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PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 6:46 am 
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Sorry for the long post.

The NASlite server with the problem is a PII 233 MHz, 128Mb RAM, 200Watt PSU, Adaptec 2400A RAID with 4x320Gb disks in RAID 5 and 2x80Gb PATA disks + 3 fans for cooling. It was working fine until a few days ago when I decided to add an additional PATA 250Gb disk.

After plugging the disk in and powering it up I knew the PSU was too small to handle more load as it would shut down and it would not even post. I tried connecting the disk's power to the different cables just to make sure it wasn't a bad connection.

After stop trying to powerup with new disk connected I noticed that the PC would come up but the Adaptec controller would not find the configured array or the disks connected to it. Trying to use the Adaptec SMOR BIOS util would show a message that SMOR was missing.

According to ADAPTEC this means that either the raid controller is damaged or there is an IRQ confilict or the bios may be corrupted and that it has to be reloaded through a boot disk.

I turned the PC off and unplugged it from the power. A couple of days later after getting around to it I turned it on and the raid controller worked fine during BIOS post, the array was found but as soon as NASlite would boot it would go silent and the NASlite boot would stop because it could not find the reported logical disk.

I also noticed that doing a reboot, without unplugging the power for a few minutes, would cause the controller to not post properly. If I unplugged the power for a few minutes, the controller would post but after a point and before NASlite could complete its boot it would stop functioning. The point in time at which the controller would stop flashing its LEDs was related to how long I had the power disconnected.

I noticed that there was an IRQ shared with the NIC so I changed the PCI slots for each card. OK this was better. I managed to get the server to startup fully and the array was fine. Doing a soft reboot from within NASlite would mean that the server cannot start properly. After removing the power for 20mins or so the server boots normally.

So my concern is, and I need some advice,

a) I have a dying PSU which cannot supply the necessary current - Easy solution just replace. I am doing it this weekend.

b) The Raid controller is damaged and the fact that it is now running is a miracle. I should move all data off it while I can and trash the RAID controller.

Any advice?


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:29 am 
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I think that over the years I’ve unintentionally overloaded a PS a number of times. In most cases the results can be devastating to both hardware and data. Not an easy feeling so I understand your predicament.

I’d probably not derive any conclusions until I get a new PS in the machine. It is possible that the output provided by your current PS is unstable. After you get a new and properly sized PS in the machine, re-flash both the MB BIOS as well as the RAID BIOS. Also run a RAM check. When satisfied that all is well, you can then use any available Adaptec diags to confirm that the RAID card is good. If those results are satisfactory, then you can move on to the array and consequently NASLite.

Insufficient power can damage many things including the CPU. If you run memtest and all tests pass, then you can safely assume RAM, CPU and MB are healthy.

Hope that helps.


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:31 am 
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That helps. Thanks Tony.

I hope it's just the PSU. I really pushed the envelope and my luck with 200Watts and 7 Drives... :shock:

I am worried about the RAID card more than anything else. It's not much of a problem to drop another MB + CPU into the box.


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 11:47 am 
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Quote:
I hope it's just the PSU. I really pushed the envelope and my luck with 200Watts and 7 Drives



If it's not the problem now, it will be a problem later once the PS finally can't take the load anymore. My personal NL box actually has 2 PS's, currently 1 drives the motherboard, CF-IDE card, LSI raid, GigE nic, etc and the other powers the 5 SATA drives and rack, both are 500Watt.

If anyone's interested I could post how to power on a second ATX PS without it being connected to a motherboard as in my setup.


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:08 pm 
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Ralph wrote:

If it's not the problem now, it will be a problem later once the PS finally can't take the load anymore. My personal NL box actually has 2 PS's, currently 1 drives the motherboard, CF-IDE card, LSI raid, GigE nic, etc and the other powers the 5 SATA drives and rack, both are 500Watt.

If anyone's interested I could post how to power on a second ATX PS without it being connected to a motherboard as in my setup.


500W for 5 drives! Isn't that a bit over the top?

I just got a Thermaltake TR2 470W PS and it should be good for at least 10 drives

From memory drives use less than 30watts approx each.

I would be very interested on details of your setup with 2 PSs since it's something on the horizon with a coolermaster stacker case which has room for 2 PS. I always wondered how to get the thing to work.


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 3:19 pm 
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I use the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator at http://extreme.outervision.com/index.jsp - I reckon I can power up to 6 x IDE HDD, 6 x SATA HDD, 2 x RAID card, Mobo, CPU, 2 x DDR sticks, PCI GFX and Gigabit NIC on 500W (it is an AKASA....). Admittedly, I don't have the NAS on 24/7, although I reckon it would hold up.


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 4:58 pm 
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Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 6:39 pm
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Location: California
Ralph:

Yes ... I too am interested in how you control the second PSU. I too have a second PSU to power just the HDDs, but it is manually controlled (always-on by shorting two pins), not from the Motherboard. So when the server is powered off the drives are still on.

:) Georg


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