Is your Dell R610 too loud? Here's how to fix it. | PowerEdge Tips

In this video, I have a Dell R610 that is running excessively loud even under no load. The CPUs, nor any other component is overheating. What is happening is that the ambient temperature sensor was reading 40C even though the room temperature was only about 23-25C. Basically, the temperature sensor in the server was failing and giving false reading. This was causing the system BMC to run the fans at very high RPMs in reaction to this false reading. This video will show you how to replace the ambient temperature sensor by replacing the R610 front I/O board. Once this board is replaced, I demonstrate how the fans slow down and the noise level drops by about 14dBA.
Timestamps:
0:03 - Explaining why the Dell R610 is loud
3:54 - Explaining how to fix the ambient temperature sensor
4:34 - Explaining how to replace the ambient temperature sensor
5:39 - Removing the front T8 screw
6:01 - Disconnecting all the cables from the front I/O board
8:07 - Removing the T10 screws
9:17 - Removing the front I/O board
9:38 - Installing new front I/O board
10:54 - Installing 3 T10 screws
11:37 - Reconnecting cables to the front I/O board
12:37 - Installing T8 screw
13:51 - Power on R610 after replacing ambient temperature sensor
13:55 - Verifying the ambient temperature is correct and fan speeds are down
14:30 - Comparing room temperature vs ambient temperature sensor
15:05 - Checking fan noise level
16:21 - Wrap up
Dell R610 Front I/O USB VGA board P/N: F921M FNRH3 (Find it on eBay: ebay.to/44XalSu)
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#artofserver #dell #poweredge #R610

[@slopsec2358]

Great stuff, love your videos. And I noticed how you gave those screws a little reverse turn to seat them, before cranking them down. Sign of someone with experience!

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks! Yeah... I'm a bit OCD I think... I stripped the screw threads once in a automotive project and that was a pain to fix. It's made me paranoid of doing that again. LOL

[@amateurwizard]

Always fun learning something new this way

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for watching!

[@egysnet]

Thank you for your wonderful effort. I follow your videos constantly

[@ArtofServer]

Thank you so much! :-)

[@metrotechguru5863]

Good video. It's nice to see a "how to" video on a topic that will help people save a lot of aggravation (noise).

[@ArtofServer]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mikes3290]

Great video. Perfect as I just snagged 2 R610s on eBay dirt cheap (1 for 25 and the 2nd for 17.50) I expected to have to Frankenstein them together and add a few parts but neither has shown any issue as of yet. Saved you as a seller

[@ArtofServer]

Glad you liked it. Thanks for watching! :-)

[@joji0717]

Nice!!

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks!

[@yianliu8533]

Hi very nice video, I just a question my PSU are not working and I am planing to buy a new one but I don’t know which one should I buy can you please help me?

[@mr.mike678]

I have two PowerEdge servers, R620 and R730XD. After booting, R620's fan speeds fall down to 20% (which is not noticeable at all), but R730XD's fans remain at 68%. It sounds exactly like a plane taking off. I'm unsure if it's because of a faulty sensor, but the temperature graph shows 27°C. To address this, I created a temporary VM inside the server to send an ipmitool command to manually set the fan speed to 20% after boot, which worked for me. I monitored the temperatures and they remained at 26-27°C. Now both servers are running at 20% fan speed and they are barely audible.

[@ArtofServer]

Glad you were able to find a solution! Thanks for sharing!

[@UnkyjoesPlayhouse]

Is that sensor in the same location for the R710 as well? Great video as usual.

[@ArtofServer]

I suspect the sensor is on the equivalent board on the R710 as well, but I don't have 1st hand experience fixing this issue on the R710. Check to see if your reading is correct or not first. If it is, then it's probably fine. Thank you for watching!

[@happy9955]

i have not this server but learn something.great

[@ArtofServer]

Glad it may be helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@michaelnichelson3423]

Love ipmitool. Especially since you can override the internal decision-making for the fan speed and set it manually. Should I do this? Probably not. But on an R520 file server that idles basically all day, there is no reason why it can't run in an air conditioned house with barely higher temps. I should look into the temperature module though like you did in this vid.

[@ArtofServer]

The 12th gen servers are usually pretty quiet already aren't they? It's the 11th gen that tend to be louder.

[@TheGodOfWar1337]

Interesting, mine shows 32c at boot , I assume I might have to swap mine out?

[@npetalas]

Nice video, I don't have this problem but just for learning purposes, would it be possible to fix this issue without replacing that board by having a fan curve based on CPU temp instead of ambient temp?

[@ArtofServer]

The BMC takes into account several sensors, including CPU temps. If you want to change the behavior of the BMC, then you need to modify the BMC firmware.

[@user-rf47CwB72]

Yes it is possible. Locate the NTC resistor on the board and replace it with a digital potentiometer. Use any temperature sensor you like, or read CPU temperature data directly from the Super I/O controller (or BMC) on the motherboard, write firmware for the microcontroller to read that data, and adjust the resistance of the digital potentiometer based on the array of your "fan curve" data. There is only one limitation - the minimum fan speed limit of the BMC firmware when it throws a fan error. Thus, replacing the board is much easier, faster and does not require reverse engineering, programming skills and expensive hardware.

[@lpseem3770]

It looks exactly like in r710. Maybe they are really the same boards.

[@ArtofServer]

That could be.

[@Neroslinger]

An R610? Blast from the past! I imagine that costs a lot to run with energy rates these days

[@ArtofServer]

It's not too bad, depending on the configuration. However, newer servers are generally more energy efficient and lower idle power states.

[@user-zv3lj1ef7l]

it doesn't need a PAIR of CPU's to run.

[@leonardotoschi585]

My r610 is really lo... i don't have an r610.

[@ArtofServer]

lol