HP ProLiant DL180 G6 – Resolving Fan Noise Issues

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Recently i did bought an HP ProLiant DL180 G6

Everything is OK except fan noise , it's too loud. I did some research but found nothing useful , I just wanted to know if there is anything I can do about it?

Best Answer

Unbelievable...

I found the answer after a ton of research and comparing two HP Dl180 G6's, one with the fan noise issue and one without I discovered the problem.

So here is the issue.

On right hand side of the server behind the power button there is a temperature sensor. When the motherboard stops registering that temp it assumes the incoming air is hotter then acceptable and ramps up the fan noise to compensate. The really odd thing is that the absence of this sensor data doesn't raise any red flags in the system or ILO. It simply indicates no data for the front panel sensor.

When I swapped in the front panel from a known working server the problem went away. When I swapped in the bad sensor to a working server the problem followed the sensor to the new server.

The sensor is not a separate part number it is part of the drive bay.

I called HP and insisted they replace the drive bay so I could get a new sensor. The first drive bay they sent me was like for like, it was an 8 bay hotswap with the DVD-ROM drive. Part # 507305-001. I swapped that in and the problem remained it still wasn't registering the temp sensor.

I called HP and had them replace it again and again same problem.

Third call to HP I insisted they send me the drive bay for the 12 3.5 inch hotswap unit. This matched the working server that I owned. When I received it I carefully moved the power button assembly to my 8 bay unit and plugged it in. It was magic. When it rebooted ILO reported the following:

Generic 01/01/2002 00:02:14 FAN4_INLET Lower Critical-going low Assertion 
Generic 01/01/2002 00:03:34 FAN4_INLET Lower Critical-going low Assertion

Fan noise returned to normal and when I checked ILO and IPMI data front panel was registering temp.

The part number for the 12 bay unit is 507254-001

The individual temp sensor didn't have any identifying marks on it and in all respects looked very similar. However there were some marked differences surrounding the temperature sensor chip. On the 8 bay unit it was covered in epoxy. On the 12 bay unit it was free and open.

My guess is this is a manufacturing defect.

I notified HP Engineering about the issue and provided them the same details as I am listing here.

I hope this helps someone out.

Good Luck.

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