Pablo Averbuj

ReadyNAS rollercoaster

June 16, 2007 | Comments Off

First a side note. When I was corresponding with the Infrant support guy, he asked for a copy of my invoice. I forwarded him a copy of the invoice along with thread (in case the ticket tracking system needed something in the body). In the process, I accidentally copied the sales guys at ExcaliberPC (where I bought the ReadyNAS last year). I noticed my mistake but i figured they would get the email, see it was regarding a purchase made last year, and delete it.  Much to my surprise, last night (Thursday) at around 10pm I got a call from a support guy at ExcaliberPC calling to check if everything was alright with the device and if there was anything he could do to help. Despite the time of the call, it was a pleasant surprise to see customer service handled so proactively. I am very impressed.

Now, for the roller coaster that was today’s adventure. When I got home from work, Leigha told me I had received a package and I knew it was the replacement fan. It never really crossed my mind that the replacement fan wouldn’t work, so I didn’t get around to replacing it until after 7pm. At around 7:30pm I had it all reassembled, turned it on, fan didn’t spin. Checked the control panel and no fan was detected.

It was at this precise moment that a lot of information came together.

1. Infrant is based in California where it was now 4:30pm
2. It’s Friday
3. I’m out of town all next week!
4. If I don’t get this working now, I won’t be able to troubleshoot remotely!!
5. I won’t have this fixed for like another 2 weeks!!!

This is around when panic set in and I launched a full assault on Infrant. One if by landline, two if by SMTP.

Now I’ll add another bit of information to the puzzle. Early versions of the ReadyNAS NV had a fan issue that required a little adapter. My unit was supposed to be affected by the issue, so when they shipped the fan they helpfully included the adapter, which I dutifully installed. As soon as I hung up after leaving voicemail, it occurred to me that maybe the adapter is unnecessary/faulty and I should try without it. I take the thing apart, remove the adapter, and (without reattaching all the screws this time) as the fan spins up, the phone rings. I talk to my tech guy (kudos for always talking to the same tech) and tell him it’s spinning now without the adapter. He tells me the adapter is only necessary for certain board/fan combinations. I’m happy so I apologize for assaulting their communications but explain the 5pm thing and the vacation thing and he confirms they close at 5pm.

At 4:fucking59pm PST (8pm EST) the thing stops spinning. The control panel says “out of spec” for the fan. RPM == 0. I assault again, but this time I’ve cried wolf and everyone is busy drinking beer so no return phone call. After a few minutes it seems to  restart itself. It’s certainly not comforting but if something goes wront it shuts itself down so I let it ride.

Subject: Unexpected enclosure status detected [nas0]
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:14:47 -0360
Fan 1 has failed.

For extra insult, in the meantime I had gone back and added my cellphone to the list of emails to notify in case of failure. So it starts losing it’s mind as 10 more messages come in alarming of ever increasing hard drive temperatures, culminating with:

Subject: Disk temperature limit exceeded [nas0]
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:42:00 -0360
The reported temperature of a disk in the NAS has exceeded maximum recommended temperature.  Shutting down the system to prevent hardware damage.
Disk on channel 2 reports a temperature of 61C / 141F.
Fan 0: 0 RPM

Since I’m sure they are closed over the weekend, I’ll spend my time searching the message boards for similar issues and tinkering with the fan adapter to see why it wouldn’t work.

Score:

ReadyNAS: 2
Infrant: 1
Pablo: 0