Pablo Averbuj

ReadyNAS round 2: FIGHT!

Today I fought with the ReadyNAS on and off. At first I was not able to get the fan to spin up at all. I tried the new fan, the old fan, I tried spinning it by hand. It sensed the fan (ie, when I spun it by hand the RPM registered (side note, I got it up to 7000 rpm without assistance from the motor). Finally as I was about to give up, I made an odd contact and for a brief moment it spun up. It seemed that if I held the connecter in a particular way, it would spin, but as soon as it moved the smallest amount it would stop. The connector on the new fan was not what I would consider a snug fit, whereas the old fan had a snug fit. i noticed with the old fan if I spun it manually it would continue to spin indefinitely although at a very slow speed. I considered the possibility that the fan connector on the motherboard was making a bad connection, but I could pretty reliably get the old fan to spin at low RPM, and the new fan would not. I chose to overlook the fact that it worked perfectly and consistently when I first plugged the fan in, and decided the new fan was not making good contact.

I scoured the house looking for a 3-pin fan connecter I could cannibalize and shockingly found none. Left with no other choice I sacrificed both fans to create one SUPER FAN consisting of the new fan assembly and the old fan connector. During this process I remembered why it is I stick with software and stay away from hardware hacking. I know, it’s pretty grotesque. So I took my handy work and hooked it up, nothing. I fidgeted here and there, tried to make it connect the way it did before. Again, just as the hard drives are about to overheat (and cause the ReadyNAS to shut down), it made contact! The beatiful sound of 3000 RPM generated by the wonders of electricity. I set the fan gently in its approximate location and let it cool the hard drives down for an hour or two. When I came back it was still working, so I decided to reassemble the appartus without shutting it down. I assembled it one way, but the fan cable wasn’t long enough (I was trying to keep the cable taut so the bare union wouldn’t touch metal (I know, genius!). I tried a second way and it was long enough but I just barely couldn’t make the pieces fit back together. I took it apart and started on the third attempt when tragedy struck, it stopped spinning! I tried in vain to resuscitate my creation to no avail. Eventually the drives overheated and the device aborted it glorious mission.

I’ve checked the websites of the nearby hardware suppliers and nobody seems to carry the 92mm fan I need. I even probed a few friends known for their hardware hoarding compulsions with no luck. Tomorrow I may try again, but I think at this point it looks like resolution won’t come without talking to Infrant on Monday.