Question regarding the FAN used by WD My Cloud EX2

That’s correct, from my experience. At idle, the 4tb unit is hitting 37, the 6tb unit is hitting 43 for me as well.

I’m doing large data moves today, trying to see if it starts turning past the 57 mark.

1 Like

/etc/fan_temperature.txt is no longer present, as per the update. Fyi, folks.

I wonder what we would see if we dumped the contents and diff’d the files?

1 Like

If you’re wondering why I’m rambling here and testing the unit:

A) Plenty of time - transfers are painfully slow to it, 2mb/sec, lots of little writes because I have a lot of files

B) Curiousity and frustration - since we weren’t able to find / told the reason behind why the high temps, unit failures, etc. in the first place, and I don’t want a repeat (or, in my case, a fourth) performance.

C) The comments in the code are just downright funny.

That class-action clause in the agreement is pretty standard, but still scary btw - especially if I’m right about what I think happened.

2 Likes

i also have a fan speed of 0 rpm’s and both drives are at 50-54 Celsious - this is currently rebuilding a raid because my old case bricked after firmware update… cant wait to find out if this is some new issue now that the fans dont work…

I never had a chance to look into the work done by twins and try to implement changes that would get my fan spinning at a lower temperature, but if the recent update wiped out that capability, then sadly we may not have a way to “override” WD’s fan settings and get the fan spinning at a lower temperature.

I continue to wish WD would give us the ability, in the UI, to set the fans to come on at a temperature lower than WD’s default.  Most of the other established NAS vendors allow this in their UI.

2 Likes

just took my 2 drives out after them fixing a raid… and they were HOTT… like i wouldnt recommend touching them again regularly after that without some type of skin protection…  no fan… im about to move a laptop cooler over to them to resolver issue at the sake of my highspeed dell i7.

The fan control program is still there - the temperature file’s contents were most likely pushed into the settings db on the drive.

I’ve been shuffling data to the new drives and thrashing them for the past two days - fan never came on, temp never climed over 49 degrees, but stayed pretty much at that level the entire time.

Rebuilding the array really pushes the temps up (much more than just writing to the drive).

I really, really want to see a selectable, more aggressive fan profile in the next firmware update.

I imagine that in the lower states, a good weekend A/C failure would see that poor drive roast itself to death.

1 Like

Does anybody can advise which file copy method to use for the best possible write speed on my 8TB EX-2?

Also which is better - MyCloud App or Mapped network drive?

I am using 1Gbps ethernet connection to EX-2.

Thanx!

Alex

Mapped network drive. Copy is going to be determined by size and number of files - lotta little files, lots of writes.

Also, like others have mentioned - turn off cloud share during the transfer process, or kill those processes before you start a mass copy.

Thank you!

I have the same problem with the FAN activation. Here is even worse as I live in Rio de Janeiro and the temperature is normally high.

I could access the system using SSH and using the commands posted in this forum I can manual start and stop the FAN, but is not a good solution, we need a way to change the start and stop parameters.

I opened a case in the WD site and I’m waiting a response.

Follow the answer I received from the WD support when I asked to include the option to chouse the temprature to the FAN start/stop:

 

Dear Fernando,

Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support. My name is [Deleted].

We apologize for the inconvenience. We are glad to assist you.

Thank you for your suggestion and recommendation. We are gathering customers’ feedback to see how we can improve our product, unfortunately we do not have information on what will be changed or a release date for an upgraded firmware. 

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email and we will be happy to assist you further.

Sincerely,
[Deleted]
Western Digital Service and Support
http://support.wdc.com

Pretty much the bone stock response until they decide to do something about it.

USB powered fans might be the way to go for your unit - just a suggestion.-Rex

Hi

My unit is always hot and i cannot hold my hand on the disks, it shows the temperature about 53 and the fan is always 0rpm. Is this normal in EX2 or my unit has a problem?

i use the ssh commands and the temp decrease to 49c , but i think the fan is weak and might be damaged for long time usage

you can see inside of EX2 at this  Link

Hi to all,

 I completely agree with you that it’s an issue, last summer I had similar matters even watching some streamed HD movies. :confounded:

Numerous times people have asked, on this board as well as calls to customer support, for WD to give us the ability to “adjust” the fan start temperature in the UI like so many other NAS vendors (Qnap, Synology, etc.) provide with thieir products.

From my conversations with WD tier-2 technical support, the feedback I’ve received is that WD (EX2) engineering believe it is unnecessary to give us this feature because in their opinioin, the EX2 is operating within design parameters.  I disagree with WD’s position, but I am only one voice.

1 Like

I have the same issue, the fan always reads 0 RPM’s my drives got up to 48 degrees and no fan kicked on. Drives where very hot so I had to get a fan to cool then down, it seem that when they get hot the performace drops. I call WD and did some troublshooting with them on the phone which didn’t help, they told me to return it to amazon. I requested a replacement from amazom and it has the same issue right now Im at 46 to 47 degrees and no fan. 0 RPMS

WD technical support also told me to replace my unit.  So I went through the arduious process of copying all my data to an external device, returning my original EX2, configuring a new EX2, then copying all the data to my new EX2 only to see the excact same issue.

Based on the posts in this thread and elsewhere, I am confident now there is no actual hardware problem.  The issue seems to be the fan start-up temperature threshold (a firmware setting) and the perception, real or imaginary, that EX2s are “overheating”.  Because WD technical support is instructing customers to return/replace these units at WDs cost, it is a shame WD continues to absorbe the cost of so many EX2s being returned/replaced as well as calls to customer support and the cost associated with a negative customer experience.

Maybe EX2 product management should consider the cost of so many returns versus simply providing a UI setting allowing users to set a lower fan startup temperature.  Even with a UI featuer allowing users to set a lower fan startup temperature, people may continue to believe their EX2s are overheating, but at least WD customer service would have the option to suggest the user set the fan startup speed to a lower temperature versus the current policy of telling the customer to return/exchange their EX2.

I had the same conversation. I do recommend anyone who has it upgrade to the newest firmware, since I found a few issues (that I’m not willing to currently disclose atm) that it does resolve.

I also am of the same opinion - just because it’s running below the adjusted fail envelope doesn’t make it great.

I think they undersized the fan in the unit, and are pushing the drive to a higher average temp (which they feel the Red can maintain) to save the life of the fan.

Again, an always-on USB powered fan may be an adequate solution for most folks who are concerned about this issue…

MowerPartsGroup,

You may be correct in that WD engineering are trying to find a delicate balance between FAN life, drive life, and performance.

With the extreme range of responses I’ve received from WD, everything from “your EX2 is defective, return it for a new unit” to “the system is performing within design specifications”, only WD knows the real story and they appear to be keeping that information to themselves.