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Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?

dhl
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Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?

Hi,

 

Our ReadyNAS 626 has horrible coil whine when idling. It's so loud I can hear it 30-feet away in another room. Here's what it sounds like:

 

https://soundcloud.com/dhl/readynas-626-coil-whine/s-qQ5Aq

 

We're using 5 Seagate ST8000NM0055 8GB drives in XS-RAID confguration. Can anything be done to make this better? It's really awful. Thanks for your help!

 

--David

Model: RN626X|ReadyNAS 626X – 6 Bays with Intel® Xeon® Quad-Core Server Processor
Message 1 of 15
StephenB
Guru

Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?

I am thinking it might be one of the disks, and not the NAS.  If so, the disk should be replaced even if the SMART stats are good.

 

Can you try powering down the NAS, and removing the disks?  Then see if you still hear the sound.

 

If the sound goes away, then perhaps try connecting each disk to a USB adapter/dock (perhaps connecting the dock to a PC to make sure it spins up), and see if you can isolate the disk.

Message 2 of 15
dhl
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Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@StephenB wrote:

I am thinking it might be one of the disks, and not the NAS.  If so, the disk should be replaced even if the SMART stats are good.

 

Can you try powering down the NAS, and removing the disks?  Then see if you still hear the sound.

 

If the sound goes away, then perhaps try connecting each disk to a USB adapter/dock (perhaps connecting the dock to a PC to make sure it spins up), and see if you can isolate the disk.


Thanks @StephenB. That sounds like a good idea. These drives should still be under warranty. None of them show any errors. I'll have to look around for a 3.5 dock, We should have a couple around here. Is there any risk to the individual drives in plugging it into a PC or Mac?

 

I believe its been doing this ever since we set the 626 up last year and I guess it doesn't bother my partners, but it really bothers me!

 

Message 3 of 15
StephenB
Guru

Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@dhl wrote: Is there any risk to the individual drives in plugging it into a PC or Mac?

No, as long as you are careful not to format the drives.  If you want to test them while you are at it, then you want to plug them into a PC (as WD's lifeguard program requires Windows). 

 

Of course a drive will make some noise during normal operation. But your drives should be quiet - spec'd at ~28 db when the drive is idling.  That's about the level of a whisper.  If you test with the drive connected to a USB adapter ,then listen with the drive on a pad of paper, or something similar to prevent the drive from vibrating the table surface.

 

FWIW, the noise spec for the RN626x chassis itself is about the same as your drives (spec'd at < 28 dbm).  So it should also be quiet.  If the noise of the NAS continues w/o the drives installed, then it is likely a fan.  That could be covered by the NAS warranty - you'd need to RMA the NAS to resolve it.  I think you can set that up so that Netgear ships the replacement NAS first, so you'd have no downtime.  Also, you'd need to pay for the shipping of your current NAS.

 

If you want objective data, there are some phone apps that can measure the noise level.  To get an accurate measurement you'd need to calibrate the software - but you should still get a reasonable ball-park measurement w/o calibration.

 

 

Message 4 of 15
dhl
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Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@StephenB wrote:

@dhl wrote: Is there any risk to the individual drives in plugging it into a PC or Mac?

No, as long as you are careful not to format the drives.  If you want to test them while you are at it, then you want to plug them into a PC (as WD's lifeguard program requires Windows). 

 

Of course a drive will make some noise during normal operation. But your drives should be quiet - spec'd at ~28 db when the drive is idling.  That's about the level of a whisper.  If you test with the drive connected to a USB adapter ,then listen with the drive on a pad of paper, or something similar to prevent the drive from vibrating the table surface.

 

FWIW, the noise spec for the RN626x chassis itself is about the same as your drives (spec'd at < 28 dbm).  So it should also be quiet.  If the noise of the NAS continues w/o the drives installed, then it is likely a fan.  That could be covered by the NAS warranty - you'd need to RMA the NAS to resolve it.  I think you can set that up so that Netgear ships the replacement NAS first, so you'd have no downtime.  Also, you'd need to pay for the shipping of your current NAS.

 

If you want objective data, there are some phone apps that can measure the noise level.  To get an accurate measurement you'd need to calibrate the software - but you should still get a reasonable ball-park measurement w/o calibration.

 

 


@StephenB Thanks for the detailed reply. I'm pretty sure it must be the drives. I did a search on the drive model number + "coil whine" and found a couple threads where people were complaining about this exact noise. A couple people posted that they were able to fix the problem with a firmware update, and a check at the Seagate website shows that a firmware update is avaible for these drives. unfortunately, the frimware update utility instructions very clearly state "DO NOT run this firmware update on RAID systems." so I guess that eleminates that option 😞

 

I have a calibrated db meter on my phone and I mearure ~50db at the NAS ~39db at my desk about 10 feet from the NAS. That seems pretty loud to me. It's ~31db in the room with the NAS shutdown. When the disks are accessed, it's about ~34db but it's not a bad sound. The whine is loud and very unpleasent and only happens during idle, not when the disks are being accessed.

 

I'll try to find one of our old SATA docks and do a test during off hours. If it's the drives it would be good to figure out which one(s) of the 5 are causing the problem.

Message 5 of 15
StephenB
Guru

Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@dhl wrote:

DO NOT run this firmware update on RAID systems." so I guess that eleminates that option 😞


I'm thinking that the issue they are worried about is running the firmware update software on a system with a hardware RAID controller, not that the new firmware isn't compatible with RAID.

 

You might follow up on that with Seagate, since if it's about the RAID controller you could update the firmware while the disks are connected to the PC.

Message 6 of 15
dhl
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Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@StephenB wrote:

You might follow up on that with Seagate, since if it's about the RAID controller you could update the firmware while the disks are connected to the PC.

I'll contact Seagate and fiollow up. I found our SATA dock and did the test. All disks spun up without needing to be connected to a PC. Each disk had a whine, and a couple were louder than the others, but even the louder ones were quieter that how they sound when they're idling inside the NAS. Now I'm thinking the whine might be related to the NAS as well as the disks.

 

How would I test for this? The NAS is quiet when there are no disks installed and the whine only happens when the disks are completely idle? I'm a bit stumped on how to preceed. from this point.

 

Thanks!

Message 7 of 15
StephenB
Guru

Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?

The chassis itself has resonance, and the enclosed space will affect the sound you hear.  Plus there will be some induced vibration of the chassis from the disks.

 

I don't think there's much you can do about it.  You might be able to put in some small pads in between the disk and the trays that might reduce transmitted vibration. But you'd have to be careful not to make them too thick though.

Message 8 of 15
dhl
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Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@StephenB wrote:

The chassis itself has resonance, and the enclosed space will affect the sound you hear.  Plus there will be some induced vibration of the chassis from the disks.

 

I don't think there's much you can do about it.  You might be able to put in some small pads in between the disk and the trays that might reduce transmitted vibration. But you'd have to be careful not to make them too thick though.


Yeah, I was afraid that's where this was going. Smiley Indifferent I'll still follow up with Seagate but I'm regretting these disks. We're using HGST drives in our 104 backup NAS and it's virtually silent when operating. I ordered the Segates because they're enterprise class and on the HCL. Fortunately, my partners don't seem to mind, but I think the noise is unacceptable.

 

Thanks for your advice!

Message 9 of 15
StephenB
Guru

Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@dhl wrote: Fortunately, my partners don't seem to mind, but I think the noise is unacceptable.

 


There are other mitigations that might be simpler.  If the NAS is at ear-level you could moving it to near floor-level.  There could also be vibration coupling between the NAS and the shelf - putting a pad under the NAS would reduce that. 

 

Putting a sound-absorbent barrier of some kind between you and the NAS would definitely help.  Just be careful to maintain enough space around the NAS to ensure good air flow.

Message 10 of 15
dhl
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Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?

The NAS is in my partner's office on a bookcase shelf at floor level. The ideal solution would be relocating it to a closet where it would have plenty of airflow and be acoustically isolated. We have such a space at our studio but I don't think it has network wiring. I'll raise this as an option when they get back from their trip.

 

One possible selling point would be using cat-7 wiring and beginning to upgrade with 10gbe in mind. I brought my workstation with a 10gbe card and was getting speeds of ~189mbps writes and ~320mbps reads connecting directly to the NAS with a long cat-5 cable. That was impressive and I'll bet it would be even faster with proper cabling.

Message 11 of 15
StephenB
Guru

Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@dhl wrote:

I brought my workstation with a 10gbe card and was getting speeds of ~189mbps writes and ~320mbps reads connecting directly to the NAS with a long cat-5 cable. That was impressive and I'll bet it would be even faster with proper cabling.


The cabling does matter.  But 10GBASE-T should run 45 meters over cat 5e.  Cat 6 or 6a/7 give you more distance.

Message 12 of 15
dhl
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Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@StephenB wrote:

@dhl wrote:

I brought my workstation with a 10gbe card and was getting speeds of ~189mbps writes and ~320mbps reads connecting directly to the NAS with a long cat-5 cable. That was impressive and I'll bet it would be even faster with proper cabling.


The cabling does matter.  But 10GBASE-T should run 45 meters over cat 5e.  Cat 6 or 6a/7 give you more distance.


Well, given that the NAS is on a cat 5 cable that's maybe 7 or 8 meters tops, that's probably the best speeds we can expect. Still pretty good!

 

Anyway I called Seagate support to follow up and here's where things are now at:

 

After two hours on the phone over two days, level 2 support has sent me 5 replacement drives for the entire RAID set which arrive tomorrow. We're using X-RAID 6 so for safety, I'll be replacing one drive at a time and letting the RAID resync fully before doing the next drive. We have a data set that's ~8TB and it takes about 12-hours for resync to complete. After all drives are replaced, I'll send the old drive set back to Segate.

 

Apparently these drives were manufactured in China and even though their serial numbers are legit, there was some flag in Segate's system saying they weren't elegible for warrenty in this country. I protested saying we purchased them direct from Amazon and how would we know their counrty of origin? To their credit, the Segate level 2 support agent worked with me to get an override so that the drives could be replaced and worked it out so that they would be sent to me before I send my drives back. 

 

Hopefully these new drives will be silent like the HGSTs and the problem will be solved. I'll report back in a few days with my results.

 

 

 

 

Message 13 of 15
StephenB
Guru

Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@dhl wrote:

Hopefully these new drives will be silent like the HGSTs and the problem will be solved. I'll report back in a few days with my results.

 


Thanks for updating us, and please do follow up after you install the replacement disks.

Message 14 of 15
dhl
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Re: Horrible coil whine with ReadyNAS 626 - any solution?


@StephenB wrote:

@dhl wrote:

Hopefully these new drives will be silent like the HGSTs and the problem will be solved. I'll report back in a few days with my results.

 


Thanks for updating us, and please do follow up after you install the replacement disks.


@StephenB 

 

UPDATE:

 

Last week, Seagate sent a box with five new Exos 8TB drives. This is the new branding for their 8TB enterprise drives and they have the same model number (ST8000NM0055) as the old drives they replaced.

 

After five days adding one drive at a time and letting the NAS resync, I'm pleased to say the NAS is now completely silent. The coil whine was 100% due to the drives.

 

My partner ivery happy to have a quiet studio and confided to me that the sound was stressing her out. She thought it was just how the NAS worked and there wasn't anything that could be done about it. I'm glad I had an extended stay in our LA studio and was able to fix the problem.

 

So, for future reference, if you hear a loud whine in your NAS, send the drives back.

 

Thanks for your help!

--David

Message 15 of 15
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