How common are the 450 PSU failing ?

[TLDuk]

I seem to have had a run of BCM 450 psu failing recently, the usual symptoms, system starts to boot gets so far you hear some relay clicks and bang it reboots..

Is anyone else having the same issues ?

If its not broke tweak it..

 

[marice]

I'm bleeding power supplies out of my 400's. Noticing a trend starting with my 450's too. I have the redundant power supplies in my 450's. You?

 

[TLDuk]

No just the single ATX psu but they are dropping like flies at the moment, the problem is on the 400`s it tents to corrupt the drive for good measure !!

If its not broke tweak it..

 

[marice]

I am noticing the same on the 400 drives. I'm sort of glad to finally hear of someone with a similar issue.

 

[marice]

Do you mind if I ask what hardware and software you're running? I've been try to find sort common thread. I've spoken to other people who deploy BCM's but haven't found anyone experiencing the same failure rate. So far their configuration differs a bit from what I tend to have running.

 

[Firebird Scrambler]

I can only comment for the 450's on this recent thread

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1685721

I have however changed out a few BCM 400 power unit and the last one did also resulted in a corrupted disk and needed re imaging again.

All the best

Firebird Scrambler
Meridian 1 / Succession and BCM / Norstar Programmer in the UK

http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbromley

If it's working, then leave it alone!.

 

[TLDuk]

Most common at the moment seems to be release r1 bcm 450 chassis or late bcm 400 v4

What I have noticed is bcm 450 software seems todo a deeper file system check on boot so some errors caused by failing psu gets fixed a bcm 400 v4 actually prompts for user input on the serial port for a deeper fle seem check

If its not broke tweak it..

 

[icstech12]

I've found that in the 400's the power supply fails completely fortunately without corrupting anything whereas on the 450's the power supply goes soft - system keeps running but obviously the voltages are down or have poor regulation and causes some strange faults. I've been subcontracted to change one out tomorrow morning as there are odd problems on one of the DSM32's. It could be the DSM32 of course so I'm going prepared.

 

[marice]

What sort of "Strange Faults", I'd like to know what to look for. I've got primarily 400's right now but more 450's going in shortly.

 

[TLDuk]

Well i find 400`s do not boot at all and 450`s either reset during boot or reset at random times usually at busy periods in the day

If its not broke tweak it..

 

[snowman50]

I have changed out quite a few bcm400,450 power units latley.
Most times the system works ok after, but had a recent 450 corrupt the hard drive voicemail.

Have some PSU spares ready.

 

[marice]

I've been noticing the trend for a year or more. When I look at the install dates the sites have been in service, on average, a little over three years. That seems like a rather short life expectancy on a power supply.

 

[biv343]

Same here. We keep generic ATX replacement power supplies on hand for non redundant PS systems. Much cheaper Power supplies are becoming the next base function tray.

 

[DBrewsky]

I had to replace a BCM450 PSU a couple of months ago. Same issue, power up, gets to a specific spot and reboots. System was upgraded to 6.0 but definitely 1.0 hardware.

The customer had a PC PSU (400W I believe) laying around and I replaced it with that and haven't looked back.

--DB

 

[marice]

So far I've been replacing with like kind, 300 watt from the same manufacturer.

 

[TLDuk]

Yeah I go with 400 watt power supllies to

If its not broke tweak it..

 

[marice]

Have you had an re-occurrence with 400W PSU's or have them been in the field long enough to tell?

 

[DBrewsky]

It's only been a couple of months. But since it replaced a 300W it should not be working as hard. IMHO.

--DB

 

[icstech12]

On the system I attended yesterday the phones on the bottom DSM32 were constantly reinitialising, had distorted dialtone, getting stuck on handsfree and not switching to handpiece, etc. When it was removed the next DSM up was still a bit flakey so since one rail powers each pair of slots it seems that one of the rails had gone 'off'. Power supply was replaced with a Coolermaster Extreme 500W and the system rebooted OK with no errors. All extensions are now working correctly. This was a BCM450 Release 5 so wouldn't be that old and according to the customer had always been a little flakey.

 

[phoneguy610]

i know we replace all of the power supplys on all of our 450s because of this.

We also make sure we replace the PS on the 400-450 upgrades