I found the setting that lets me put the hard disks into standby mode when no activity. Can’t find any option to do the same for the cooling fan. Seems not very energy efficient to have the fan running 24/7 especially in winter with no disks spinning. I’m aware of the Power Schedule feature but not exactly what I’m looking for. Any ideas or possible to adjust the firmware so no fan spins while the unit idling?
Don’t worry about the cooling fan you said ,It doesn’t work and what you hear inside your unit is the sound of the disks
You can check it out in system health information , Fan Speed = 0
But its not a problem , WD programmers Preferred it to be turned off
It turns in system startup and then stops, you can use SSH access to turn it on in different speeds
I just triple-checked under Diagnostics. Disks are idle and temp 0 °C but the fan STILL spinnng @ 990 RPM. I would prefer it to be silent if there is no need to cool anything.
OMG. you are on , i was on the wrong topic
in EX2 we can control the fan by this command in SSH
fan_control -?
it might work in ex4 too !
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Too bad EX4 doesn’t have any option for user-driven fan control right in the UI like many other NAS vendors (Qnap, Synology, etc.). What I would love is some sort of Smart Fan feature built into the firmware that would stop the fan altogether when the temperature is low and run it faster in summer.
My experience with my EX4 is that I want the fan to actually do more than make noise. Even though it is constantly ON, at 990 rpm, my temps hover between a LOW of 47c to a high of 54c if the room is warm. No way would I want that almost worthless fan OFF! My drives were cooking! Yes, it’s always been that way and yes I regularly turn it off and blow it out with the AC powered electronics blower I got from Newegg. So I said goodby to whatever warranty it may have, and I took the cover off, thinking maybe I could replace the fan. Decided instead after seeing how there is a circuit board between it and the drives anyway, as well as on top and the sides (almost a box within a box), that it needs another fan intirely. SO out came the 4inch circular hole cutter and into the drill press the cover went. I drilled a 120mm fan sized hole in the top- close to the front as the board under the top has a gap near the front that I can get some cooling air down. I then mounted a 120 fan on the outside of the top. Fugly, yes. But powered via MOLEX from the PSU of a PC right next to it, my temps are a much better 31-34c. Noise is not a problem, it’s next to a server with even noiser fans so I don’t hear it anyway. Controlling heat trumps controlling noise with me. Frankly, even when that fan is OFF, the tems are down in the 39-40c range just due to the airflow through the hole. Heat rises. WD should put a bunch of those little holes in the top that the had put in the sides, it would really help. Then they could set the rear fan to come on only when needed and not cook the drives at the same time.
I’m quite happy with the way the fan operates, my drive temps are in the 40C range which I’m quite comfortable with as it is well within the operating range of the disks. Also the fan speed range adjusts with the cooling requirements well IME.
Not suggesting to have the fan off when the disks are in use. I’m also happy with the way the fan operates. Just want to kill the unnecessary noise and lower energy consumption when all disks are in standby mode and the unit is doing absolutely nothing else. Most PCs and other NAS boxes have that option built-in straight out of the box. Imagine you have a laptop that goes to sleep but the fan is still running. Pretty poor design.
