I hate it when things are working well and, then, all of a sudden, they are not :)

[Hoopster]

My main server has been chugging along for months with no problems.  Today, three SSDs assigned as pool devices and UD disappeared from the system.  Since they are all in a 4x 2.5" SATA SSD/HDD enclosure for one of the 5.25" bays in my case, I assumed there was a problem there.

 

Apparently, the Molex to SATA power adapter cable that powered that enclosure had failed as replacing it solved the problem.  System was happy again and all SSDs showed up.

 

Then there was a very annoying noise coming from one of my case fans.  Down went the server to figure out what was up with that.  Tightened all screws, made sure no cables were touching the fan and fired up the server again.  Noise gone.

 

Server would not boot to Unraid.  The Unraid flash drive did not even appear in the BIOS as a boot option and it was trying to boot from the optical drive.  I am using a USB 2.0 adapter in the case that connects straight to the motherboard internal USB 2.0 header.  Re-seated everything, ran checkdisk on the flash drive just in case (no errors), and reattached the USB flash drive to the pigtail.  Flash drive showed up in BIOS and the server now boots properly again.

 

Then I discovered the optical drive will not open or close with the button press; just flashing lights and no action.  The little plastic L in the SATA power connector on the drive had the small tip broken off.  I had to rig a way to keep the power connector cable firmly attached to the drive and then all worked well.  I hate SATA connectors, they are so flimsy and the cables come loose easily.

 

Although I try to be careful, messing around inside the case can and will cause other problems even if you fix the original one.  There is not a lot of extra room in the case and it is easy to bump and loosen other cables while messing with the one(s) suspected of causing problems. I hope I don't need to open it up again for a good long time. 😀

Edited June 7, 2023 by Hoopster

[TimTheSettler]

On 6/6/2023 at 1:25 PM, Hoopster said:

Although I try to be careful, messing around inside the case can and will cause other problems even if you fix the original one.  There is not a lot of extra room in the case and it is easy to bump and loosen other cables while messing with the one(s) suspected of causing problems. I hope I don't need to open it up again for a good long time.

 

Same with me.  Never had power problems but I've had SATA cables that "break" when re-seating the connectors.  I can only guess that the SATA cable was crappy and moving it around broke a wire in the cable.  Problem: Hard drive not recognized but is getting power.  Solution: New SATA cable.

 

On 6/6/2023 at 1:25 PM, Hoopster said:

Server would not boot to Unraid.

 

This happened recently to me after a power failure.  The server was on a UPS.  There are shutdown log entries showing that the server was shutting down when the UPS hit the low-level warning.  Maybe it ran out of power just before the final shutoff.  Not sure since I wasn't there.  Problem: Server wouldn't start due to weird error.  Solution: "Repair" flash drive in Windows and then restore from the latest backup.  Server came back up without any problems.

 

On 6/6/2023 at 1:25 PM, Hoopster said:

Then I discovered the optical drive will not open or close with the button press; just flashing lights and no action.

 

I have a similar problem.  For me right now it seems to be a tray/motor problem.  I just use a pin to force the tray open.  Once it's open then the tray will open and close like normal for a bunch of times and then, out of the blue, the tray will get stuck again.

 

On 6/6/2023 at 1:25 PM, Hoopster said:

Then there was a very annoying noise coming from one of my case fans.

 

I've come across a number of fan-related problems.  Usually they are because the fan is old or gummed-up and accumulated dust.

• An old server I had would make some god-awful noise when it started up but if you smack the fan housing then the fan re-seats itself and never makes noise again unless it's shut off and turns back on.
• Noisy fans due to age.  They accumulate dust.  If you don't clean them regularly then the dust adheres to the fan over time and makes the fan spin in erratic ways.
• New fan worked for about a month then failed.  It caused the server to turn off.  I had it plugged into a fan connector that told the motherboard to turn off the computer if the fan RPM speed dropped to a low level.  This was designed to avoid an overheating CPU.  It's a cool feature but not when you don't know about it.  Took me hours to figure out that the failed fan was the cause of the server shutdown.

[JonathanM]

9 hours ago, TimTheSettler said:

 

I have a similar problem.  For me right now it seems to be a tray/motor problem.  I just use a pin to force the tray open.  Once it's open then the tray will open and close like normal for a bunch of times and then, out of the blue, the tray will get stuck again.

The little rubber band drive belt is getting old and hard. When not used, it takes a set, and forcing it to a slightly different position with the manual open lets it get a grip on a different piece of rubber, then after a few cycles, the same hard curved bit settles around the drive pulley and it just slips again.