SilverStone DS380 with SilverStone 450W PSU not booting

[garyn_87048]

Santa delivered components for an upgraded NAS system and I'm having trouble diagnosing the boot problem.

Case: SilverStone DS380
MB: ASRock C2550D4I
memory: Crucial 16GB DDR3 ECC
drives: 4 x 3TB WDC NAS red (WD30EFRX)
system drive: 16G samsung SSD
OS: latest freeNAS

When everything is connected, the system will not power on using the power switch. I can view IPMI in all the configurations listed below both before and after failed boots. IPMI also cannot boot the system. When I push the power switch, I get approximately 0.5sec power and then off.

The MB does not have a CPU fan as it uses passive cooling. However, the power up behavior reminds me of a previous system where the CPU fan had failed and the MB would only power up momentarily until it discovered the failed fan.

The case is a SilverStone DS380 and has 3 fans; 2 side, 1 back, and 8 drive bays. For my original non-booting configuration, I wired all fans to MB ports and did not install any 3.5 drives, and installed 2.5" SSD drive. Power on did not work. The DS380 case also has 2 fan connection ports on the back 3.5 drive bay electronic cabinet and the manual said to connect fans here. Guessing that the box was sensing missing fans, I added two extra fans to these ports (fans temporarily hanging outside of the box), the power on worked, and the system booted. To recap, the first bootable configuration had 5 fans (two hanging out of the open case), no 3.5 drives, and the SSD drive.

The DS380 case is a very tight fit. I disassembled the components and moved the two side case fans from the MB ports to the DS380 ports behind the 3.5" drive bay. Reassembled and added 4 3.5 drives. The configuration is now 3 fans, 4 3.5 drives, SSD. Back to original behavior, 0.5 sec of power and then off. IPMI still accessible.

From prior systems, I had extra PSU cables and replaced the two sets of SATA cables (one to 3.5 bay and one to 2.5 bay). I noticed that the system would boot with no power to the 3.5" bay. Using the new cables, I wired both the 3.5 bay and the 2.5 bay, but removed the two side fans from their 3.5 drive bay connection ports. The system booted with the current configuration 4 drives, 1 fan (rear fan), SSD.

I can't figure out which component is flakey. My chief suspects are the 3.5" drive bay group, one (or both) side fan wiring, or the power supply.

I ordered a replacement PSU, but upgraded to 600W. However, rsquared posted that his 450W PSU works fine with 6 drives. The SilverStone product page seems to recommend a 600W power supply for the DS380 (on their site, you first select a power supply and then select 'recommendations' and they show cases).

Suggestions? Words of wisdom?

I'll post updates as I work through the troubleshooting.

Gary

 

[garyn_87048]

I'm zeroing in on the PSU. This morning after a controlled shutdown, the same configuration will not boot with the same 0.5 seconds of power behavior as originally seen.

I think I'm regretting ordering the 600W replacement if 450W would be sufficient. I have not heard back from SilverStone on their recommendation.

 

[garyn_87048]

Update from SilverStone:

"The ST445SF-G is a great power supply but it was designed with a very powerful +12v rail to power gaming video cards but the +5v rail is not strong enough to power up a NAS computer and in this case the backplane board in the DS380B case, we recommend to use the ST45SF is a none modular power supply but this will work perfect in the DS380B case. " - Joel, SilverStone

 

[Booyaah]

Strange, I have a ST445SF-G in a DS380 and it boots my ASRock E3C224D2I mobo with an i3 just fine. One problem I do remember having is that the older BIOS that is usually installed on the board was only compatible with Haswell and not Haswell Refresh (Devil's Caynon). Haswell-R was not out yet when the board came out.

So if you are using a Haswell-R CPU, what I had to do is contact customer support and have them mail me a pre-flashed BIOS chip with a newer BIOS firmware installed, then the board booted up fine no problem.

I would try doing this first.

 

[rsquared]

The C2550D4i is an atom board with integrated CPU, so I incompatibility between board and chip isn't really possible. It wouldn't hurt to check that you're on the latest version though, which should be viewable through IPMI.

The comment from SilverStone makes no sense. The drives should be using the 12V rail for spinup (5V is for the electronics). Additionally, the ST45SF-G is 80 PLUS Gold rated, with the ST45SF being Bronze. Not exactly a guarantee that the -G is better, but seeing how they're both from the same company, you'd assume so. As to the fan configuration, it's a little odd that you've had success in some configurations and not others. Other than the SATA cables, there's no data connection between the motherboard and the backplane, so the board shouldn't refuse to boot just because no fans are connected there. In fact, I've never used those connections, always going straight to the motherboard.

I can't see any rhyme or reason as to which configurations worked and which didn't. I'm leaning towards a power supply problem though, but I've not got anything to really base that on. Can you try another power supply temporarily? Any semi-recent ATX with the right connectors (e.g. 24 pin MB) should do. You obviously can't mount anything but an SFX in that case, but to help confirm or rule out the current supply, it's fine to run with it sitting outside of the case for a minute.

 

[ErikV]

As of yesterday i have the same probleem....
The only thing is that i need completely disconnect the power from the backplane. Removing all Harddisk and fans from the backplane has no use.

 

[garyn_87048]

The PSU was from Amazon, so the return on the original is pretty simple. I do have a spare ATX PSU and it's larger than SFX format, but like rsquared mentioned, it doesn't need to fit into the box in order to help troubleshoot. The new Amazon units should arrive tomorrow - ordered a 600W and the recommended version. I will need to eat return shipping on one of them, but I'm feeling that it is over all easier to move forward with parts in parallel then sequentially. I asked SilverStone to update their WEB site if ST45SF is actually the recommended model (currently, the point to the 600W).

Thanks for the pointers!

I don't have time to experiment tonight, but will investigate again tomorrow and post an update.

ErikV - yes, each modification almost requires disassembling and reassembling the box. It's all a pretty tight fit!

Gary

 

[garyn_87048]

ST45SF worked great. I'm busy wiping drives and then will try a few reboots.