PWM fans reving with supermicro mobo

[jebusfreek666]

Ok, so to start off, I have googled this extensively. I have even found multiple examples of this same issue occuring, along with people who have stated that they have fixed it. The trouble is, all of them seem to be way above my head. I have no idea how to use IMPI, or if there is something else I need to do to fix this issue. Here is the problem....

 

I have the supermicro x11ssm-f, a cool master hyper 212 evo cooler, and 3x arctic f-14 pwm fans. (https://www.arctic.ac/us_en/f14-pwm.html).

 

I am certain I have all the fans hooked up to the correct headers (cpu fan on fana, others on numbers headers).

 

When I first start my server, the fans run at a constant speed. However, after everything loads the fans begin pulsing from slow to fast. Approximately 3 seconds fast, then 3 seconds slow, over and over again. CPU temp seems to have no effect on this, it just goes on forever. 

 

I have read about people using some ipmi tool??? and changing thresholds and making this stop. like I said, the trouble is, I have no idea what this means or how to do it. I am hoping someone could hold my hand a little and lead me through this. Any help would be appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Adam

[Limy]

41 minutes ago, jebusfreek666 said:

Ok, so to start off, I have googled this extensively. I have even found multiple examples of this same issue occuring, along with people who have stated that they have fixed it. The trouble is, all of them seem to be way above my head. I have no idea how to use IMPI, or if there is something else I need to do to fix this issue. Here is the problem....

 

I have the supermicro x11ssm-f, a cool master hyper 212 evo cooler, and 3x arctic f-14 pwm fans. (https://www.arctic.ac/us_en/f14-pwm.html).

 

I am certain I have all the fans hooked up to the correct headers (cpu fan on fana, others on numbers headers).

 

When I first start my server, the fans run at a constant speed. However, after everything loads the fans begin pulsing from slow to fast. Approximately 3 seconds fast, then 3 seconds slow, over and over again. CPU temp seems to have no effect on this, it just goes on forever. 

 

I have read about people using some ipmi tool??? and changing thresholds and making this stop. like I said, the trouble is, I have no idea what this means or how to do it. I am hoping someone could hold my hand a little and lead me through this. Any help would be appreciated!

 

Thanks,

Adam

Hi jebusfreek666,

 

I have the X11SSZ-TLN4F MB.

 

I have had lots of fun trying to get my Noctua fans to work.  I still am not happy where things are at, but it's a lot better.  Some of my fans are running at 1100 rpm and others are running at 900 rpm.

 

Lot's of times when I would enter a fan adjustment setting, one or more of my fans would stop spinning.  I had to unplug them from the motherboard while it was running and plug them back in to get the overheat LED2 to stop flashing red.  Most people will not recommend that you unplug things while a motherboard is powered up, so don't do this unless you are comfortable with it.  Otherwise you will be doing a lot of rebooting.

 

Here is a website you can visit that has some info:

 

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?resources/supermicro-x9-x10-x11-fan-speed-control.20/

 

Now if you use the ipmitool, I used version 1.8.18 which I think I downloaded from:

 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/

 

I used this from OSX.

 

When I used it, I had to enter the ip address and the username and password for each command like this.

 

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 169.254.191.71 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN sensor list

 

I set my fan mode to Heave IO: 4 with this command:

 

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 169.254.191.71 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN raw 0x30 0x45 0x01 0x04

 

I then set my two zones as follows:

 

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 169.254.191.71 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN raw 0x30 0x70 0x66 0x01 0x00 0x00

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 169.254.191.71 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN raw 0x30 0x70 0x66 0x01 0x01 0x00

 

I was trying to get my rpm even lower, but didn't have much success.

 

You can also set the fan thresholds with this command:

 

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 169.254.191.71 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN sensor thresh FANA lower 150 225 300

 

If you try these settings and nothing seems to work, you might need to shut off your server and then reboot it with the power switch.  I kept trying by making changes and nothing worked until I shut it off and then restarted it.

 

Please be careful issuing commands, because you can mess up your ipmi settings.

 

If you totally mess this up, you can restore the ipmi settings to their default by logging into the ip address of your ipmi port with your web browser and do that their.

 

If you can get your fans under control and low rpm's, I would love to hear about it.

 

Good luck.

 

[jebusfreek666]

1 hour ago, Limy said:

Hi jebusfreek666,

 

I have the X11SSZ-TLN4F MB.

 

I have had lots of fun trying to get my Noctua fans to work.  I still am not happy where things are at, but it's a lot better.  Some of my fans are running at 1100 rpm and others are running at 900 rpm.

 

Lot's of times when I would enter a fan adjustment setting, one or more of my fans would stop spinning.  I had to unplug them from the motherboard while it was running and plug them back in to get the overheat LED2 to stop flashing red.  Most people will not recommend that you unplug things while a motherboard is powered up, so don't do this unless you are comfortable with it.  Otherwise you will be doing a lot of rebooting.

 

Here is a website you can visit that has some info:

 

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?resources/supermicro-x9-x10-x11-fan-speed-control.20/

 

Now if you use the ipmitool, I used version 1.8.18 which I think I downloaded from:

 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/

 

I used this from OSX.

 

When I used it, I had to enter the ip address and the username and password for each command like this.

 

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 169.254.191.71 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN sensor list

 

I set my fan mode to Heave IO: 4 with this command:

 

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 169.254.191.71 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN raw 0x30 0x45 0x01 0x04

 

I then set my two zones as follows:

 

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 169.254.191.71 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN raw 0x30 0x70 0x66 0x01 0x00 0x00

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 169.254.191.71 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN raw 0x30 0x70 0x66 0x01 0x01 0x00

 

I was trying to get my rpm even lower, but didn't have much success.

 

You can also set the fan thresholds with this command:

 

ipmitool -I lanplus -H 169.254.191.71 -U ADMIN -P ADMIN sensor thresh FANA lower 150 225 300

 

If you try these settings and nothing seems to work, you might need to shut off your server and then reboot it with the power switch.  I kept trying by making changes and nothing worked until I shut it off and then restarted it.

 

Please be careful issuing commands, because you can mess up your ipmi settings.

 

If you totally mess this up, you can restore the ipmi settings to their default by logging into the ip address of your ipmi port with your web browser and do that their.

 

If you can get your fans under control and low rpm's, I would love to hear about it.

 

Good luck.

 

 

Thanks for the write up, this is helpful information. But like I said, I am a complete newb to all this. I am not even sure how to access ipmi. Do I just download the ipmitool, and plug my laptops ethernet into the the mobos dedicated ipmi port?

[Limy]

So I think the IPMI lan port is already setup to acquire it’s IP address using DHCP.  Otherwise you will have to configure that in the BIos.

 

So, the easiest way is to connect the ipmi lan port to your router or switch.

 

When you boot up the motherboard it will show you the IPMI IP address.

 

You can then use that address with the ipmitool.

 

I’m not sure what operating system is on your laptop, I use mostly Mac OSX.  So hopefully you can download the IPMI tool that works on your system.

 

Of course I am writing this from memory, so I could be a little off.

[JorgeB]

You can also install the IPMI plugin and make the changes there: