I have two WD2500JS drives in my box running Debian Etch (kernel
2.6.15). I've installed the "hddtemp" package and it reports that one
is running at 70 degrees and the other is at 76. It can't tell whether
these are C or F, but I assume C. That's way outside the specified
operating temp for the drive (up to 55c) and even the non-operating
temp (up to 65c).

What can I do about this? The case already has an extra chassis fan,
which I've faced inwards to bring cool air into the case (because the
big PSU has two fans which expel air out of the case, and because that
brings the cool air right past the HDs).

Is there a linux utility to spin down the drives when not in use? (ie.
put them in standby or sleep mode or something?) I'd like to try that
and see what effect that has. This box is going to be my router and
server so will be running 24/7.

I've installed the lm-sensors to try and get more info (CPU temp etc.).
It all installed ok, but when I run the 'sensors' command it says

Can't access procfs/sysfs file
Unable to find i2c bus information;
For 2.6 kernels, make sure you have mounted sysfs and libsensors was
compiled with sysfs support!
For older kernels, make sure you have done 'modprobe i2c-proc'!

.... I don't really understand this - sysfs is mounted and I installed
the binary libsensors package (via apt) so it should have been compiled
to work properly with a bog-standard distribution install like this.
Can anyone help me solve this problem?

Many thanks in advance,

Chris

magnate wrote:

> I've installed the lm-sensors to try and get more info (CPU temp etc.).
> It all installed ok, but when I run the 'sensors' command it says
>
> Can't access procfs/sysfs file
> Unable to find i2c bus information;
> For 2.6 kernels, make sure you have mounted sysfs and libsensors was
> compiled with sysfs support!
> For older kernels, make sure you have done 'modprobe i2c-proc'!

Turns out this is not a helpful error message. The problem was simply
that I had not installed the relevant i2c and sensor modules
(i2c-viapro, i2c-isa, eeprom and w83697hf), which I discovered by
running sensors-detect. Ok so the output is garbage but at least it's
something - now all I have to do is tweak /etc/sensors. It's telling me
that Temp1 is 51c and Temp2 is 59c - both pretty hot but this is a
notorious AsRock K7VT4APro board so that's expected. At least they're
both below 60.

Still grateful for any tips on reducing my HD temps,

CC

magnate wrote:
> I have two WD2500JS drives in my box running Debian Etch (kernel
> 2.6.15). I've installed the "hddtemp" package and it reports that one
> is running at 70 degrees and the other is at 76. It can't tell whether
> these are C or F, but I assume C. That's way outside the specified
> operating temp for the drive (up to 55c) and even the non-operating
> temp (up to 65c).

I have four 10,000rpm Maxtor Ultra/320 LVD SCSI hard drives (and two Maxtor
7500 rpm hard drives) in my main machine and they do not run all that hot.
Here are the readings for one day from one of these drives. These
temperatures are clearly in Celsius degrees. (They are sorted for some reason.)

/dev/sda :
1 Time(s): Temperature changed -1 degrees to 36 degrees since last reading
1 Time(s): Temperature changed -1 degrees to 37 degrees since last reading
3 Time(s): Temperature changed -1 degrees to 38 degrees since last reading
1 Time(s): Temperature changed -1 degrees to 39 degrees since last reading
1 Time(s): Temperature changed -1 degrees to 40 degrees since last reading
1 Time(s): Temperature changed 1 degrees to 37 degrees since last reading
1 Time(s): Temperature changed 1 degrees to 38 degrees since last reading
2 Time(s): Temperature changed 1 degrees to 39 degrees since last reading
1 Time(s): Temperature changed 1 degrees to 40 degrees since last reading
1 Time(s): Temperature changed 1 degrees to 41 degrees since last reading

So if your temperatures are in Centigrade, something is clearly wrong. (And,
BTW, perhaps your processor(s), memory, etc., are being overheated also.
>
> What can I do about this? The case already has an extra chassis fan,
> which I've faced inwards to bring cool air into the case (because the
> big PSU has two fans which expel air out of the case, and because that
> brings the cool air right past the HDs).

The case my machine is in has 13 fans altogether:

120mm intake fan in lower front.
80mm intake fan in lower front.
40mm intake fan in lowerfront to fix a "hot spot."

90mm exhaust fan in lower half of case at the back.

The lower half of the case contains the processors, memory, plug-in cards,
motherboard chip set, etc.

2 80mm intake fans in upper left top blowing right at the SCSI hard drives.
2 80mm exhaust fans in upper right top blowing out on ther side of the SCSI
hard drives.
80 mm exhaust fan in upper rear.
2 80 mm exhaust fans (in series, aerodynamically speaking) in power supply
exhausting from upper rear..

The upper and lower sections of the case have several large holes
connecting them, so some of the hot air from the lower section exhausts from
the upper sectioin.

The case in my machine has a bunch of holes punched here and there to the
outside in a futile attempt to aid cooling. I have taped most of these holes
shut with duct tape as they just spoil the air flow. If you do not have
slightly more air flow going in than out, these holes may help, but not if
you were careful with fan selection.
>
> Is there a linux utility to spin down the drives when not in use? (ie.
> put them in standby or sleep mode or something?) I'd like to try that
> and see what effect that has. This box is going to be my router and
> server so will be running 24/7.

I do not know of any. Since hard drives take a while to get started, I would
not run such a utility anyway. I am more concerned with the wear and tear of
starting and stopping hard drives than in letting them run 24/7.
>
> I've installed the lm-sensors to try and get more info (CPU temp etc.).
> It all installed ok, but when I run the 'sensors' command it says
>
> Can't access procfs/sysfs file
> Unable to find i2c bus information;
> For 2.6 kernels, make sure you have mounted sysfs and libsensors was
> compiled with sysfs support!
> For older kernels, make sure you have done 'modprobe i2c-proc'!
>
> ... I don't really understand this - sysfs is mounted and I installed
> the binary libsensors package (via apt) so it should have been compiled
> to work properly with a bog-standard distribution install like this.
> Can anyone help me solve this problem?

I am afraid there is no substitute for reading the documentation of
lm-sensors and related packages and your motherboard (perhaps).
>
> Many thanks in advance,
>
> Chris
>


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Jean-David Beyer wrote:
> magnate wrote:
> > I have two WD2500JS drives in my box running Debian Etch (kernel
> > 2.6.15). I've installed the "hddtemp" package and it reports that one
> > is running at 70 degrees and the other is at 76. It can't tell whether
> > these are C or F, but I assume C. That's way outside the specified
> > operating temp for the drive (up to 55c) and even the non-operating
> > temp (up to 65c).
>
> I have four 10,000rpm Maxtor Ultra/320 LVD SCSI hard drives (and two Maxtor
> 7500 rpm hard drives) in my main machine and they do not run all that hot.
> Here are the readings for one day from one of these drives. These
> temperatures are clearly in Celsius degrees. (They are sorted for some reason.)
>
> /dev/sda :
> 1 Time(s): Temperature changed -1 degrees to 36 degrees since last reading
> 1 Time(s): Temperature changed -1 degrees to 37 degrees since last reading
> 3 Time(s): Temperature changed -1 degrees to 38 degrees since last reading
> 1 Time(s): Temperature changed -1 degrees to 39 degrees since last reading
> 1 Time(s): Temperature changed -1 degrees to 40 degrees since last reading
> 1 Time(s): Temperature changed 1 degrees to 37 degrees since last reading
> 1 Time(s): Temperature changed 1 degrees to 38 degrees since last reading
> 2 Time(s): Temperature changed 1 degrees to 39 degrees since last reading
> 1 Time(s): Temperature changed 1 degrees to 40 degrees since last reading
> 1 Time(s): Temperature changed 1 degrees to 41 degrees since last reading
>
> So if your temperatures are in Centigrade, something is clearly wrong. (And,
> BTW, perhaps your processor(s), memory, etc., are being overheated also.

Well, yes and no. On the one hand, if the readings are correct
something is very wrong. But on the other hand all my SATA drives run
hot (I have 3 others - all Maxtor - in two other machines, all are
around 60c) and I've never had any problems - I just assumed that SATA
drives ran hotter than PATA ones. This machine is an AsRock K7VT4APro,
which is a notoriously hot motherboard (and may have unreliable sensors
to boot).

> > What can I do about this? The case already has an extra chassis fan,
> > which I've faced inwards to bring cool air into the case (because the
> > big PSU has two fans which expel air out of the case, and because that
> > brings the cool air right past the HDs).
>
> The case my machine is in has 13 fans altogether:

Wow, that's some serious DIY. I've never had any extra fans in any of
my machines, other than the CPU and PSU fans. Sticking the extra front
intake fan in this machine was breaking new ground for me. I can see I
have a long way to go.

> > Is there a linux utility to spin down the drives when not in use? (ie.
> > put them in standby or sleep mode or something?) I'd like to try that
> > and see what effect that has. This box is going to be my router and
> > server so will be running 24/7.
>
> I do not know of any. Since hard drives take a while to get started, I would
> not run such a utility anyway. I am more concerned with the wear and tear of
> starting and stopping hard drives than in letting them run 24/7.

That's a good point, thanks.

> > I've installed the lm-sensors to try and get more info (CPU temp etc.).
> > It all installed ok, but when I run the 'sensors' command it says
> >
> > Can't access procfs/sysfs file
> > Unable to find i2c bus information;
> > For 2.6 kernels, make sure you have mounted sysfs and libsensors was
> > compiled with sysfs support!
> > For older kernels, make sure you have done 'modprobe i2c-proc'!
> >
> > ... I don't really understand this - sysfs is mounted and I installed
> > the binary libsensors package (via apt) so it should have been compiled
> > to work properly with a bog-standard distribution install like this.
> > Can anyone help me solve this problem?
>
> I am afraid there is no substitute for reading the documentation of
> lm-sensors and related packages and your motherboard (perhaps).

The lm-sensors documentation was not great, but I found the answer on
the web (run sensors-detect and load the modules!). Now I just have to
make sense of the output - I think it's telling me my CPU is at 59c
(hot but not terrible) and my motherboard is at 51c (which is almost
certainly a dodgy sensor, because it simply isn't that hot).

Thanks very much for your reply,

CC

magnate wrote:

> The lm-sensors documentation was not great, but I found the answer on
> the web (run sensors-detect and load the modules!). Now I just have to
> make sense of the output - I think it's telling me my CPU is at 59c
> (hot but not terrible) and my motherboard is at 51c (which is almost
> certainly a dodgy sensor, because it simply isn't that hot).
>
Sensors tell me this:

Thu Jul 6 09:30:01 EDT 2006
w83627hf-isa-0290
VCore: +1.44 V (min = +1.36 V, max = +1.47 V)
+3.3V: +3.31 V (min = +3.13 V, max = +3.45 V)
+5V: +4.91 V (min = +4.84 V, max = +5.24 V)
+12V: +11.89 V (min = +11.48 V, max = +12.58 V)
-12V: -11.83 V (min = -13.06 V, max = -11.41 V)
V5SB: +5.39 V (min = +4.84 V, max = +5.24 V)
VBat: +3.23 V (min = +2.40 V, max = +3.60 V)
CPU0 fan: 3125 RPM (min = 375 RPM, div = 8)
CPU1 fan: 2109 RPM (min = 375 RPM, div = 8)
System: +40C (limit = +45C, hysteresis = +43C) sensor = thermistor
CPU0: +57.0C (limit = +60C, hysteresis = +58C) sensor = thermistor
CPU1: +54.0C (limit = +60C, hysteresis = +58C) sensor = thermistor
vid: +1.400 V

The only thing I am not sure about is vid, since the Intel documentation
says my CPUs are eitehr 1.500 or 1.525 volts (decreasing as the load
increases, and my load is pretty high).

V5SB is out of spec high, but there is nothing connected to that power lead,
so the regulator cannot manage it.

--
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/V\ PGP-Key: 9A2FC99A Registered Machine 241939.
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^^-^^ 09:40:01 up 86 days, 23:12, 4 users, load average: 4.17, 4.15, 4.18

"magnate" <chrisc@dbass.demon.co.uk> writes:

>I have two WD2500JS drives in my box running Debian Etch (kernel
>2.6.15). I've installed the "hddtemp" package and it reports that one
>is running at 70 degrees and the other is at 76. It can't tell whether
>these are C or F, but I assume C. That's way outside the specified
>operating temp for the drive (up to 55c) and even the non-operating
>temp (up to 65c).

>What can I do about this? The case already has an extra chassis fan,
>which I've faced inwards to bring cool air into the case (because the
>big PSU has two fans which expel air out of the case, and because that
>brings the cool air right past the HDs).

Extra fans will do nothing if air does not get to the disks. Are teh disks
mounted close together ( eg in disk bays right above each other)?i Separate
them. Do the disks feel hot if you touch them? You could always get some
cpu fans, remove the heat sinks and have the fans sitting on the disks
blowing air straight at the disks.

I doubt that would be 70F since that is probably lower than room
temperature. Disks do produce heat. And at 70C you will loose the disks in
short order. Have extras on hand.


>Is there a linux utility to spin down the drives when not in use? (ie.
>put them in standby or sleep mode or something?) I'd like to try that
>and see what effect that has. This box is going to be my router and
>server so will be running 24/7.

>I've installed the lm-sensors to try and get more info (CPU temp etc.).
>It all installed ok, but when I run the 'sensors' command it says

>Can't access procfs/sysfs file
>Unable to find i2c bus information;
>For 2.6 kernels, make sure you have mounted sysfs and libsensors was
>compiled with sysfs support!
>For older kernels, make sure you have done 'modprobe i2c-proc'!

>... I don't really understand this - sysfs is mounted and I installed
>the binary libsensors package (via apt) so it should have been compiled
>to work properly with a bog-standard distribution install like this.
>Can anyone help me solve this problem?

>Many thanks in advance,

>Chris

Unruh wrote:
> "magnate" <chrisc@dbass.demon.co.uk> writes:
>
>> I have two WD2500JS drives in my box running Debian Etch (kernel
>> 2.6.15). I've installed the "hddtemp" package and it reports that one
>> is running at 70 degrees and the other is at 76. It can't tell whether
>> these are C or F, but I assume C. That's way outside the specified
>> operating temp for the drive (up to 55c) and even the non-operating
>> temp (up to 65c).
>
>> What can I do about this? The case already has an extra chassis fan,
>> which I've faced inwards to bring cool air into the case (because the
>> big PSU has two fans which expel air out of the case, and because that
>> brings the cool air right past the HDs).
>
> Extra fans will do nothing if air does not get to the disks. Are teh disks
> mounted close together ( eg in disk bays right above each other)?i Separate
> them.

All very well if you can do it. In my main box,the disks are one above the
other and they nearly touch. The drive bays are as close together as
standard parts permit, but this means there is about 1/8" between them and
the air from my cooling fans blowing right at them keeps their internal
temperatures reasonable. There are no spare hardware bays in my fill-tower
to separate the drives.

> Do the disks feel hot if you touch them? You could always get some
> cpu fans, remove the heat sinks and have the fans sitting on the disks
> blowing air straight at the disks.

Why not just by normal fans without heat sinks? That is what I have done
(two intake fans blowing right at the disks, and two exhaust fans blowing
from the disks at the opposite side of the case).
>
> I doubt that would be 70F since that is probably lower than room
> temperature. Disks do produce heat. And at 70C you will loose the disks in
> short order. Have extras on hand.
>

--
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/V\ PGP-Key: 9A2FC99A Registered Machine 241939.
/( )\ Shrewsbury, New Jersey http://counter.li.org
^^-^^ 13:55:01 up 87 days, 3:27, 4 users, load average: 4.30, 4.26, 4.12

magnate wrote:
> I have two WD2500JS drives in my box running Debian Etch (kernel
> 2.6.15). I've installed the "hddtemp" package and it reports that one
> is running at 70 degrees and the other is at 76. It can't tell whether
> these are C or F, but I assume C. That's way outside the specified
> operating temp for the drive (up to 55c) and even the non-operating
> temp (up to 65c).
>
> What can I do about this? The case already has an extra chassis fan,
> which I've faced inwards to bring cool air into the case (because the
> big PSU has two fans which expel air out of the case, and because that
> brings the cool air right past the HDs).
>
> Is there a linux utility to spin down the drives when not in use? (ie.
> put them in standby or sleep mode or something?) I'd like to try that
> and see what effect that has. This box is going to be my router and
> server so will be running 24/7.
>
> I've installed the lm-sensors to try and get more info (CPU temp etc.).
> It all installed ok, but when I run the 'sensors' command it says
>
> Can't access procfs/sysfs file
> Unable to find i2c bus information;
> For 2.6 kernels, make sure you have mounted sysfs and libsensors was
> compiled with sysfs support!
> For older kernels, make sure you have done 'modprobe i2c-proc'!
>
> ... I don't really understand this - sysfs is mounted and I installed
> the binary libsensors package (via apt) so it should have been compiled
> to work properly with a bog-standard distribution install like this.
> Can anyone help me solve this problem?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
>
> Chris
>
The WDxxxxJS series have a bug in the temperature sensing.
These drives always read very high.
If you search hard you can find references to this on the WD web site

They are supposedly working on a firmware upgrade, but don't hold your
breath. I have a single SATA drive and it runs allegedly at 53C. It is
cool to the touch especially underneath where the sensor is located.

On 6 Jul 2006, in the Usenet newsgroup comp.os.linux.setup, in article
<1152187269.472609.104800@q16g2000cwq.googlegroups .com>, magnate wrote:
>magnate wrote:

>It's telling me that Temp1 is 51c and Temp2 is 59c - both pretty hot but
>this is a notorious AsRock K7VT4APro board so that's expected. At least
>they're both below 60.

Uh, wait a minute. Your 'From:' says "demon.co.uk" and there is no way that
the drives should be anywhere near that hot. The WD specifications for that
drive say +5 to +50C. The temperature in this room is +27C (it's +40 outside)
and none of the drives in the systems here are over 35C at the moment. Reach
in and touch the case of the drives. They should be "hot" but you should be
able to hold the drive without pain. You really should be using a calibrated
thermometer to check the temps (not the run-of-the-mill 99 cent thing you
bought at the grocery store). Consumer grade thermometer are usually accurate
to plus/minus 10C, and uncalibrated electronic measurements are not worth the
bother of reading (30C errors are not unheard-of). Cool electronics is a
requirement if you want reasonable life out of the gear.

>Still grateful for any tips on reducing my HD temps,

The drives dissipate about 10 Watts each. Your original post says that you
have the internal fan sucking "cool" air past the drives. From where? A
lot obviously depends on case design, but the systems here are configured
such that external air is drawn in across the drives (as well as across the
CPU). At home, I have cats lounging about, and to prevent pet hair and dust
bunnies I have a large assemble that fits over the from of the case and
contains an air filter and fan to force the air through the filter and into
the case. The reason for this is to try to keep the temperature inside the
case no more than 6C above room temperature.

Old guy

magnate wrote:
> I have two WD2500JS drives in my box running Debian Etch (kernel
> 2.6.15). I've installed the "hddtemp" package and it reports that one
> is running at 70 degrees and the other is at 76. It can't tell whether
> these are C or F, but I assume C. That's way outside the specified
> operating temp for the drive (up to 55c) and even the non-operating
> temp (up to 65c).

Touch the drive and to see if it really is that hot.

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