Ontopic Random Computer-Electronics Thread

Fuckity fuck fuck fuck. Looks like it toasted all the backplanes in the case. Drives are an unknown. Can't get replacements for the backplanes either.

That's by far the worst scenario, id rather it had killed the drives than the case
this is proving nearly impossible to recover from. 4u hotswap cases basically dont exist in the used market right now. Theres an interesting case on aliexpress that looks like the norco 4224 that would work fine... but 300 bucks in shipping by slow boat.
 
this is proving nearly impossible to recover from. 4u hotswap cases basically dont exist in the used market right now. Theres an interesting case on aliexpress that looks like the norco 4224 that would work fine... but 300 bucks in shipping by slow boat.
Probably doesnt really help (immediately anyway), but you could set up some Node Red RSS alerts for Reddit or Ebay.
 
Thats the plan, i have spare ghetto-backplane setup that i can check.

Doesnt matter if the drives are fried. I have the 20x4tb array in "cold storage" if I have to get new drives. Ill just have to get new drives again and re-TX, or just revive the old array for now. But i dont even have a mechanism to revive that old array either for re-TX or re-activation without a new chassis with 20+ bays.

I pulled a backplane last night and checked for obvious explodey-bits, didnt see any, but im 99% sure theyre damaged as the drive lights dont even come on.
 
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Update:

Multi-source temporal problems are a MASSIVE pain in the ass to chase

1) I definitely have bad backplanes
2) I may also have an insufficient replacement PSU (specifically the 5v rail). The new SAS drives take .1A more per drive on the 5v rail, and the new controller doesnt have staggered spinup of drives, so im pulling too much current.
3) Looks like a mobo incompatibility to some degree with the HBA on top of all that, cant get into the ctrl-c boot menu
4) the mobo took some damage too, it functions, but cant hold its bios date/clock

Status:

Testing all the at-risk drives right now with a known good PSU, known good mobo, known good backplane.

I see my data, and parity check is 70% done.

Even if those check out though, im not gonna trust those drives
 
More wtf'ery

You know the power pin 3.3v thing? That pin got changed from being a 3.3v input pin to a drive reset pin, meaning if your power supply sends 3.3v it just constantly resets the drive and it won't spin up.

This of course is a known problem with some drives and the solution is to kapton tape off the pin. It's only a problem with sata power, as 4pin molex only carries a 12v and 5v reference.


So of course I assume I don't have this issue because my backplanes are only powered by molexes. There is no 3.3 coming in.

For the hell of it, I tape off a drive... And it fucking works. The backplane is generating its own 3.3v reference from the 5v input. Wtf. I mean it makes sense in retrospect, the backplane is putting it what it should. But still

I've got a roll of kapton coming, as well as 5 new backplanes. One way or another I'm gonna get this thing working

I didn't lose any data, parity check completed successfully, 0 errors
 
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More wtf'ery

You know the power pin 3.3v thing? That pin got changed from being a 3.3v input pin to a drive reset pin, meaning if your power supply sends 3.3v it just constantly resets the drive and it won't spin up.

This of course is a known problem with some drives and the solution is to kapton tape off the pin. It's only a problem with sata power, as 4pin molex only carries a 12v and 5v reference.


So of course I assume I don't have this issue because my backplanes are only powered by molexes. There is no 3.3 coming in.

For the hell of it, I tape off a drive... And it fucking works. The backplane is generating its own 3.3v reference from the 5v input. Wtf. I mean it makes sense in retrospect, the backplane is putting it what it should. But still

I've got a roll of kapton coming, as well as 5 new backplanes. One way or another I'm gonna get this thing working

I didn't lose any data, parity check completed successfully, 0 errors
This is alot of work to keep your porn collection intact.

That's a pretty obscure solve though. Interesting.

I remember doing stuff like that with my dad on our IBM PC, there used to be whole troubleshooting manuals for the original. It took like an entire weekend to resolve a problem with having one 5 inch floppy and one 3 inch drives in the factory original testing each connection. That thing would probably still work if the movers hadnt lost it. It weighed like 50 lbs and the only two programs we had were Brief (kinda like emacs) and a full version of Quickbasic that was endless fun.
 
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