R610 fans noisy - fix?

This is a new used server with only ESXI on it; no VM's; its sitting idle.

I have one 610 that is perfecly fine; silent unless getting really loaded down.

This "new" one I got is crazy loud. I've updated all firmware (Specifically iDRAC to 2.85 and lifecycle controller to 1.7.5.4).

I went into the bios power settings set everything I could find to lower power; pulled out any addon cards; now this has 2 710w power supplies; my other r610 has 500w power supplies, but they're cold to the touch. I don't see any reason for the fans to be spinning 9k RPM.

The logs are all green; no indication in logs of anything going on. 

Also as a note; temperature is reading 24 degrees celsius. Warning is 42 degrees Celsius. The server is literally just sitting there. Really bugs me cuz I was hoping to stand this up and learn VMWare clustering with my other R610, but its just too darn noisy.

Hello.

Review your environment and the hardware logs for more information. You can also try to drain the system flea power by disconnecting AC power cables for about 15 seconds. Reconnect power and reboot the server and wait whether or not the fan RPM is restored to normal.

What was the effect on the fan RPM when you pulled out the add on PCIe cards. Using unsupported PCIe cards raises the fan RPM by default. What is the hardware configuration of this very server? Are the memory slots, HDD and PCIe slots fully populated? If so, then it justifies use of 2 710 W power supplies and high fan RPM for additional cooling purposes.

When I pulled out the PCIe cards, no effect on fans. I also swapped the power supplies between my quiet R610 and this one, with no change.

I only have 3 4gb sticks of ram per cpu, CPU is 2X 3.46GHz 4-Core X5677 and no HDD. I even pulled out the iDRAC card (ethernet port) to see what would happen still no change.

Thank you by the way for your help. The *only* thing I can think of is my quiet R610 has a black plastic shielding over the cpu/ram but this one does not.

Dell makes some phenomenal servers have two these running downstairs currently.  I've run into the same problem where the server idle high with no load processors will be idle.  After some initial research online some datacenters have similar problems.

The idrac controller tends to lockup without reason could be problem with firmware anyways to resolve this problem swap out the idrac controller between the two servers power them on usually they update themselves after post you'll notice the change right away.

I'm on the same boat on two R420 OEMR blades. One would run freaking quiet at 9% fan speed. The other one where my ESXI 6.7 is 1 CPU, loaded rams, 2 SanDisk Ultra II 960GB SSD with the H710p mini in raid1. The fans blasting at 40%. I did try installing a Broadcom dual Gig Nic and a crappy old AMD Graphic Card that got the fans locked at 40% at idle. I did try to roll back iDrac7 FW back to few diff versions, BIOS, rebrand as well. The lowest I got it down to now is 36% at idle. I'll definitely try reset both iDrac7 cards tonight and swap them between the two servers see if that helps.

I tried that didn't make a difference at all end up setting up a crontab on a ubuntu box script here works great! got the fan running at 10% which is cooler than my other R420 idles at 9%. https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/8kwb05/smart_or_dumb_r710_fan_speed_control_script/

so this server is not located in a server farm or room?  where no humans live? (only service tech milling about?)

is this a home server? or small office?  (buy 2U server not 1U)

The R610 is  thin server, and is for rack mounting so that 1 rack can hold the max number of servers and will be very noisy with its fast RPM thin fans. so is not useful at all in an office ,unless you buy a box that is small silenced rack that hides the server and is sound insulated. with its own huge silent fans.

I have  R310  1U and no matter what it screams so is only an offline backup server. and is NORMAL that noise.

so if only one R610 makes too much noise of 2, that is another issue, not the 1U wrong server issue.

then that means it has extra cards inside, (detected)  or has faults in the logs.

did you check the drac logs? yes.

the DRaC countrols the speeds, I'm told. but I'd be all over that and logs.

This forum has vast posts on just the FAN RPM issues, many are (home servers that are just wrong to use 1U)

if one fan fails or is running too slow (say the bearings are bad and runs slow) the DRAC sees that and cranks up  the other fans to compensate (by clear design)

bad fans.

system is too hot, again in the logs to see that.

the extra cards added that run hot or need more cooling (some do)

HOT HDD, some ARE!

1U server make lots of noise

buy 2U for locations hear humans, it is vastly more quite, as is my R710 (fully loaded server, and 8 drives raid 6, sas PERC. and is not too bad, about 10x less loud as my R310 for sure.

also are you running nice small 2.5" 10k drivers or those hot running HOT 15k drives.  ? 

the fast drives  burn lot of heat, and must be cooled, and DARC does that , it excels at it. IMO

Kudos to poster here that told us non DELL or non dell Certified PCI-e cards can in fact raise fan speeds.

one more to my list. (thanks !)

I can also say matching the drac firmware to the main firmware must be done correctly.

That is my weak point so can't  help there...

In call cases, logs. check logs and you did.

then if all else fails, strip the system down and for sure that guy with added in video card wow.

why does a server need hot video card added? IDK,  

strip it down test the fans then built it up and I bet now you find the CULPRIT.

I sure hope you do.... 

good luck to all.