Dell Optiplex GX 260 - 3 drive failures, 2 NIC failures - pretty bad 7

[daveoasis]

Dell Optiplex GX 260 - 3 drive failures, 2 NIC failures - pretty bad performance in three years in my opinion.

I have two other Optiplex towers P300 & P450 with long run durations of continuous duty over 3 years run time with occasional reboots. They have had zero hardware problems and run in a warm house (80 degrees) with a UPS.

Is there anyone else experiencing these types of problems or other problems?

Thank you. Dave

 

[PurdueTNT]

One word. Lemon

 

[daveoasis]

This was 5 out of 12 GX-260's in a networked environment, air conditioned, max temp usually below 78 degrees within 2 years, 5 months.

Dave

 

[felixc]

The power supply can be responsible. Not necessaily when the PC is running but during power on-off sequences. Some PSUs generate peaks during power-on or off. It can be enough to shorten the life of some components.

 

[daveoasis]

Hi felixc,

Sounds reasonable, also heat may be a problem. Phoenix is pretty hot and users don't always ventilate PC's properly. Dell tells me they are improving the air flow in newer small form factor GX 260 follow-on products.

 

[technome]

Power line fluctuations with poor power supply filtering could be a possibility. Still points to the power supply. If you search google with GX 260 power supply problem ...there are just too many results pointing in the PS direction. Sounds like Dell owes you an explanation, and more.

 

[bcastner]

Consider:

"Dell Optiplex GX 260 - 3 drive failures, 2 NIC failures - pretty bad performance in three years in my opinion."

"This was 5 out of 12 GX-260's in a networked environment, air conditioned, max temp usually below 78 degrees within 2 years, 5 months."

Without offense to you, these were "bargain" boxes intended for the home market. Your failure rate does not seem to me unusual for 12 boxes after three years. There likely is a lot that could have been done at the beginning to prevent NIC failures and perhaps disk drive failures. I know nothing (other than the temperatures) of how these boxes are being used, but this does not seem an unreasonable failure rate for components in the time span you specify and the number of boxes being managed.

 

[beel1956]

Seems to be pretty typical of DELL boxes lately. In the last year their systems reliability has dropped off markedly. Reputation is suffering badly in Australia.

 

[daveoasis]

Hi bcastner (thanks for your many replies) & thanks everyone for responses.

bcastner
"Without offense to you, these were "bargain" boxes intended for the home market."

Actually, that is not the case. Dell has several product lines such as the Inspiron and Dimension which are the consumer level, the Optiplex and Latitude for the corporate level, and high end Precision workstations.

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/desktops?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

After I spoke with a Dell senior level support person, he acknowledged that 6 of 12 was a large number of failures over a three-year timeframe. He informed me that Dell was aware of this end was doing an analysis to improve the performance of these OptiPlex PC's in the small form factor, such as improving me airflow, which I had suggested to him.

I explained that the drives were Samsung and Seagate 20 GB drives replaced by 40 GB Western Digital drives, which have been more robust so far. The NIC's were on the motherboard as a chipset & connector, so heat most probably was a factor.

I am now telling the users to power down their PC's at night since the overnight ambient room temperature is at least 82 degrees F in Phoenix, Arizona.
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technome could you elaborate - I searched but found general Q's such as compatibilty with other GX series, but this seemed pretty interesting from a former Dell guy:

http://vbulletin.newtek.com/showthread.php?t=35659

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beel1956 - could you explain how you came up with this info, sounds interesting, was this a survey?

---------
felixc - Power supply makes sense, however for drive failures, I don't think so. Heat seems to be the cause of motherboard problems, since one board totally failed, not even beep codes worked. It was in a desk enclosure. I informed the client to get desk fans and use UPS's.

We experienced boot track problems on three drives, data was recoverable on two drives as slave drives, third drive was really dead, nothing recoverable using forensic level recovery. It had a few files, backed up previously.

Best regards, all. Dave

 

[technome]

Power line fluctuations with poor power supply filtering could be a possibility"
Many power supplies can not sustain power spikes themselves or they let them reach the motherboard/addin cards. High quality PS units will absorb high voltage spikes. With power sags, some PS units do not regulate the power sufficiently. Instead of maintaining the correct voltage to the motherboard, via circuitry, the feed to the mobo is lowered. Lower voltage to the mobo and cards forces electronic to use more current, thus more heat is generated.

"Some PSUs generate peaks during power-on or off." Again this has to do with the quality of the power supply design. Dell in general does go overboard with their PS units, they are cheap as Dell needs to make a profit, Dell PS units, in general are sufficient but they do not add extra leeway (extra output wattage).

As a note, I advise all my clients not to purchase small form factor machines. Years ago I had nothing but problems with them. At the time I was dealing with Dells, Gateways, and some no name machines. The added heat killed many. Dust would build up on the minuscule air grills within a couple of months. Even with machines which had no dust, the internal temperatures of the components was always much higher than tower machines. From my experience, small factor machines have roughly double the normal failure rate.

 

[BionicJohn]

In the last year their systems reliability has dropped off markedly. Reputation is suffering badly

Out of 30 Dells here, 7 have had major faults within a year, the worst being complete failure of all USB ports on 5. The issue is still unresolved, with Dell suggesting it is to do with faulty auto-update which not reversible. We have some one looking into it.

Iechyd da! John
Glannau Mersi, Lloegr.

 

[daveoasis]

BigJohnD - that is interesting, "faulty auto-update which not reversible" - on the BIOS? Sounds like a wierd problem. Could you post results back to this HW forum - thanks.
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technome - I am posting another message which is related & interesting also:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1060037&page=1

Thanks guys. Will update on Mon when I get new info.

 

[technome]

As per the Intel monitor, as linked by Bcastner.. basically useless to monitor power problems coming from the power lines. Chart recorder are the way to go. Rented one once when 4 servers were going down constantly, turns out voltage switching by the power utility at night was causing problem, along with battery backup units which were not fast enough to respond.We replaced the PS units with Pc Power and Cooling power supplies..cheaper to change the PS units than the BBUs.

 

[edfair]

Called a "power line monitor" if I recall, and long ago for this type of problem the local utility loaned one to one of my customers. Might be worth a try to see if you can borrow one from your utility.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.

 

[bcastner]

The question (in another thread) was with the computer workstation power supply, not the mains.

 

[technome]

Sorry Bcastner, should have replied differently, no negative on you.
Most of my power nightmares come from power line problems, which (poor) computer power supplies/BBUs do not handle. A program such as you linked or VOM, will show PS voltage levels which is good in certain situations, I get hit by the middle of the night power flucuations/switching.

Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[daveoasis]

Hi all,

to: bcastner - I presume BBU means the same as UPS (battery backup unit / uninterruptible power supply)?

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to: technome - very interesting info. Can't switch out Dell Optiplex PS with other brands, but perhaps putting fast-acting surge suppressors in series ahead of UPS units might help. I will contact the power company for monitoring test equipment and the UPS mfr for their advice.

to: edfair - good idea.

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Note: I did notice on Sat. 5/14/2005, during the day that several power events occurred. The building has several rooftop AC units 3 ton size. I suspect they are creating the power problems. The lights blinked several times.

Thanks all, I am getting tired. Will get back to this thread in a few days after I find out more info.

Dave

 

[technome]

Pc Power and cooling have PS units for the Optiplexs, expensive though.

On Ebay some protectors come up search lightning protector or surge protector, only the commercial protectors are worth anything, you need units with 120v power legs. Some of the sold on Ebay for under $100 cost thousands retail

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=78199&item=7515934767&rd=1

If it is the building causing the power problems, it probably affecting more then just the Optiplex machines....
If you own the building, or moan enough perhaps the owner would place a bank of A/C capacitors on the Air conditioning power panel to reduce the load on the buildings power lines, it is called power factor correction,, it also cuts down power costs considerably roughly 10-15% depending on the power factor (PF) efficiency of the A/C units. Your lighting should not dim or blink with properly size power distribution/feeds.
Perhaps the A/C unit all cycle at on at once it would be really cheap to place a timing relay to stager the startup/shutdown of the units..was a building engineer in a past life.

Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[daveoasis]

Hi technome - thank you for the comments. That makes total sense to me. I worked in the Solar photovoltaics industry for a few years, so these kinds of recommendations are familiar. I will discuss this with the owner and review with the AC service co. as well as the local power company. Best regards.

 

[edfair]

You could also look into the full time conversion USP units. More expensive than the kick on as needed types but invaluable to critical users.
The ones I've worked on were capable of producing a waveform more like a sine wave than a square wave that comes from the cheaper units.

Ed Fair
Give the wrong symptoms, get the wrong solutions.