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

47 Replies

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StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Jun 20, 2015
I'm not seeing anything unusual about these temps, why are you concerned?
ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 20, 2015
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
tony359
Apprentice
Jun 20, 2015
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?
ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 20, 2015
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.
StephenB
Guru - Experienced User
Jun 20, 2015
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?
ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 21, 2015
Could try and do that. Will report back :)

BTW, the problem I had in the past about the NAS and the power timer "power itself on and off automatically on a schedule" not working, went away with the power supply replacement.
tony359
Apprentice
Jun 21, 2015
Forgot to mention that I replaced my CPU some time ago and applied new paste.

Your CPU and SYS temp did not change, and - at least on my Pro - the fan speed does not change if the HDD's are not beyond 42 degrees. Does your fan spin down immediately after you remove the cover? I do not understand how removing the top panel can improve airflow. It will improve the airflow around the heathsink you mentioned but not around HDD and I do not understand how the HDD's can get cooler with the top removed.

Are you 100% sure everything in your RN is dust free, including holes on the back of the HDDs and the mesh in front of the unit? Can you feel a very low airflow coming out of the unit when the top is mounted? Sorry for asking what are probably silly questions! :)

Changing the thermal past may help but what I am thinking is that if the paste wasn't working you wouldn't have a very hot heathsink. You would have a very high temperature reported somewhere and the heathsink wouldn't be so hot. I'll see if I can check on mine, it's high time for a clean anyway! :)
ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 21, 2015
As far as heat, it seems the motherboard rests on the side close to where HDD 1 and 4 are. The hottest one is HDD 1, and the Pro has a heatsink right on below the CPU and adjacent to HDD1 I think.

Things did not immediately spin down, but with the cover off these are my numbers now:

Device Description Status
Disk 1 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 28 C / 82 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 2 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 27 C / 80 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 3 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 27 C / 80 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 4 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 28 C / 82 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 5 WDC WD20EZRX-19D8PB0 1863 GB , 28 C / 82 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 6 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 26 C / 78 F , Write-cache ON OK
Fan SYS 969 RPM OK
Fan CPU 1548 RPM OK
Temp SYS 58 C / 136 F [Normal 0-65 C / 32-149 F] OK
Temp CPU 33 C / 91 F [Normal 0-60 C / 32-140 F] OK
UPS 1 APC Back-UPS ES 550, Battery charge: 100%, 19 minutes OK

As far as dust, I removed dust all over and can fell airflow coming out of the unit.

What CPU do you have currently?
tony359
Apprentice
Jun 21, 2015
I've opened mine, it needed a clean!

Right, the way it is assembled, the big fan on the back will not extract any air through the HDD's if you remove the side cover, all the airflow will come from the removed side panel. I am really puzzled why you have lower HDD's temperatures when you remove the side panel.

I touched the heathsink just after powering down. It's warm but not hot. The MB uses the chassis as heathsink if memory serves (not hugely sure) but still the airflow from the main fan should be enough not to cause any trouble.

I ask that again: are you sure your metal 'mesh' on the front is clean and the holes on the back of the HDD's are unobstructed? That wouldn't explain how your temperatures drop when the panel is off. With the panel off you're basically stopping any airflow through the HDDs.

Silly question: is the big fan mounted the correct way, i.e. does it blow air out of the unit? Use a piece of paper to check, sometimes it's hard to say and that fan is a low airflow one. Same with the PSU fan, does it blow or suck air? If the PSU blows air INSIDE the unit, that may explain a bit.
ultrabike
Aspirant
Jun 21, 2015
LOL! I opened mine. Had to since it needed a power supply change.

Yes, it was pretty dirty. But now it's relatively clean. I just gave it another pass and this time I upgraded the BIOS to the latest (for 4.2.27). We'll see what it does. Might be able to upgrade the CPU with a used E7600 too.

As far as fans. Yes, the only one that pushes air out is the 120mm big fan. The CPU and PSU fans push air towards the CPU and towards the insight of the supply. The mesh is unobstructed and can feel the air being pulled through it.

Right away the temperatures raised:

Disk 1 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 32 C / 89 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 2 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 29 C / 84 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 3 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 28 C / 82 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 4 WDC WD20EFRX-68AX9N0 1863 GB , 30 C / 86 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 5 WDC WD20EZRX-19D8PB0 1863 GB , 29 C / 84 F , Write-cache ON OK
Disk 6 WDC WD20EARX-00PASB0 1863 GB , 28 C / 82 F , Write-cache ON OK
Fan SYS 1577 RPM OK
Fan CPU 1520 RPM OK
Temp SYS 61 C / 141 F [Normal 0-65 C / 32-149 F] OK
Temp CPU 36 C / 96 F [Normal 0-60 C / 32-140 F] OK
UPS 1 APC Back-UPS ES 550, Battery charge: 100%, 19 minutes OK

It may also be thermal paste somehow. I did remove the CPU fan at some point to clean it up. Will check if adding more of that helps.