HP DL 165 G6 very noisy - fan speed

[Romulus6cbc]

Approaching this problem from another angel, I have a question, does anyone know if there are any other options for a RAID 5 configuration with this server, without using a HP Smart Array PCIe controller? If I can get rid of the PCIe controller card, then my problem will be solved. I believe someone mentioned that they had a NIC installed in the PCIe riser slot. My suggestion would be to use the on-board NICs and get rid of the PCIe NIC. That should resolve the problem.

[Romulus6cbc]

Sorry everyone, forgot to attach my data. New entries are highlighted.

[shamanius]

Romulus, what updates you made for those results with standard HP configuration (1 raw)? I have 11-12k rpm. Im praying for 5-7k rpm anyway.

[irens]

Shamanius - check if you have the latest bios and very important: the latest BMC updates. When i good remember, when bios is upgraded, and BMC firmware is not - then there is problems with speed of fans - they running at very high speed. But i can be wrong.

Try HP support .... :) :) :)

[Romulus6cbc]

@Shamanius
All tests are with the non-redundant fan kit (single raw of four fans) except for the last entry. The highlighted data are my latest tests. Irens is correct, the most important firmware and driver updates are for the BMC. You have to update both. Your fans are spinning way too high, that's almost at full speed. You may try re-seating your fans, the PCIe riser card, and the PCIe card. Are all four of your fans functioning? What is the ambient temp where the server is located?

[Romulus6cbc]

Sorry everyone, please disregard my previous upload. My data entry was incorrect. New entries are highlighted in yellow.

[bakerman_1]

@Romulus, first of all thank you for posting your results. I have not understood what you mean with the "w/w the cage, PCIe riser card or HP Smart Array P410 Controller installed" test: is it a working solution? the fan3 speed would be acceptable (I could never see it below 5000rpm in mine with the SmartArray installed).
We have the same problem with a DL180 G6 with P212 controller. We have contacted HP support many times and they said they are aware of the problem and working on it, so it sounds 'funny' reading the answer 'it is by design' you got from the technician.
We also had this problem with a DL380 and it's been fixed with a fimrware upgrade.

[Romulus6cbc]

@bakerman
You are welcome. Looks like the only way we will resolve this is by sharing information. So "w/" stands for "with", and "w/w" stands for "without". Not sure what you mean by, "Is it a working solution?", however, I need the a RAID 5 configuration which can only be achieved with a PCIe riser expansion card (P410 or P212). Not sure how long you've been working with HP support, but I've had my case open since beginning of July, and they just closed it yesterday without any resolution whatsoever. At this point, I think they are telling customers whatever they need to, since they do not have a solution. That fact that they released a new firmware fix for th DL380 is encouraging, perhaps they will do the same for the DL180. Let's hope.

[Romulus6cbc]

FYI, for those of you who can afford it there is a solution, a noise reduction enclosure cabinet like the ones below. Of course replacing the DL180 with a later model with Lights-Out 2 software that will give you full control over the fans will probably be cheaper.

http://www.xrackpro.com/v/vspfiles/V4_Backup/products.htm

[shamanius]

Without raising card, with only array controller on the board, BMC firmware is downgradin itself from 2.17.1.89 to 2.17.1.88 and the fans speed are:
1. 5400 rpm
2. 5700 rpm
3. 14100 rpm (!!!)
4. 3000 rpm

And all Temps on the board are 33-38, but only a "IOH Temp" is 52 C. Maybe its a reason. But how can I install cooler on northbridge, if there are no connectors fo optional fans? Just want to try, maybe reducing temp will resolve my problem.

[Romulus6cbc]

@shamanius
Yeah, I noticed the firmware downgrade myself when I was experimenting with different configurations. In fact, at one point, every time I rebooted the server, it rewrote the firmware. I had to re-flash the BMC firmware to stop this from happening. HP has released a new system BIOS update version 2010.07.23 (4 Aug 2010). Although it did not resolve the fan issue, it is still a good idea to install the update.(WARNING: Install the BIOS update at your own risk. The last time I tried to update the BIOS on a Proliant DL120, Windows Server 2003 wouldn't boot (BSoD at startup), and the system board had to replaced. HP support informed me this is a known issue with some configurations, which made me think why would HP release a buggy BIOS version to begin with. I have not had this problem with the DL180, yet.) The IOH TEMP is normal, mine varies from 48.0 to 54.5 deg C, depending on the PCIe riser configuration. Regarding installing a cooler on the northbridge, yeah I had issues with this also. There are two unused fan connectors on the motherboard, J70(Fan 4) and J67(Fan 6), not sure if these will work, or what they are for (if anyone knows please let me know)? The way I figure it, either a 3-pin or a 4-pin fan connector with a SATA power cable adapter connected to an empty SATA power cable may work. If anyone knows, a better way to configure this, please let me know. Thanks.

[Romulus6cbc]

Incidentally, I am also considering installing fan controllers like the ones described in the links below. The problem with these are thermal management. Even though I can turn down the fan rpm all the way to 1500, it will stay at 1500 rpm even though the CPU core reaches critical thermal levels. In the other words, the fan controllers override the motherboard fan management. My thinking is, given a less than 80 deg F room temperature, the server should be able to function normally with the fans running at 2500 - 5000 rpm. Of course installing the fan controllers have their own issues. There maybe POST errors if the fans rpm is set too low, or the motherboard may not recognize the fans at all.

http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=206

http://www.zalman.com/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=375

[shamanius]

With optional fan on IOH the temp was 44 C. And the fan #3 speed - 11900 rpm. So I think if it will be 30 C, the speed will be 5-6k rpm. But it must be water cooling. So I will try Zalman PWM.

[Romulus6cbc]

@shamanius
Please understand the risks here. If you install fan controllers, your system fans will always rotate at the set rpm. They will not adjust according to the thermal fluctuations. This may result in unexplained server shutdowns and reboots, or replacing the motherboard, the CPU, or both if they are damaged. I would not attempt this unless you have an active service contract with HP, and I would not notify HP of the modifications, it may void your warranty. It is a very good idea to install a thermal monitoring software. I use Speedfan. It's free and is feature rich, one of which has the ability to notify you by email, if thermal levels reach a predefined limit.
http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

Your other option is to get a hardware monitoring device, something like the one below -
http://avtech.com/Products/Temperature_Monitors/TemPageR_3ER.htm

Hope it works. Please let me know of the results. All the best.

[Romulus6cbc]

Can anyone please tell me, if according to the "Maintenance and Service Guide", system fans 1 to 3 are for the memory modules and processors, while system fan 4 is for the PCI slots and system chipsets; why is fan 3 running at the higher rpm when a PCIe expension card is installed? Shouldn't fan 4 be running at the higher rpm? According to my data analysis, fan 4 always runs at the lowest rpm, despite the PCIe configurations.

[shamanius]

Because its just a bug in firmware by HP... (

[gui2_1]

@romulus
The Level 2 engineer give me some reponse. the same as you... This is by design. Stupid server...


>Hi ********,
>
>Thank You for sharing the fan rpm
>information.
>
>I have checked the requested query in my
>Lab, and came to know that it is a NORMAL
>behavior by the server.
>As the fan number 3 moves on little high
>speed than other fan that is because of we
>put an extra load on server in form of
>additional PCI E card.

>When the customer installs the PCI E card
>NC360T network card the speed of fan number
>3rd become increase, and as soon as he
>remove the PCI E card NC360T network card
>from server the fan speed becomes normal
>like other installed fanâ s. That is only
>because the server detects the additional
>load on PCI ZONE, and as the Fan number 3
>provide cooling to that zone it starts to
>move little faster than the other 3 fanâ s.
>which is an absolutely normal behavior by
>server.

[Romulus6cbc]

@gui2
That doesn't make any sense. As I mentioned in my previous post, system fans 1 to 3 are for the memory modules and processors, while system fan 4 is for the PCI slots and system chipsets. So technically fan 4 should be running at the higher rpm, not fan 3? Fan 4 always runs at the lowest rpm, normally around 2997.6 rpm. Theoretically if Fan 4 runs at a higher rpm, like around 5000, it might lower the rpm for fan 3 to about the same. Which means all the fans will spin around 5000 rpm, possibility reducing the fan noise. BTW Gui2, why do you need the PCIe NIC? Your solution is easy, get rid of PCIe NIC, and use the onboard NICs.

Incidentally, HP uses 6-pin fan connectors, however standard market fan connectors are either 3-pin or 4-pin. Does anyone know if there are cable adapters from 6-pin to 3-pin or 4 pin?

[Romulus6cbc]

Hi everyone, look what I found as one the BIOS fixes for the ProLiant ML350 G6 -

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3884315&swItem=MTX-d22d3ec5c39647bf872f34a076&prodNameId=3884316&swEnvOID=1005&swLang=13&taskId=135&mode=4&idx=3

Sound familiar? HP released this update back in Nov 2009, so why haven't they released a update with same fix for the DL180 G6?

[shamanius]

We hope, they working hard right now at this fix for 180.

[irens]

Yeah, we know this update. I gave link to thread about DL 380 and fans noise. It took for HP some months to fix this and realize that really there is a problem.

[shamanius]

OK, now I have a call from HP:
"The usual speed at 20 C is 8-9k rpm. But in case, if speed depends from PCI-e, its not normal. You must change front panel (where some sensors and power button and baskets with hard drives). Maybe it will resolve the problem"

[irens]

Another interesting point of view - from hp tech person.

[ian_204]

Thanks for this thread - it helped a lot when tackling this problem with HP yesterday.

We're having similar problems and they were also resolved by removing the P212 Array Controller. I've mistakenly posted our info to a new thread instead of this one. It's here in case anyone needs it: http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1444078

[Romulus6cbc]

@ian
Did HP support close your case, or is it still open?