Is it me or people in this forum immediately suggest to replace power supply to fix a problem with the unraid server before actually trying anything else?

I had low writing speeds on my unraid and it turned out to be a problem with the network switch, which once rebooted sorted itself out.

Needless to say, someone suggested I needed a new power supply. It looks like in your case too the power supply was not the cause of your problems...

I would not say that Power Supply is always the first step.    However asking a question about it is often done, particularly if it is done just after adding a new drive.  I think that the power supply is typically considered as a possible culprit when it looks as if there a hardware related failure and it is not the RAM (which is easy to test) as it is one of the most likely components of the system to deteriorate with age.

Is it me or people in this forum immediately suggest to replace power supply to fix a problem with the unraid server before actually trying anything else?

I had low writing speeds on my unraid and it turned out to be a problem with the network switch, which once rebooted sorted itself out.

Needless to say, someone suggested I needed a new power supply. It looks like in your case too the power supply was not the cause of your problems...

I would not say that Power Supply is always the first step.    However asking a question about it is often done, particularly if it is done just after adding a new drive.  I think that the power supply is typically considered as a possible culprit when it looks as if there a hardware related failure and it is not the RAM (which is easy to test) as it is one of the most likely components of the system to deteriorate with age.

 

I tend to agree. The times I agree to replace the PSU is if a user had bought an underpowered or multi-rail unit that doesn't have the rated power for their drive count.

 

It is possible for a PSU to be the culprit and produce flakey behavior, but bad or loose cables are much much much more likely to cause problems. When replacing a PSU you wind up reconnecting power to all the drives, and likely double checking all the data connections. If the array comes up clean the new PSU can be heralded as the cure, when actually the correcting of the cable issue was the reason for success.

 

Personally, I'd break the server down, replace old sata cables with locking variety, and try to eliminate splitters before looking to buy a new PSU.

 

Before I get slammed by my colleagues, I have to say that there are only a limited number of things that can cause problems, and people frequently report having done things, line cable checks, when in fact, they doubt cabling as the problem and do a marginal job. So after working down the list, sometimes replacing the PSU is the most likely next step assuming all other steps were done diligently. And users often seem happier replacing PSUs than being chided to redo something they felt was already done! And as noted above, a new PSU often."fixes" cabling problems. So maybe the new PSU IS the best solution..

Is it me or people in this forum immediately suggest to replace power supply to fix a problem with the unraid server before actually trying anything else?

I don't think an immediate suggestion to replace ever happens unless there is already something known about the power supply, such as whether or not it is single rail. Immediately inquiring about someone's power supply often happens.

It looks like in your case too the power supply was not the cause of your problems...

 

No, but in my case there were physical signs (popped caps) that the power supply was bad, or at the very least on it's way to going bad. So in the end, I just replaced it a little sooner than I would have liked.

Is it me or people in this forum immediately suggest to replace power supply to fix a problem with the unraid server before actually trying anything else?

I had low writing speeds on my unraid and it turned out to be a problem with the network switch, which once rebooted sorted itself out.

Needless to say, someone suggested I needed a new power supply. It looks like in your case too the power supply was not the cause of your problems...

I would not say that Power Supply is always the first step.    However asking a question about it is often done, particularly if it is done just after adding a new drive.  I think that the power supply is typically considered as a possible culprit when it looks as if there a hardware related failure and it is not the RAM (which is easy to test) as it is one of the most likely components of the system to deteriorate with age.

 

I tend to agree. The times I agree to replace the PSU is if a user had bought an underpowered or multi-rail unit that doesn't have the rated power for their drive count.

 

It is possible for a PSU to be the culprit and produce flakey behavior, but bad or loose cables are much much much more likely to cause problems. When replacing a PSU you wind up reconnecting power to all the drives, and likely double checking all the data connections. If the array comes up clean the new PSU can be heralded as the cure, when actually the correcting of the cable issue was the reason for success.

 

Personally, I'd break the server down, replace old sata cables with locking variety, and try to eliminate splitters before looking to buy a new PSU.

 

Before I get slammed by my colleagues, I have to say that there are only a limited number of things that can cause problems, and people frequently report having done things, line cable checks, when in fact, they doubt cabling as the problem and do a marginal job. So after working down the list, sometimes replacing the PSU is the most likely next step assuming all other steps were done diligently. And users often seem happier replacing PSUs than being chided to redo something they felt was already done! And as noted above, a new PSU often."fixes" cabling problems. So maybe the new PSU IS the best solution..

 

Amen. I had a plethora of issues recently about errors on drives and it turned out to be the sata cabling. Just bought locking cables now and my problems have disappeared, although I have probably more hard disks spinning that my power supply in theory should be able to handle...