Sorry, Tagging along.  I bought the T410 for a file server and the fan on the back is annoying.  It ramps up and down to the point that it is disturbing.  I am trying to find a way to turn it down.  The CPU's Temps are low, so the turbine should spin down.

  I am going to research this a bit and post if I find an answer.

 Thanks, Stan

Hello,

did you find a solution? I'm having the same fan noise problem with a brand new T410.

Best regards

No, I haven't found a solution. The fan is operating within specifications and the fan speed is adjusted by the system according to room temperature. I have the server in a separate small room, like a closet, so the noise isn't too disturbing. Due to the automatic fan control, it's essential to keep the room temperatures down to avoid high fan speeds. That was a minor problem this warm summer, with fan speeds up to 4.000 RPM due to high room temps. That was quite annoying. The normal speed lies around 2.500 RPM which isn't that bad. So the only real "solution" is to adjust room temperature and perhaps install an air conditioner to keep temperatures down.

Ok thanks for the reply. I just contacted Dell who recommends indeed to put in in a cool environment and not to place the fan close to a wall nor in front of a window.

They will also send me some software that supposedly fixes the problem.

Best regards

Hi There,

Did the Software that dell sent you make any difference?  I have the same issue and am interested to hear if it worked.  Also, did they send you a link to the software or did they send it to you?

Sorry - one last one, what was the software called, so that i can phone up and request it? (if it work, that is)

Cheers

EDIT: Sorry - I must have hit "Suggest an Answer" by mistake. My mistake.

Hello,

no it did not help. What helped was:

1/ Free up the space behind the server so the fan can work in ideal conditions with no obstacles

2/ Ensure the temperature is not too high (normal room temparture is fine) and certainly avoid putting the server near a window or direct sun light

3/ Fine tune the server parameters for energy savings

There is a great white paper that explains everything.

http://content.dell.com/us/en/enterprise/d/business~solutions~whitepapers~en/Documents~HPC_Dell_11g_BIOS_Options.pdf.aspx

I set the parameters to Energy efficiency and it worked out ok. The fan is now at 2080 RPM which is acceptable.

Hope this helps.

Really? I will have to try that! I'm still on BIOS 1.3.9 and FW 1.4.1. I''m off to upgrade...*Crossing fingers*

Hello,

upgrading BIOS to 1.5.3 and idrac6 FW to 1.54 totally fixed the fan issue. It is now spinning at 1540rpm, very acceptable noise.

Best

Upgrade complete. The fan speed actually is a bit lower, from 2580 down to 2280, for a total of -300 RPM reduction. Also, the fan seem less "jittery" and keeps it speed more constant than before when it used to speed up then slow down, speed up, slow down, and so on. That's a step in the right direction and considering that I have the server fully loaded with six harddrives, the fan speed is reasonable considering the cooling needs (currently at 27C degrees). The update also brought a new graphical user interface for iDRAC 6, it's very sleek looking, nice! 

Well, the iDrac update has brought some problems. Now I loose connection to the LAN IP adress after a while, it doesn't respond to ping and the web interface is unavailable...I tried shutting the server down, connected it to a keyboard and monitor to check the setting with CTRL-E at startup. The IP address is correct, static and after connecting a network cable it responds to ping and web interface is OK. But after a couple of minutes it loses connection again...I'll troubleshoot some more..