Ablecom is the "OEM" brand name of Supermicro. You will notice their logos rather look alike ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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They are made in China and/or Taiwan, but then again, what's not made there nowadays?
It seems you had a bit of a bad luck there. Obviously you could check for common factors, like the same brand of UPS being used on all of those. I've seen rare cases where UPS and equipment PSUs just didn't like each other, probably because of the bad quality of the output power of the UPS and/or the rather non-resilient design of the PSU.
Posted by Stephan Shelley (Member # 8587) on 02-05-2015, 06:57 PM:
No UPS here. And we have a DSS/DSP 100 powered by the same power panel as the one that just went that has been running for almost 7 years. All get the breakers turned off at night.
Posted by Marcel Birgelen (Member # 6801) on 02-05-2015, 07:06 PM:
The breaker aspect is an interesting one. Mind you, those things are actually server power supplies, they're designed to run 24/7 and switching them on and off regularly might even cause more wear than just letting them run, even in stand-by mode.
Another thing they don't like is dust and oil, they were never designed to operate in a rugged environment, but rather in a typical IT room environment. If they get clogged up, they tend to overheat and just blow out once in a while.
Posted by Matthew Ortado (Member # 5620) on 02-05-2015, 07:15 PM:
We have had one or two that have failed out of over (200) DSS200 systems.
Posted by David J Hilsgen (Member # 2614) on 01-17-2016, 03:15 PM:
I want to get a spare power supply for my dolby DSS200 & my Doremi 2k4 server anybody have the m#s handy or i can pull them out,or do still need to go to dolby & doremi. when the one for my dss100 went down amazon had them for $92.00 & server supply had referbs for $30.00
Posted by Gavin Lewarne (Member # 5397) on 01-17-2016, 04:58 PM:
3 1/2 year old DSS200, still on both original factory power supplies. We do use a UPS and rarely power the server down
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-17-2016, 05:47 PM:
The DSS200 and DSS220 power supplies are off-the-shelf Supermicros (Ablecom). I don't have the models committed to memory though.
Watchout on some of these suppliers, I've received used being passed off as new.
Posted by David J Hilsgen (Member # 2614) on 01-17-2016, 06:48 PM:
Steve: are both the dolby 200 & doremi 2k4 slide out supplies like the dolby 100, no wires to disconnect inside
Posted by Matthew Heuer (Member # 9199) on 01-17-2016, 07:04 PM:
We have 21 DSS200s. 6 are 5 years old, the other 15 are 4 year old DSS200-3 series. Knock on wood no problems with power supplies yet. Can not say the same for our CP750s, have lost a few of them.
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 01-18-2016, 05:45 AM:
I had boatloads of CP-650 supplies fail form the plague. So many that I just started replacing the capacitors in them....
Mark
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-18-2016, 06:00 AM:
I'd say that of the 200 or so DSS200s we have out there...maybe 5 of them have had any form of power supply issue.
The power supplies require no wiring. They just slide out as a self-contained brick.
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 01-18-2016, 10:38 AM:
If you lose a DSS200 P/S how do you silence the alarm?
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-18-2016, 11:18 AM:
Pull out the bad supply (just have to pull it out about 1/2 and inch).
Posted by Pete Naples (Member # 761) on 01-18-2016, 03:42 PM:
Out of all the DSS100/DSS200s we have out there, I've only ever seen one failed PSU.
DSS220 I've had a few, and a couple of motherboards.
Posted by Jason Raftery (Member # 6291) on 01-18-2016, 06:39 PM:
The Supermicro P/N for a DSS200 power supply module is PWS-801-1R. I don't have any 220's so not sure if they use the same module or something different.
Posted by David J Hilsgen (Member # 2614) on 01-19-2016, 12:11 AM:
Jason thanks for the imfo
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-19-2016, 05:42 AM:
The DSS220 is different (smaller).
Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 01-19-2016, 01:07 PM:
Dolby DSS200 - Ablecom PWS-801-1R (800w)
Dolby DSS220 - Ablecom PWS-702A-1R (700w)
The 800w unit will also work in the 220, but the 700w unit will *not* work in the 200.
Posted by Aleksandar Obradovic (Member # 7266) on 01-19-2016, 05:51 PM:
Hi guys,
Like Mark said I think that it would be the best way to open broken PSU and then test and replace failed parts (of course if your warranty expired). Best part of it is that you can find components in your local store for a few bucks (top) and in that way you can learn something more or at least stay in shape with soldering iron ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Alex
Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 12-21-2017, 08:47 AM:
It has been 701 days since the last post.
Posted by Ian Garland (Member # 8499) on 12-21-2017, 08:47 AM:
Just had one of othe PSUs on our DSS200 die this morning. Have ordered a new Ablecom PSW-801-1R but out of curiosity have stripped down the failed unit and on visual inspection U1 on the main board has popped it's clogs. Have tried searching for schematics online but to no avail. Trouble is the blown chip has a nice hole at the end of the part number so all I have is that it is a Power Integrators device TOP2 --N to go on. Anyone have the part number to hand or has a unit they can take a peak at?
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 12-21-2017, 09:38 AM:
The DSS200 always has two supplies. Why not look at the other one?
Posted by Sam D. Chavez (Member # 1841) on 12-21-2017, 10:18 AM:
I don't know if it's a good idea to take apart the one good supply to try and fix the bad one. These are quite cheap supplies so I'd order a new one and be done with it. I have quite a few in stock and I got them the same place as everyone else.
Posted by Adrian Avram (Member # 7931) on 12-21-2017, 12:57 PM:
U1 on these power supplies is TOP244YN fully integrated IC with Control + power Mosfet for up to 45W from Power Integrations
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 12-21-2017, 03:21 PM:
Posted by Ian Garland (Member # 8499) on 12-22-2017, 04:32 AM:
Thanks all and Thanks Adrian, just what I needed. part on the way and at £3.24 a lot cheaper than the north of £200 spent on the replacement PSU. hopefully will have a good spare to keep on the shelf now.
Really should screen that film some day...
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-22-2017, 07:31 AM:
I've got a bit of a puzzler on my hands.
Customer emailed me yesterday, reporting that attempting to ingest into his DSS200 repeatedly fails when doing so through the front panel (cat915Z) USB jacks, or the CRU bay, but is OK and reliable using a CRU to USB sleeve adapter hooked to one of the USB jacks at the back. That same adapter hooked to a front USB jack ingests glitchily.
He further reports that cold rebooting the server makes front end USB ingestion (CRU or USB) OK "for two or three times," then the failures to see a drive, or seeing the drive but the ingest stalling midway or failing verification, start again.
My first thought was heat cycling breaking connections (given that the SATA cable for the CRU reader and the USB header cable are cable tied together and take the same route through the middle of the case), but it would be a big coincidence for both to work loose at the exact same moment.
However, this thread has me wondering about the PSUs, given that the USB jacks at the back are directly on the motherboard, whereas the SATA and extension USB jacks presumably take their power from another rail.
When I can finally get there, I think I'll test the voltage that these two components are receiving. I wonder if the cold rebooting making things OK for a little while is because that recharges a capacitor in the PSU that is just starting to fail.
I've known both 5.25" SATA CRU bays, and cat915Z boards to go bad, but not both at the same time.
Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 12-22-2017, 08:16 AM:
IF the USB or CRU are removed while it is "reading" with the red flashing icon, then that port will cease to read until a reboot.
Furthermore, the CRU driver in the DSS line is a bit wanting. It can "quit" and refuse to see any CRU drives until rebooted. I've tried working with Dolby on it but it is so random that it has proven to be very elusive. The same has not been experienced with the USB.
I wonder if the USB port(s) have been damaged at all. We've changed MANY out due to people breaking things off in them.
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 12-24-2017, 03:11 PM:
Also, if you unlatch and pull a CRU without pressing the dismount button and waiting until the blue light goes out, that can also lock up the CRU driver until the server is rebooted, too.
I think this is something to do with whatever driver is in the Dolby software package that makes the SATA interface plug-and-play for the CRU reader. The plug-and-play function only works reliably if you plug and unplug following the exact procedure.
The problem my customer is experiencing is that ingests through the CRU or cat915Z boards will suddenly say "failed" midway through the ingest, or during the verification afterwards. He is certain that this behavior started on both interfaces at the same time, but that ingestion through the rear USB jacks remains unaffected.
Hoping to get there within the next week or two to check it out, if he decides to book a service call. I suspect that they might decide to live with it until we're next there for planned maintenance, though (unless ingestion through the rear end goes flaky, too).
Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 12-24-2017, 04:03 PM:
I popped a drive in the DSS200 "oven" the other day and despite various flashing lights on the bay, the drive was never recognized. I thought maybe I'd been sent a bad drive but I got out the cap, P/S, and cables and connected via USB (front panel) and it was fine. Tried a known good CRU drive and again, not recognized. I started worrying that my ingest bay was failing. I rebooted the server and then it was fine. I don't recall anything about the prior use of the bay that could have caused it to lock up. I do not push any button to remove a drive; I make sure all copying has completely before pulling it. It has not been an issue before.
Posted by Ioannis Syrogiannis (Member # 3235) on 01-02-2018, 02:51 PM: