Is Norco gone? (Help, need a new backplane!)

[veruszetec]

Hey folks, I recently had a norco backplane fry on me, taking out 4 drives (and another 2 used to troubleshoot).

 

I fixed the issue (bad molex in backwards) but the backplane is dead. I ordered a new one from Norco's official reseller, ipcdirect.com, but it has yet to ship and all emails are being ignored. Phone number on both norco and IPC's websites are both disconnected.

 

Does anyone know how to get in touch with Norco?

 

Alternatively, does anyone have a spare RPC-4224 (BP-001) backplane they can sell?

[Xaero]

Also worth Noting that the Norcotek website appears to have a JS exploit injected into the page's header. My Antivirus is blocking it.

Try shooting an e-mail to [email protected]

[veruszetec]

I've hit every @norcotek.com email I can find. No responses on any of them. It's like they just disappeared.

[Xaero]

Looks like this has been an issue with Norco for a couple of years now, which is unfortunate. They may be more closed than usual due to COVID. What's wrong with your backplane?

EDIT read more of OP - which revision of the backplane do you have, might be as simple as replacing a fuse on the board if it's one of the later ones.

EDIT2 now I'm concerned because I also have an RPC-4224 as my primary chassis, if this is the case I may need to look at migrating to a different chassis.

Edited May 29, 2020 by Xaero

[veruszetec]

I have version BP-001 1.3. I believe this is the 'old' version.

[jmello]

Were you able to get a replacement? One of my backplanes fried today, took four drives with it.

[veruszetec]

Nope. They seem to have completely closed up shop. I keep an eye on eBay about once a month but no luck so far, at least for my chassis. Apparently they differ depending on model, despite looking the same.

[jmello]

Well crap. If you ever see a backplane or heck, a whole case we could part out, hit me up and I’ll gladly split the cost. I’ve got the same v1.3 board.

Edit: just saw that my email to them bounced back, mailbox full. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Edited January 13, 2021 by jmello

[jadams18]

look like they are for sure out of business now  

 

i saw they had a liquidation auction of their  office and warehouse 

from this link back in march ( wish i would have known)

http://www.vanhornauctions.com/norco-technologies-inc.html

 

but  i might be willing to sell off my rpc-4224 , for the right price , i havent done much with it 

 

i bought some upgrades for it as well  the slide rails , the 120mm fan plate and also a internal ssd bracket (once i figure out where i put it )

the top two back planes were replaced with their lastest model 

 

[jmello]

Sucks that they went under, they filled a niche for people who don't need server-class hardware, but want to stack it up and out of the way.

 

I ended up finding a replacement about 5 hours' drive away, just made a day of it and drove down to pick it up. When I got the case, he asked if I wanted a spare backplane, so I swapped that into my case with the dead backplane and now have two cases. I'll either use one for expansion down the road or sell it if I decide it's not worth keeping around.