Proliant ML150 Rear Fan Replacement does not work

[Marcelo Farall]

During POST my system displayed something like this: “Rear fan not working or disconnected, press F1 to continue or F10 to setup”

I verified the fan and it doesn’t work, so I followed the procedures, ordered a rear fan spare and replaced it.

My surprise was that the new spare doesn’t work either.

Any idea?

[KarloChacon]

hi

ml150 generation?

bye

[Marcelo Farall]

Is a Proliant ML150 G2

[Robin Wong]

Hi,

I am having the same problem too, any solutions?

[Johan Guldmyr]

Was it 372787-001 that you got?
How is the cable and connector looking?

Any dirt/broken pins that might be causing this?

[Prabhu Raj]

The replacement received mighty be faulty. re-indent another fan.

[Marcelo Farall]

We have change the spare 3 times, because we were thinking it might be a fortuitous problem.

About the connector, the first fan came without terminals, then we used the connector of the "bad one". The other two spares came as the original part.

Today I am working with the first spare that came without terminals. If you help spinning it manualy, it starts and runs slowly and dosen't stop. If you reset the system it continious working and dosen't stop neither, so the system doesn't detect a fan problem.

[Patrick O'Connell]

Hi, All,

I am having the same problem trying to fix a customers same issue, POST says rear fan failed or disconnected.

action so far: 2 systemboards, 3 fans, PSU, all pci options out, cd rom/tape drive disconnected, memory eliminated, cpu replaced,latest firmware confirmed.

System still says rear system fan failed or disconnected.

System is 1 cpu so we can run the rear fan (slower) from the cpu fan connector,(difficult because the cable wont reach so we have 'piggy backed' another rear fan to the original in place, although it gives the same post message, the server still boots and works, but is not an ideal situation!.

Any gurus out there know a fix because its bugging the customer and me!.

Best Regards Pat.

[Morton Associates]

I am in the same situation, in that one day the server stopped running and during POST my system also displayed: â Rear fan not working or disconnected, press F1 to continue or F10 to setupâ

A few things are noteworthy. First, is that it might not be a broken fan, but instead, power is not making it to the rear fan 3 pin connection.

Now for the fellow that has replaced the motherboard - this seems to indicate that you are either extremely unlucky, HP is manufacturing broken motherboards - OR - this is some kind of firmware issue, possibly time related.

From what the other poster said about connecting the 3 pin to the CPU 3 pin - it may not run as fast as desired. I don't know...my server has 2 CPU's.

My suggestion to anyone in this situation is to power down the server, and connect the fan (via the white capped 3 pin connector) at the location that the front fan is connected to see, if indeed, the fan is broken. If it works, the fan is not broken obviously.

Now - as far as that being a semi permanent solution, there is one problem, in that the wire is not long enough to reach. I'm going to look at Fry's to see if I can find a 3 pin extension at least a foot long.

What I am looking for is 1/2 shown in this picture:

http://www.dansdata.com/images/coolercomp/ttv9fan520.jpg

In the wire on the right, there are two white caps. The one on the bottom will accept the 3 pin fan connection that comes a part of the fan. I want to connect it to that and the other end to have the same connection that comes with the fan.

If I have a wire like this, that is a foot long, I can connect the fan and place it where it belongs inside the server.

I want to do this first, because the rear fan is much more robust compared to the front fan.

Next, I want to see if there is any way to get power to another 12 volt 3 pin connection so I can run my front fan.

I can imagine using one of the PCI slots, if a PCI card can give me 3 pin 12 volt power. I'm not certain at all if such a thing as a hard drive power female connection to 3 pin male connection exists.

I'll keep you all posted.

Ultimately - doing the above is not a perfect solution, if the power goes out and the computer comes on afterwards, it will halt at the message. Maybe I can disable that in the BIOS, but then if there is another problem, I won't be notified.

Extra info about my fan order:

I didn't think to take my own advice above, and I ordered another fan yesterday and asked for expedited shipping. To my surprise, I received it the next morning before 10:00, after having made the order at 1:45 PM the day before. (Note: I work in Palo Alto maybe 5 miles from HP, so it may differ.)

[Morton Associates · Accepted solution]

I was able to resolve the issue with the only remaining problem is that on reboot, we will get a warning about rear fan failure.

The rear fan is in fact, running.

I went to Fry's and bought, for $2.99 a PAC Link "Premium Computer Cables" 18" DC Fan Wire EXT 4P-3P 5V Plu# 2585841 PA-FANWX.

Its a splitter, so you plug the splitter into the three pin mother board connection where the front fan is connected. Plug the front fan into one of the connections and the rear fan into the other.

I've noticed no decrease in fan speed.

[Dale Zink_1]

Per the HP ASE Support line you need this fan 373275-001 to fix the f1 error

[Morton Associates]

"Per the HP ASE Support line you need this fan 373275-001 to fix the f1 error"

I'm not clear as to what this means - let me explain what I mean by that. :)

Is this is a way to get rid of the post error under the circumstances that both fans are sharing power split from the fron fan power connection?

Or something else?

Looking at this support page: "HP ProLiant ML150 G2 Server Series - Removing and Replacing the Rear Fan"

at:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&taskId=125&prodSeriesId=435422&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=435422&objectID=c01462932

it calls for part number 372787-001 -

So thats why I'm guessing that your post relates to a situation in which I described.

Can you verify?

Thank You - much appreciated.

[JQ Becker]

Same Problem!

I connected the supposedly failed fan to a different machine,and it came on just fine!

I put a new fan into the ML150 G2, and it does not work either.

I'm going to try to flash the BIOS, see what happens. Let you know.

[D Todd]

"I'm going to try to flash the BIOS, see what happens. Let you know"

You haven't let us know. Did it help?

I have the same problem.

[Baf]

I'm also interested, did flashing of BIOS help you?

[Rosworth]

I have the same problem. Someone said they were planning on flashing the Bios. Is there any feedback as to whether this was done and if it made a difference?

[Jim_McCarthy]

I have an ML150 G2 that suddenly began showing these same symptoms. I have installed the "not working" rear fan in another ML150 G2 where it worked fine, and likewise I tried another (known working) rear fan in the first ML150 G2 where I found it did not function, with same "press F1 to continue" error message at boot.

Based on posts in this forum thread and others, I have updated the flash BIOS to the latest version (2006.06.30 A), but in answer to the questions here, this DID NOT fix the problem with the non-working rear fan.

Is the only solution to power the rear fan using a Y-cable that allows tapping into a motherboard connection for one of the CPU fans (my ML150 G2 machines have dual CPUs, and dual CPU fans) or the front fan ? Would there be any value in keeping fan speed sensing wire for the rear fan still connected to the original rear fan connector on the motherboard ?

Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions,

-- Jim

[D Todd]

Unfortunately powering the fan from a different connector won't solve the main problem (for me anyway), which is the inability to allow automatic updates or restart the server remotely because it just sits at the press F1 to continue screen.

Can you confirm that there is no option in the upgraded BIOS to ignore error.

I think with the number of people with this problem there is a design fault with the motherboard.

Thanks.

[Jim_McCarthy]

D Todd --

See my 24-Feb-2010 reply on this parallel thread:

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1392183

Hope that helps !

-- Jim

[D Todd]

Jim,

That's great, if works it solves my problem.

I am on customer site tomorrow so will check it out then and reply back.

Regards.

[D Todd]

Turning off F1 reporting now means the server will restart when required without intervention.

Thanks Jim

[Baf]

Excuse me, I don't understand. So it is not solves our problem ?

[D Todd]

That depends what your main issue was.

The motherboard obviously develops a fault where the fan connector no longer provides power to the fan, so, in order to get the fan working you need to get some kind of extension cable and connect it to an alternative power source on the board.

The problem this then leaves is that the BIOS then will not allow you to boot the server without pressing F1 meaning remote support/updates are unworkable.

Turning off the requirement for F1 input in the BIOS resolves this problem.