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Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

 
Bruce_Murphy
New Member

Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

I had a case like this recently, the fans would all climb to 100% within 5 minutes of rebooting on a DL380p Gen8.
Tried updating iLO to 1.22, reseating fans, clearing NVram, swapped SYSbrd, and HDD backplanes with no effect.
I was getting HDD overheat messages as well, and they were cold to the touch.
Turned out to be Non HP hard drives.
Removed them and fans went to 10 - 20 %.
ocarman
Occasional Visitor

Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

I've had an open case with HP Support about this issue since April.

 

I'm running Ubuntu  Server 12.04, and my fans never go below ~48%. In my case, the server must be located in a setting where it would be near people's desks, so just living with the noise was not an option for me.

 

HP Support recently gave me a "fix" to install, but the fix did nothing. Prior to that, I was given a replacement server, but the replacement server has the exact same problem. These are "Smart Buy" servers with a stock configuration and absolutely no non-HP hardware. This issue has gone on for so long that I actually had to buy another server (not an HP server, obviously -- never again) so that I wouldn't miss my project deadline.

 

I've repeatedly asked for information about the possibility of a return and refund, but my request has never been directly addressed. I just get told time and time again that HP is working on the issue, or that my questions about a return are being referred somewhere (though I never get a response from anyone). I think this is well past the point where that's at all acceptable.

 

 HP's technical exceptions matrix for Ubuntu makes no mention of this fan speed issue. That's fundamentally deceptive. This has been a known issue for months and prospective buyers have a right to be informed so that they don't end up in the situation that I'm in now. It's pretty obvious that despite claims to the contrary, HP is either unable or unwilling to provide even a baseline level of support for Ubuntu, given the frequency with which support suggested that I install Windows as a "solution" to this fan speed issue.

 

This has been far and away the worst warranty support experience I've ever had. I wish I had a solution that could help other people in my situation, but the best I can do is post this as a warning of sorts.

pidesign
Occasional Visitor

Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

Tonight I fitted a hot plug power supply (2x 503296-B21) into the Server the fan speeds are now as follows:-

 

Fan1 & 2 - 35%

Fan 3 - 21%

Fan 4 - 6%

 

This seems to have reduced the fan noise a bit, but they still seem to be spining up and down for no reason.

Jack Hodson
Occasional Visitor

Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

We have the same problem. 
The NCRAM has been cleared, and the controller updated to 3.54. We have a case open with HP but no resolution yet.

Jack

jbintz
New Member

Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

We have been struggling with this for 8 weeks. Had HP onsite to swap out motherboards, cannibalized another server to try all fresh parts, ilo and hp firmware upgrades, etc.

 

Tech support actually said  4 fans running at 68% was normal.  It wasn't.  HP came back onsite and tried the same thing RDamrath reported. The problem seems to be in the base BIOS. With the fan kit it seems the bios default is:

 

Advanced Options / Thermal Configuration / Increased Cooling

 

When changed to Advanced Options / Thermal Configuration / Optimal Cooling  the fans dropped from  4 x 68% to

16, 16, 16, & 9%  following the reboot.

 

I have 9 of these.  Resetting the bios has  worked on the 4 configured so far.

 

GeorgeK2
Occasional Advisor

Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

I found the solution to my problem with the fan speed & noise.  Hopefully this will help others, too.  My resolution was to use the HP closed source Linux driver for the B120i RAID controller.

 

I originally posted about my problem back in January.  I was unable to find a solution so I let this ML350e Gen8 server sit for six months while I worked on other projects.  Last week I dived back into it.

 

I need this server to run Linux, not Windows.  With Windows the fans would run at low speeds, but with Linux installed they would run at higher speeds.  The certified Linux installations do not have the correct driver for the HP Smart Array B120i controller so I was disabling the controller and using the embedded AHCI controller.  It always bothered me that we spent money on this server and couldn't make use of the RAID controller.

 

During the six months that I ignored the server, new SPP updates have been released so I made sure everything was current.  Then I learned how to do a driver update during the Linux installation so I could regain the RAID controller.  The driver update was the trick to silence the fans!  As soon as the HP closed source driver was in place, the fan speeds went from 53% to 17%, and it's whisper quiet now.  I verified this with both RHEL6 and SELS11.  The fans went quiet before the OS installation was complete, and do not require the HP System Health daemons to be running.

 

Suse Enterprise Linux was the easier of the two for the driver update during installation.  It showed an option for a driver update on the first screen.  RedHat Enterprise Linux was trickier, and offered two methods: manual and automatic.  The automatic requires the label "OEMDRV" on the driver disk (a USB Key).

 

Drivers download: 

https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/docDisplay?docId=kc0115150en_us&docLocale=en_US

[Please also visit: https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/home]

RedHat driver update instructions:

https://access.redhat.com/site/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Installation_Guide/sect-Preparing_for_a_driver_update_during_installation-x86.html

 

 

Jack Hodson
Occasional Visitor

Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

Our issue was solved by HP swapping out the motherboard.

I think it had settled down anyway as the day before I rebooted and decided to unplug the PSUs. Since that boot up (post NVRAM clearing and storage controlled updates to 3.54) it was OK.

Note, it was playing up after the NVRAM and update was applied but I had never pulled the power cables out.
Cesar Vieira
Advisor

Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

Hi all,

 

I was given a Beta BIOS but didn't solve my customer's problem.

 

After applying the BIOS it states:

 

P72 Bootleg (Fan Files) 12/35/2012

Cesar Vieira
Advisor

Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

The problem is finally solved on my customers server.

 

HP sent a technician onsite to replace the motherboard and the problem went away.

kernel-io
Occasional Visitor

Re: HP ML350e Gen8 Fan Noise

I have a new ML350p, with all the latest updates, my fans hover around 35% non-stop. All my thermal settings indicate that they should be running lower. I have a non-HP expansion card installed as a matter of necessity, is there a way to override this fan control?

 

I have read other posts about how the system firmware will run the fans at a higher speed when a non-HP expansion card is installed, but have not found a way, or any indication of a 'fix' from HP.

 

I am using this machine as a workstation for virtualisation and that PCI-E card is required by a virtual machine.

 

Machine is running Server 2012R2 and is fully patched with the latest SPP.

 

Any suggestions?