Hey everyone. I have an old HP Proliant Dl380 G3 (yes I know, I should probably just buy a new one) that, upon startup, says "Fan 7 not present, fan solution not sufficient."
Everyone says this happens with old servers, and if I can't fix this problem I will buy a new server, but I'd like to at least try to fix this one.
I have replaced the fans and done everything I can to try to fix the problem without replacing the system board. I have dissasembled and cleaned the whole system with no luck.
I had the idea that I could possibly jury rig the fan connection to trick the system into thinking the fan is working, so I dissasembled a spare fan and was surprised by what I saw.
Here are the pictures: http://imgur.com/a/CaQqB
I cannot find any documentation about what wires control what in the system.
You will notice that there are only 3 wires (red, yellow, and black) going to the fan itself. One wire (black) loops around on itself and goes back out the port. The other two (yellow #2 and green) go to the LED.
I know enough about fans to know that you can't have a PWM signal on only 3 wires. I also know that the fan spins when the server stars up, but I've read that this problem can be caused by having low fan speeds. I read on one post that someone used a shopvac to blow into the fan to trick the PWM into going high, and the system booted fine. Unforutunately I cannot find that post at the moment or I would show it to you.
What I need to know is, is there ANY possible way I could trick the system into booting?
Please note: I understand I run the risk of damaging the server by doing this, but I'm not going to spend $40 on a new system board when I can buy a newer and better one for slightly more, so I might as well try to fix it and have it break then to do nothing with it.