Technical information

GALAXY® AUROURA LS CONFIGURATION AND SYSTEM INTEGRATION GUIDE
77 Section 4 Troubleshooting Guide
4.4 Using GUI for FAN problems
The fan(s) in the power supply (or power supply modules) are temperature-controlled. The
fans will operate at approximately 50% of their speed when the temperature is low, and at full
speed if the temperature becomes too great. Several things can happen with the fans: If the
bearings break down inside, they will stop spinning. If the blades break, they will stop spinning.
If the fan motor breaks down, they will stop spinning, and if they get fouled with enough debris,
they will stop spinning. If a fan starts making an unusual noise, it is a typcal symptom of one of
these problems. If this is the case, you do not want to ignore it. If the fan fails, a power supply
failure itself, may be imminent. It can be somewhat challenging to hear the power supply fans
over the noise of the main system fans – when you first plug in the power supplies with the
system off, you should be able to hear the power supply fans at low-speed. In most cases, the
power supply fan itself is not field-replacable. If the power supplies are removable modules,
replacing the module replaces the fan.
4.5 Using GUI for Power Supply problems
On a fixed ATX power supply, if a cable is frayed, it can be shorting something to ground.
Also, it’s possible for the connectors to be damaged (from repeated plugging), and aren’t
effective enough in contacting the motherboard. If a cable is broken, that could be a problem.
Typically, the symptoms you would be looking for on a power supply are unusually low or high
voltages (or both). The voltages read with by the Aurora LS’s sensors are on the motherboard
– if these voltages are not correct, it could also indicate a power supply problem. On a system
with redundant power supplies, the power load is shared between the power supplies, so if the
voltages are off, it could indicate a problem with one power supply, both, or the DC power
distribution board. On systems with removable power supplies, there is usually a buzzer on
the DC power distribution board which sounds if there is a voltage problem. Again, if there is
no power going in to one power supply on a dual-power supply system, the buzzer may not
sound, as there is no problem with the power supply – the DC distribution board is just
sending out power form one power supply instead of two. Systems with removable power
supplies have card-edge connectors which contact the DC power distribution board. If this
card-edge connector is oxidized, scratched, or otherwise broken, it could cause a problem.
4.6 DC Power Distribution problems
On systems with removable power supplies, this is the board that the power supplies plug into.
Systems with single power supplies have less-complicated DC Power Distribution Boards than
ones with redundant power supplies. This is because on the ones with redundant power
supplies, the board has to tolerate power surges if a power supply is hot-plugged. The board is
fairly simple – it usually either works or it doesn’t. The connections to the motherboard are
prone to the same problems that the fixed power supplies have, but additionally, they possess
a delicate communication cable which relays power supply status information to the
motherboard. It is possible for the connector(s) which contact the power supplies to be broken
as well – especially if someone tries to force a power supply in upside-down.
4.7 Chassis Problems
The chassis is an electromechanical system itself, which could present a myriad of problems
as follows: