[Info-vax] rx2620 power supplies / VRM voltage low

[David Froble]

George Cornelius wrote:
> Anyone else had problems with rx2620 power supplies?
> 
> We have been helping someone in-house who has a laboratory
> instrument with attached rx2620 and no hardware contract.
> 
> We are not hardware support people but got him around his
> last two hardware problems - bad scsi cable, (soft?) ecc
> errors that appeared to be interfering with boots - but
> he now has chronic power issues.
> 
> The iLo MP shows a message like "VRM non-recoverable voltage
> low - check all boards at this address".  VRM's - voltage
> regulator modules - are on the motherboard and generate
> regulated voltages from the output of the power supplies.
> 
> Swapping out the power supply resolves this.  Over and over
> again.  We get about a month out of a supply.

Now, that really does not surprise me.  Keep in mind that power is where 
everything starts.  The commodity stuff coming from China is a crap shoot.  You 
never know when you turn on the power switch of a new power supply whether 
you'll get power, or sparks, smoke, and time for a new power supply.  I've had 
brand new stuff spark and smoke.  No QC in China, that's left to the users.  Of 
course, the new stuff is much cheaper than things in the past.  QC costs money.

> Just recently tried inserting two supplies (these are used/
> refurbed, with 90 day warranty).  One of these died within
> a day or so - different error, indicating defunct supply.

Refirbished - someone returned it as defective, stick it back on the shelf and 
send it to the next customer who orders one ....

> Soon after - replacement supply not yet in - VRM voltage
> low error returns.
> 
> "Check cards with this voltage" is troubling.  I would
> be tempted to pull out the storage array card - replaced
> by a new one from the vendor when the scsi issue arose -
> but hard to run without the application's storage and
> it would appear the supplies really have gone bad.
> 
> Decoding the message to determine which voltage it is
>  is problematic.  An HP person on one of their forums
> seemed to state that it is HP proprietary and such
> problems _must_ be turned over to HP Support.
> 
> Ideas?

Ok, it may not always be the power supply.  Perhaps some component is putting 
too much of a load on a valid power supply, causing it to go bad.  Having really 
good stuff to test power supplies would be a good thing.  Anybody know where to 
get such?

HP wanting their hands in your wallet sure doesn't surprise me ....