Question regarding the FAN used by WD My Cloud EX2

My Cloud OS 3 Personal & Network Attached Storage My Cloud EX2
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I just concluded a pleasant 20 minute call with a WD tier-2 technical support person regarding this issue. I gave him a background of my experience up to this point and told him about returning my first EX2 because the tier-1 WD support person thought my fan was defective.  In retrospect after purchasing a second EX2 I can say with a high degree of confidence the fan in my first EX2 was probably not defective.  I also emailed him a link to this two-month discussion because it contains some helpful information including a suggested solution.

The technician committed to escalating the issue, so at this point all we can do it wait and see how WD responds.

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Thanks for following up with WD support, MrqDude…though I haven’t been too worried about this, but it would be a nice-to-have feature if they offered a user-customizable fan-control.

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MrqDude wrote:

I just concluded a pleasant 20 minute call with a WD tier-2 technical support person regarding this issue. I gave him a background of my experience up to this point and told him about returning my first EX2 because the tier-1 WD support person thought my fan was defective.  In retrospect after purchasing a second EX2 I can say with a high degree of confidence the fan in my first EX2 was probably not defective.  I also emailed him a link to this two-month discussion because it contains some helpful information including a suggested solution.

 

The technician committed to escalating the issue, so at this point all we can do it wait and see how WD responds.

On page 57 and 58 of the user manual, it shows you how to check if your temperature and fan are working normally.  The device is designed to warn you of any issues with your system.  You might want to read through it for more general information. 

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/?id=445&type=25

Operating Temperatures

Operating temperature:

5° C to 35° C ( 41° F to 95° F)

Non-op. temperature:

-20° C to 65° C (-4° F to 149° F)

I would assume that as long as the ambient temperatures don’t exceed the recommendations, you should be fine.  Also, if you are experiencing hotter temperatures coming off the device, you may want to make sure that it has plenty of room for venting any heat.

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I just purchased a WD My Cloud Mirror 8TB (which, if I’m not mistaken, is physically identical to the EX2) and am noticing this exact issue. My drives are staying around 47-48C in well ventilated area with ambient temperatue around 21C. The fact that the fan has never turned on is a bit of a concern to me as well so I’m curious to hear what WD’s official response will be.

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Did you somehow miss WD’s official response right above your comment??

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Lol, Cybernut1 I did not miss it though forgive me if “I would assume that as long as the ambient temperatures don’t exceed the recommendations, you should be fine” doesn’t reassure me at all when discussing NAS backup solutions. 

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ogunther wrote:

…“I would assume that as long as the ambient temperatures don’t exceed the recommendations, you should be fine” doesn’t reassure me at all…

I agree about the ambient temps point…doesn’t exactly reassure me either :slight_smile: Still wanted to be sure that you noted that THAT was the official WD response, since you said, “so I’m curious to hear what WD’s official response will be”.

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Yeah that was poor phrasing on my part; I should have said “any additional official comment”. :smiley: When the stated operational temperature is 5° C to 35° C and most of us are reporting temperatures 10 to 15 degrees warmer than that (or more), something appears to be off. As others have said, lowering the threshold for the fan to kick on would seem to solve (or at least help quite a bit with) this so I’m hoping there is a firmware update in the near future to fix that.

For what it’s worth (and I can’t remember if someone else already reported this) but WD Red NAS drives seem to have an operating temperature of 0° C to 65° C according to the spec sheet (here:  http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-800002.pdf),,) so that makes me feel a little better.

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I have just bought a My Cloud Mirror with the exact same problem. I would like to share some of my findings.

From the dashboard, there is a process list with one called fan_control. It seems to be related to the fan problem.

I enabled the SSH and then login. Type the command will show a list of available options. There are many for temperature and fan control.
     ~ # fan_control -?
     *** Fan Cobtrol Help Message ***
     fan_control b c: for NAS booting
     fan_control 0 d : [auto: low/medium/high/max] open debug msg
     fan_control 0 c : [auto: low/medium/high/max] close debug msg
     fan_control -L [value] : set Lower (THYST)
     fan_control -H [value] : set Upper(TOS)
     fan_control -g 0 : get current temperature
     fan_control -g 1 : get Lower temperature
     fan_control -g 2 : get Upper temperature
     fan_control -g 3 : get fan state
     fan_control -g 4 : get fan rpm
     fan_control -f 0 : set fan stop
     fan_control -f 1 : set fan rpm4000
     fan_control -f 2 : set fan rpm5000
     fan_control -f 3 : set fan rpm6000
     fan_control -f 4 : set fan rpm7000
     fan_control -f 5 : set fan rpm8000
     fan_control -f 6 : set fan rpm9000

The command “fan_control -f 3” can manually turn it on. Its noise and air flow can be easily detected. The larger the number, the faster is the fan speed. The command “fan_control -f 0” can manually turn it off. The fan is working !!!

The commands “fan_control -g 0” would give the hard drive temperature. “fan_control -g 4” give the fan RPM. The figures are the same as in the dashboard.

Using these commands, I have managed to bring down the temperature from 55 back to 45 manually.

So the problem is not in the fan but in the automatic temperature control. Perhaps some DIY people can write a background monitor program to check the temperature and change the fan speed periodically.

Another finding is a file called /etc/fan_temperature.txt  Its contents is here:
     ~ # cat /etc/fan_temperature.txt
     TEMPERATURE_STOP = “39”
     TEMPERATURE_LOW = “45”
     TEMPERATURE_HIGH = “49”

However, I have not tested whether this text file is for documentation only or it has any real threshold function.

Hope these findings would be helpful to you all.

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Exellent twins - I knew that it was controlld by the program fan_control and had even examined its code a little bit but never thought of checking its usage as you did.

Also, excellent finding on the temperature.txt - /etc is where configs are normally stored in Unix/Linux systems, so my hunch is these in the text file ARE the elusive configs that some of us on this thread were looking for so far. Just keep in mind the whole /etc directory tree gets tossed after a reboot and is recreated…unless you save your specific edited configs to a persistent location like in /usr/local/config/. 

Most excellent and thank you. Kudoed you.

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So for us EX2 novices, is there anyway to control the fan speed any better? 

MY unit is sitting on the top vent of my PC where I have 2 4"fans blowing air through it to keep the PC cool.  My RAID has been rebuilding non stop since Monday and my HDD’s are 52 and 48 and fan speed is 0.

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EXCELLENT WORK twins!!!

I like Cybernut1 also believed there must be some kind of software/firmware controlling the fans.  I think of the countless hours I’ve spent speaking with completely uninformed WD support techs (at different levels), customer service people, etc., saying over and over there is not a hardware fan problem with my EX2, there must be some kind of fan control software we can tweak to resolve the overheating issue.

Think about how much money WD is wasting by telling customers their units are defective and to return them for a refund or replacement. The product manager for the EX2 should be slapped for this bonehead design flaw, especially since it appears fan control could easily be incorporated into the UI.

To the EX2 product manager - take a page from your competitors like Qnap whose firmware allows for fan control adjustments (IN THE UI), especially for those of us who live in hot weather areas.

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MrqDude wrote:

EXCELLENT WORK twins!!!

 

I like Cybernut1 also believed there must be some kind of software/firmware controlling the fans.  I think of the countless hours I’ve spent speaking with completely uninformed WD support techs (at different levels), customer service people, etc., saying over and over there is not a hardware fan problem with my EX2, there must be some kind of fan control software we can tweak to resolve the overheating issue.

 

Think about how much money WD is wasting by telling customers their units are defective and to return them for a refund or replacement. The product manager for the EX2 should be slapped for this bonehead design flaw, especially since it appears fan control could easily be incorporated into the UI.

 

To the EX2 product manager - take a page from your competitors like Qnap whose firmware allows for fan control adjustments (IN THE UI), especially for those of us who live in hot weather areas.

Agreed; even though I know mine isn’t defective I’m still thinking about returning it for this exact reason (and replacing it with a competitor’s) because I don’t want my NAS to be overheating even if the impact is (supposedly) minimal: why would anyone want to add additional, unnecessary risk of failure? Makes no sense! That type of mentality makes the whole setup suspect.

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Hey all, want to thank you folks on the forum for this. Helped a lot with running through my unit. Same problem here…NAS blew up, poor network access, randomly unable to create files. Did a replacement, second unit was a dud.

Got a customer satisfaction survey, figured my responses might help some of you folks making a purchase decision:

How much of your own personal effort was put forth on your end in order to handle your request? (The lower amount of personal effort put forth on your end is looked at as positive. Our goal is to have you put forth the least amount of effort in order to get an issue resolved.) - VERY HIGH

Two days of data transfer, 4 hours of diagnostics, 1.5 hours of phone-time with reps.

  1. Based on your most recent interaction with our service and support team, please rate the agent who assisted you in respect to the following attributes: Demonstrated a pleasant attitude, Understood my questions, Showed patience and
    understanding, Provided clear communication, Gave me clear instructions - ALL AGREE

On SMB-grade products, would love to start out in Tier 2 service, instead of having to go through the same hold and conversation each time.

  1. Based on your most recent interaction with our service and support team, please rate the agent who assisted you in respect to the following areas: Identified my issue(s), Had good product knowledge, Resolved my issue(s) - NEUTRAL, AGREE, STRONGLY DISAGREE

  2. Based on your most recent interaction with our service and support team, please rate the quality of customer service you received from the agent who addressed your request. Met My Expectations - AGREE

I don’t have very high expectations for most support lines, but it was about what I expected - tier one, following the script, and an understaffed tier 2 line. Tier 2 tried to help, but the concern and follow-up just wasn’t there.

  1. Did you try to resolve your issue by using our self-service tools? if YES, please proceed to Question number 6. If NO, please proceed to question number 7. - YES

  2. If you tried to resolve your issue on your own, how easy was our self-service systems? Service & support Website, Automated Phone System, Knowledgebase - NEUTRAL, N/A, NEUTRAL

Found better information in the WD forums, although WD should maintain a stronger presence in those areas. Some of the answers were just copy-paste from spec sheets, and not anything truly meaningful to the situation.

  1. How would you rate your product experience? Hardware, Software - VERY DISSATISFIED, DISSATISFIED

We’re not a big network, but I purposely bought the EX2 with certain standards in mind.

Firmware seems to not be regulating the fan at the speeds needed to keep the drives cool, and no settings to put it at a more aggressive or always-on profile exist. Fan fails to spin up at 49+ degrees after updating firmware, and software reports no issues. Replacement drive had the same problems, and had the bonus of the raid failing, then the disc throwing up smart errors.

Tier 2 didn’t even seem concerned when I told them that my skin was burned while pulling the drives out of the first unit, and I currently had multiple fans on the second unit to keep it on ‘life support’ and get to an operational temp of around 30 degrees. I got the same lukewarm response when I voiced concern about the product line, and offered to run through logs to try to help find a resolution, instead of just burning through more call tags and hardware. This may be something with a small run of the devices, but a notable number of comments have been made on the WD forum within the past couple of months, and I was hoping for something more than ‘well, this is just not often that this happens, and I don’t see a lot of tickets, so it’s probably not a big issue.’

This is not what I expect out of a WD product, and multiple requests for calls/emails to try to follow up and see if this is a larger issue have been promised, but not returned.

If this third replacement has the same issues, I’ll be asking to swap out to an EX4.

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I’ll state this - overall, Tier 2 was very helpful in some ways, but the not returning calls or promised emails bugged me - especially after as much time as I’ve already put into it, and everything I was willing to do post (diagnostics, submit logs, whatever needed to be done, etc.)

I really just wanted to find a solution. My blisters are healing, but the lack of concern floored me.

I’ll upload a pic of my ghetto fan rig later. It’s funny, in a very sad way.

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http://i.imgur.com/4HJh74k.jpg

Here’s my rig. Notice the fine duct work with the two-way tape. There’s 3/4" clearance below the fan, pushing air up and out, with the case slot fan grafted onto the other fan’s controller board, so they act in a push/pull manner off a single USB wall wart.

Managed to get the drive temp down to 30 degrees, and the data’s just about cloned at this point.

One of the reps told me that no matter what, the support call is the residential support line. Might as well get a My Cloud Mirror and save some cash, since users are reporting now that they’re using WD Red drives in those now anyway.

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Had another 45 minute call yesterday after hours to Tier 2. I got a message throguh the forum that they were going to escalate this post, but I think they might have forgot, as per I only got a call after I shot the rep a reminder that it was after 5 and I still didn’t get an email.

They’re stating that the fan doesn’t spin up until the drive hits 57 degrees. Seeing as the top end for the drives is 65 degrees, that’s pretty concerning.

Plus, of course, both of my units exceeded 57 with no spin-up, so there’s that. It’s seeming more and more likely to me that it is a firmware issue. They’ve requested that my unit get rerouted to them for further investigation, so we’ll do that on Monday.

Will update this post as it proceeds, and hope it helps.

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Attempting to update firmware on new unit to 1.05.21 - so far, no luck.

Going to try the manual update and go from there.

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So just to confirm that the fans doesn’t turn on til mid 50’s C is that correct. Ever since I upgraded to the new firmware my temp went from 37 now at 43 just at idling. And the fan has never turned on.

Thanks

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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.

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