operating. This thread addresses Firmware and driver issues relating to the fans after upgrading the operating system and PSP.

[Brian L Miller]

The solution posted by Ulises Llull worked for us. Updating to the 2007 BIOS Rompaq kept the fans from going into overdrive needlessly while running 2008 x64.