supermicro BPN-SAS3-826EL J29 Heartbeat LED

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xulion

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Aug 30, 2023
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Hello,

My 829U server suddenly stopped working today due to not able to detect any drives. No drives has any LED and the J29 heartbeat LED on the backplane (SAS3-826EL) remains on. According to the manual the normal state of the LED shall be blinking and steady on or off state means something wrong. However the manual did not say what does on really means.

Does anyone know if the backplane is dead?

Server powers on and I can enter LSI bios, it just shows no physical drive are detected.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!
 

CyklonDX

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Nov 8, 2022
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if you can take out the backplane connect it to power and power it on

it should have some lights on it; if it doesn't power on you should take a look at caps if you are willing to troubleshoot it (get multimeter and look for shorts) or broken/burnt parts.
 
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xulion

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Aug 30, 2023
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if you can take out the backplane connect it to power and power it on

it should have some lights on it; if it doesn't power on you should take a look at caps if you are willing to troubleshoot it (get multimeter and look for shorts) or broken/burnt parts.
Thanks! I did take it off yesterday and with my old eyes I could not see any visual burn. I also replaced the SAS controller yesterday evening to see if it's due to the controller and seems the same. So far seems the backplane is dead.

I'll measure input voltage later today and see if the power is ok (the power is from x11DPU motherboard and I hope nothing wrong there). Hopefully it's just backplane. Motherboard would be expensive -:(.
 
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CyklonDX

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if you have downtime time allowed for this - you could always send it to 3rd party to fix (if its mobo or backplane)
*this guy does motherboards and all kind of electrical devices, i can also confirm the guy is legit and has very good pricing.
 

xulion

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Aug 30, 2023
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if you have downtime time allowed for this - you could always send it to 3rd party to fix (if its mobo or backplane)
*this guy does motherboards and all kind of electrical devices, i can also confirm the guy is legit and has very good pricing.
That's great info! This is my backup server and most of the time it's off. I'll check! Thanks again!
 

xulion

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Aug 30, 2023
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if you can take out the backplane connect it to power and power it on

it should have some lights on it; if it doesn't power on you should take a look at caps if you are willing to troubleshoot it (get multimeter and look for shorts) or broken/burnt parts.
Just measured the board, the x11DPU mother board missing 5V output!!!! This is going to be expensive.....

Edit:
Just put my old x10DRU back on and still no 5V, started wondering it's power supply....
 
Last edited:

CyklonDX

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in my case for gpu repair with reflow of core and few memory chips replaced - northwest took $100 to diagnose, and some $100 for fix in parts. It wasn't expensive. *if you do plan on fixing it - not replacing, make sure to send backplane, cpu/s and memory stick/s whatever one may need to test the board afterwards.
 
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xulion

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in my case for gpu repair with reflow of core and few memory chips replaced - northwest took $100 to diagnose, and some $100 for fix in parts. It wasn't expensive. *if you do plan on fixing it - not replacing, make sure to send backplane, cpu/s and memory stick/s whatever one may need to test the board afterwards.
Just put my old x10DRU back on and still no 5V, started wondering it's power supply....
 

CyklonDX

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Nov 8, 2022
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maybe power distribution board? *or you are testing wrong, and its still backplane short somewhere.
 
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xulion

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maybe power distribution board? *or you are testing wrong, and its still backplane short somewhere.
Used multimeter tested power output from the motherboard without backplane connected. Can see 12V output but no 5V..... I need test more.....
 

CyklonDX

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1729873227109.png
Idk what the connector does, but there could be a sense it expects on '-' pin. *(its a sm proprietary plug after all.)

*test on motherboard, backplane, and cable too.
 
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xulion

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Aug 30, 2023
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i don't think you should be doing that - its not eps 8pin *(unless backplane has molex connectors)
Yes, the backplane is powered by 3 Molex via a special supermicro cable connect to the motherboard. I believe it's due to the backplane is also used in CSE-826 which does use a lot of molex for power.

I do have a 847 currently running which is my main server. Just a bit hesitated to try it on that. If the backplane is shotting the pins I might damage my main server.....
 

CyklonDX

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with molex you can test power with standard atx power supply or classical atx desktop systems - if it trips psu then sure there is an issue; but since it didn't trip your psu's in your server (check bmc), i'd think it likely a short dead element somewhere on the backplane board itself.
 
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xulion

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Aug 30, 2023
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with molex you can test power with standard atx power supply or classical atx desktop systems - if it trips psu then sure there is an issue; but since it didn't trip your psu's in your server (check bmc), i'd think it likely a short dead element somewhere on the backplane board itself.
I think you probably right. I opened up one PSU and also see no visual damage. And how the motherboard still power on normally if missing 5V power. IPMI shows no error except the SAS controller complaining no drives.

Just checked a used backplane is about $60. I might just get one once I confirmed (may test on my 847, which actually has an identical backplane in the back. It's just extremely painful to access those power cables.). Thanks for all your help. A lot of information! Good learning experience!
 

xulion

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Aug 30, 2023
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with molex you can test power with standard atx power supply or classical atx desktop systems - if it trips psu then sure there is an issue; but since it didn't trip your psu's in your server (check bmc), i'd think it likely a short dead element somewhere on the backplane board itself.
Just tested on 847, funny enough this time 5V light up and 12V missing. I think definitely something wrong with the backplane power circuitry!

Time to spend some money!
 
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xulion

Member
Aug 30, 2023
55
42
18
with molex you can test power with standard atx power supply or classical atx desktop systems - if it trips psu then sure there is an issue; but since it didn't trip your psu's in your server (check bmc), i'd think it likely a short dead element somewhere on the backplane board itself.
bought a new backplane from eBay, replaced and everything works now! Must be some part of the power control circuitry damaged somehow.
 
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