GS324TP 1.0.0.38 Firmware Spins Up Fan Frequently

[sdct989]

I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this or not, but with firmware 1.0.0.38 my GS324TP switch seems to spin up the fan for about 15 - 30 seconds every 5 minutes. I've monitored the heat of the unit and it is always completely in bounds. So the fan spin up seems completely unnecessary. Additionally, the fact that the cadence is always exactly (to the second) on the minute mark, seems to mean to me that there is some sort of automated process that causes the fan to spin up, and not a heat event on the unit.

This is super annoying as this switch is deployed in a small business office and not in a rack or some such. Additionally, this functionality isn't present in a previous version of the firmware: 1.0.0.30

For now, I've reverted the firmware and continue to run the old version. Does anyone have any recommendations or potentially configuration changes that might be made to avoid this?

I've been waiting the last couple of months and hoping that another customer would report it or that Netgear would notice and fix it themselves, but this doesn't seem to be happening. Any thoughts on how responsive Netgear is to these types of reports by the community?

[sdct989 · Accepted solution]

So after I posted this, I decided to do some more investigation with the firmware. It turns out, that this is the result of heat build up, it's just that the heat build up happens on such an obscure interval that I became convinced that it was some sort of timer.

When I measured it, the fan turns on whenever my MAC temp sensor gets to a temperature of 51C and then it stays on until the temperature goes down to 45C. For my unit, this happens every 5 minutes on the dot.

It turns out, that my unit normally sits at 53C when it runs under 1.0.0.30 which it still labels as normal, but this triggers the fan as of 1.0.0.34 which appears to be related to the bug in the release notes for that release https://kb.netgear.com/000062955/GS324T-GS324TP-Firmware-Version-1-0-0-34: 

• Modifies fan behavior so that the fan now activates at low speed at a lower temperature threshold.

Anyway, not sure if that's really that bad, but I guess there's no bug here, its just that the threshold changed for most likely good reasons.

I'll try to find some alternative cooling solutions that aren't quite as loud as the internal fans on the device.

[sdct989 · Accepted solution]

So after I posted this, I decided to do some more investigation with the firmware. It turns out, that this is the result of heat build up, it's just that the heat build up happens on such an obscure interval that I became convinced that it was some sort of timer.

When I measured it, the fan turns on whenever my MAC temp sensor gets to a temperature of 51C and then it stays on until the temperature goes down to 45C. For my unit, this happens every 5 minutes on the dot.

It turns out, that my unit normally sits at 53C when it runs under 1.0.0.30 which it still labels as normal, but this triggers the fan as of 1.0.0.34 which appears to be related to the bug in the release notes for that release https://kb.netgear.com/000062955/GS324T-GS324TP-Firmware-Version-1-0-0-34: 

• Modifies fan behavior so that the fan now activates at low speed at a lower temperature threshold.

Anyway, not sure if that's really that bad, but I guess there's no bug here, its just that the threshold changed for most likely good reasons.

I'll try to find some alternative cooling solutions that aren't quite as loud as the internal fans on the device.

[wvisser]

Here are a couple of things you might try before replacing the fans. 

1. If possible, try mounting the switch vertically with the fan side pointing up.  This will allow the switch to better dissipate heat naturally without using the fans.
2. Try using some of the green features (System->Green Ethernet->Green Ethernet Interface Configuration).  Put all the ports into auto power down and also enable EEE mode for all ports.  If you have a significant number of unused ports, this will reduce the switch's power consumption and therefore might reduce how often the fans come on.

I did both of these things on the same switch and now my fans do not come on at all using firmware 1.0.0.38.

Wayne

[sdct989]

Thanks for the response and the advice!

I just enabled the green ethernet features and it appears that the switch is using about 25% less power and it seems to be dropping a few degrees as well. I'll keep an eye on it and see if this resolves my problem without needing an external fan.