Hopefully this is the right place to post this. I've had my Readynas Pro for about 7 years. Recently the power supply fan started to make funny noises and temperature was kind of high. Scheduled power down/ups failed so I always had the unit on. I cleaned up the unit and tried to replace the power supply fan only but the replacement fan was too slow and eventually just stopped.So I got a new power supply from Seasonic (SS-300SFD) + extension cables. I made some modifications to the cabling since they were too long and this worked out fine regarding the fan and now the scheduled power down/ups are working properly. However, the unit still gets pretty hot.I tried to replace the 120mm SYS fan with a Noctua NF-S12A FLX to see if heat issues would improve. This did not work. The NAS got really hot and hard drives started to shut down and got all kinds of messages from the NAS about heat issues, so I replaced the original 120mm fan back.I'm waiting for some crimps to improve the cabling and perhaps improve air flow. If I open the unit, the heat problem goes away. It seems the heat problem comes from the heat sink on the memory controller just below the CPU. I also noticed that my NAS uses the E2160.Would updating the CPU for an E5300 or any other compatible CPU reduce heat build up? Should I cut some holes on the side and add another fan?These are currently my NAS readings with the stock 120mm fan: Device Description Status Disk 1 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 36 C / 96 F , Write-cache ON OK Disk 2 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 35 C / 95 F , Write-cache ON OK Disk 3 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 32 C / 89 F , Write-cache ON OK Disk 4 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 34 C / 93 F , Write-cache ON OK Disk 5 WDC WD20EZRX-19D8PB0 1863 GB , 34 C / 93 F , Write-cache ON OK Disk 6 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 33 C / 91 F , Write-cache ON OK Fan SYS 1854 RPM OK Fan CPU 1534 RPM OK Temp SYS 58 C / 136 F [Normal 0-65 C / 32-149 F] OK Temp CPU 37 C / 98 F [Normal 0-60 C / 32-140 F] OK UPS 1 APC Back-UPS ES 550, Battery charge: 100%, 19 minutes OKI'm still on 4.2.27. Thanks.

I'm not seeing anything unusual about these temps, why are you concerned?

Mainly concerned because I was more used to see the Fan SYS at around 700 to 800 RPM, and seeing drives south of 36 degrees. It may have been that the Seagates I had there before (and which died in ~3 years) where cooler. However, what got me concerned is that to reduce noise I tried the Noctua 120mm fan which seemed recommended around here and things got pretty bad with it.Any recommends to keep things a little cooler and running smoother would be greatly appreciated :-D

My 4TB WD (I guess yours have just half of the platters) are 36 degrees right now, and the SYS fan is 800rpm as you would expect. The fan will increase over 42 I reckon - my previous seagate's were constantly going over 42, triggering a high speed fan cycle to cool them down. The WD would never rise more than 36 (maybe 38 under load) so the fan never runs faster than 800. I have 18 degrees in my home right now though.Your SYS temp seems a little high, mine is 49 at the time being. CPU is also cooler, mine is 21. The unit is idle of course.Did you try to recalibrate the fan speed? What is your ambient temperature?

Yup. Recalibrated plenty of times. I'm almost sure it's not the drives or the CPU but the memory/raid(?) controller. The heatsink of those gets pretty hot.That's what I was thinking if maybe changing the CPU would ease things for those two or something.It could be something else... Any ideas? :(BTW, just removed the side cover (around the motherboard), and in 2 minutes things are looking like this: Device Description Status Disk 1 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 34 C / 93 F , Write-cache ON OK Disk 2 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 33 C / 91 F , Write-cache ON OK Disk 3 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 31 C / 87 F , Write-cache ON OK Disk 4 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 32 C / 89 F , Write-cache ON OK Disk 5 WDC WD20EZRX-19D8PB0 1863 GB , 32 C / 89 F , Write-cache ON OK Disk 6 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 31 C / 87 F , Write-cache ON OK Fan SYS 1068 RPM OK Fan CPU 1548 RPM OK Temp SYS 58 C / 136 F [Normal 0-65 C / 32-149 F] OK Temp CPU 35.5 C / 95 F [Normal 0-60 C / 32-140 F] OK UPS 1 APC Back-UPS ES 550, Battery charge: 100%, 19 minutes OK... and from what I remember, will continue to drop.

OK, so its the fan speed.The pro uses software RAID. I've never really looked at the system board. Is it practical to replace the heatsink/reapply thermal paste?

Readynas Pro heat issues | NETGEAR Communities

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ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 27, 2015
I'll check the logs to see how things went down.

As far as the air. I think the SYS fan sits right behind the HDDs and lots off air gets pushed out of the NAS there since the HDD board is perforated for ventilation. You can easily feel this with your hand. On the other hand, the motherboard sits perpendicular to the SYS fan and airflow is somewhat blocked by the PSU and the internal chasis. Furthermore, the SYS fan is the ONLY fan pushing air away from the NAS. The CPU fan can only pull air into the NAS. So if the SYS fan is stopped it would seem to me that the CPU fan would only work by pulling more air from the side vent and inefficiently pushing it out through any available gaps (including the SYS fan mount cavity).

Note there is a heat sink under the CPU that is in direct contact with Disk 1. It even has a conductive pad. Disk 1 is always the hotter disk perhaps due to this heat sink. If the CPU heat is not properly dissipated through the chasis by the fan, my best guess is that it could heat up the Disk.

I'm not certain this is what's going on, but it's the best explanation I can currently offer given that Disk 1 shutted down, and SYS temperature went up. Will see.
ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 27, 2015
Welp. I don't have proof about the Disk 1 shutting down. But here are the temperature alarms:

The CPU fan did not solved it, but it's pushing more air...

Device Description Status
Disk 1 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 33 C / 91 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 2 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 32 C / 89 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 3 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 30 C / 86 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 4 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 31 C / 87 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 5 WDC WD20EZRX-19D8PB0 1863 GB , 31 C / 87 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 6 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 30 C / 86 F , Write-cache ON OK
Fan SYS 1493 RPM OK
Fan CPU 1939 RPM OK
Temp SYS 59 C / 138 F [Normal 0-65 C / 32-149 F] OK
Temp CPU 31 C / 87 F [Normal 0-60 C / 32-140 F] OK
UPS 1 APC Back-UPS ES 550, Battery charge: 100%, 17 minutes OK

Will see if I can improve air flow by crimping cables...

EDIT:

Removed the extra connector and crimped the cables. No difference.

So, completely clueless as to what is causing the Temp SYS to go high.
tony359
Apprentice
Jun 27, 2015
I'm with Stephen here.

You live in California, Google says 28°C today. I have probably around 18°C on the floor where I keep my NAS. Let's say 5°C difference. Then you have 6HDD's, which are going to make a difference for sure. I am not sure when the SYS fan is speeding up, I know it speeds up when the HDD's go beyond 42°C if memory serves, not sure about the SYS temp.

To find out more I stuck an heater in front of the NAS :)
The SYS fan speeds up slightly (927 from 892) till the temp reached 60°C, then it ramps to 1300rpm. The extra airflow manage to cool the box enough so the temp then dropped to 59°C, despite the heater in front of it.
So I put both CPUs to 100%. The CPU fan speed ramped up to 4000rpm within a minute or so, then the HDDs managed in the meantime to go over 42°C and the SYS fan speeded up again to 1700rpm. That again was enough to keep the CPU below 65°C and the SYS below 60°C. It was not going any higher and the SYS fan was not running at 100%.

Once the heater was turned off, it took say 5 minutes to go back to normality (the CPU takes less time). The SYS fan eventually dropped to the usual low speed after more time - the fan is waiting for the HDDs to go below the threshold of 42°C. It took 11 minutes for that to happen.
ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 28, 2015
Something is probably a little wrong with my old unit. It is not the fans, nor the PSU, nor the disks, nor the CPU. Perhaps something on the motherboard. But at this point I feel is wasted money and time to investigate further.

The unit was actually replacement (and used) that I got, after some advice from after hours support managed to brick my brand new NAS some years ago. The unit stopped doing automated power ups and years later the PSU fan gave up (which is why I replaced the PSU).

I got a brand new unit for $350, perhaps because the unit was being pushed out from the store (Microcenter). These are the much more reasonable numbers I'm getting:

Device Description Status
Disk 1 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 33 C / 91 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 2 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 33 C / 91 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 3 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 32 C / 89 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 4 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 32 C / 89 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 5 WDC WD20EZRX-19D8PB0 1863 GB , 33 C / 91 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 6 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 32 C / 89 F , Write-cache ON OK
Fan SYS 902 RPM OK
Fan CPU 2033 RPM OK
Temp 1 54 C / 129 F [Normal 0-65 C / 32-149 F] OK
Temp 2 41 C / 105 F [Normal 0-85 C / 32-185 F] OK
UPS 1 APC Back-UPS ES 550, Battery charge: 100%, 17 minutes

The unit runs much more quiet.
tony359
Apprentice
Jun 28, 2015
the only difference is the SYS fan speed. You said you tried the calibration, did you?
Have you run a factory reset on this new unit?
ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 28, 2015
The other differences are the SYS temperature being lower and the CPU temperature being higher. For some reason the old unit has a hard time cooling the chasis.

I tried calibration like 50 times on the old unit. I did not run a factory reset on the new unit.
tony359
Apprentice
Jun 28, 2015
The Sys temp is just 4°C lower, maybe it's just a cooler day! I may be mistaken but I feel you are overlooking the importance of the ambience temperature.

I do not know where the SYS temp sensor is, maybe it was just slightly misplaced on the old unit?

I kind of remember that the Motherboard is then resting on the chassis as well for heat dissipation, behind the CPU, but I may be mistaken.
ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 29, 2015
Today is a hot day and my old unit's SYS temperature was higher with the SYS fan running quite a bit faster, today. I'm fairly confident there is something wrong or maybe different on my old Pro unit. I'll keep it as a backup in case the new one fails. It runs reasonably well if I remove the side panel.

EDIT: LOL! Turns out the new unit comes with the E5300. I think I read around here that there might be different motherboard versions (could be wrong). At least this brand new unit is quiet and runs well. It would have been nice if the replacement unit I got was not some obviously used, outdated, and perhaps refurbished deal. But it is what it is. I feel I got a good deal on this new unit and learned some stuff.
itsjasper
Luminary
Jun 29, 2015
Weren't the v1 Pro units known for reporting high system temps (something related to the temp sensor placement on the Northbridge IIRC)?

I remember my first v1 Pro exhibiting similar behaviour under v4.x, it was always close to the upper limit and triggering alarms in summertime. I don't recall ever having a problem with it other than the alerting.

I don't recall it triggering alarms under OS6, though I'm not sure if that is an OS6 thing, or because it has been relegated to test duties in the basement. I'll bring it upstairs and see what it reports.
ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 29, 2015
Well, for what it's worth, the HDDs do run cooler with the old Pro... which maybe due to the SYS fan running much slower.

The one thing I kind of regret is the step where I crimped the PSU cables to the extension. The PSU replacement job looked a little nicer with the connector. The crimps add volume to the mess of wires anyway.

The old unit might have been fine (after a PSU replacement), but it was fairly noisy.

How are the fans behaving under OS6? Read around that fans were running too fast or something. Any issues?

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Readynas Pro heat issues

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