(Need Help) 7 killed Thecus N7700's last year

[phildog33]

I have no idea whats going on.

Thecus wont tell me either.. and just keeps sending me new ones.
They last for a few months, then motherboard dead.. then they send me a new one.. and this has been going for 1 year
7x Thecus N7700 have died on me now

My setup is an N7700 with 7x 1.5TB seagate drives
In Raid 5 and use only as backup each night.. It is only being written to for about 2 hours each day. No clients, or multiple users accessing. Its just a redundant backup for my 12TB areca array which is used all the time.

Other than that.. N7700 has a serial cable and power cable attached to a SmartUPS-1500, and ethernet cable to my router.

So far... If Im ever doing an RSYNC command or large backup that is over 100gbs... thats when the dead motherboard happens.. It just shuts down completely.. and power LED flickers on startup. Dead

This does not happen often.. But about once every few months... Then i RMA.. they send me a new one.. Works for a few months.. then dead again.. and start over.. repeat with each RMA.

My old N5200Pro worked for 2 years no problems, and no issues

Any ideas? Should I switch brands? Anything to check.. Thecus wont tell me anything
Phillip

[Steve]

My immediate thought would be that the UPS could be causing issues. Is anything else attached to it?

[phildog33]

Its the $1200 APC SmartUPS unit. The approved one.. I have three of those APCs on different computers and servers and no issues.
APC is a really good brand

but.. Thecus is sending me another unit... they still have no idea whats going on.. Its pretty frustrating as ive spent maybe 3/12 months last year dealing with RMAs instead of using my Nas.

** it is interesting, that it ALWAYS happens... when a big file transfer is going on. LIke millions of files, small files, etc... then the unit will just die and turn off .. always happens during big transfers.
Even if its not PLACING the files on the server.. but just checking them for sync with the other Thecus I have... its doing a lot of work, then just kind of gets tired and gives up, and dies

any ideas? they are sending me my 7th unit now
should i consider a different 7bay NAS?
p

[Steve]

As HEXUS staff I won't make any product endorsements in a branded care@HEXUS forum

I'm guessing the big transfer will put the system under the greatest load, so if there is an issue with power delivery, that could be what kills it off.

Of course, if there is an issue with the design itself that's another matter.

But, seeing as you have three APC units, perhaps you could swap two around to make sure the one you've been using on the Thecus is OK? I guess hooked up to a PC you could check on its health and such in more detail than via the NAS? Of course, seeing as I've lined up the UPS as a potential cause of your NAS deaths, you would be making the swap at your own risk.

As you say, APC is a good brand, but that doesn't mean there isn't something wrong with that particular unit.

[phildog33]

Hi Steve.. how do I know if my APC is defective then? It does deliver steady power with Trim commands, properly.. and the PC registers it as a working 100% perfect unit

even the voltages in my office are ok with regulators
it seems the APC is rock solid really

nothing else is plugged into it.. and its 1500W, complete over headroom for the N7700 on heaviest load

[Steve]

Well chances are that's not it then, but seeing as it's the one consistency other than the model of NAS, it might be worth swapping it around or removing it altogether for the purposes of ruling it out?

[phildog33]

Well I will sell both N7700 after getting back the RMAs and then I just bought another brand.... they were more expensive, but hopefully they actually work for me this time

Do you guys have 'any' idea what was happening to my Thecus units.. 8th down in one year.. only during big file transfers.. MB dead and fried each time

Thecus wont tell me what components are getting fried... Just keep sending me new ones.. but its too inconvenient to be their beta tester

They were saying ideas like my APC killed my Thecus, or that something was coming in through the ethernet cable to fry my MB, or the serial cable to my APC.. those cables are frying my MB.. ??

Those claims dont sound right.. but if so... shouldnt there be some sort of fusing system in their design to counter that?

My impression was that during really big file transfers with millions of small files when it has to work v hard (thats when it dies always) ... some sort of Power Supply problem happens or something internal..

i dont know.. what do you guys think?

I dont want this to happen to my new units
if there really is something with my environment

Ive been using thecus for 5 years and no problems ever... same media and content transfers, same everything

N5200 > N5200PRO and then last year N7700 -- 8 dead in one year
I am a power user backing up TBs of data and millions of small files, all the time

Phillip

[philhu]

Yep

I gave up too

Ended up with a Poweredge 1950 Dell box running W2k8 and W2K8 Storage edition as a virtual machine, with a MD1000 disk case with 11 2tb drives

Lots of space and solid iSCSI

SOLID

Cost about 40% more than Thecus BUT WORKS!

[Thecus - Ivan]

Dear phildog33,

Can you please provide me with below information to better assist with your query.

1. Your location and which reseller you purchased the NAS from?
2. Everytime you sent the NAS back, did your reseller exchange a new one for you or
only fix the parts that were damaged?
3. Have you opened a ticket with our Esupport about this issus? if you have, please provide me
with the ticket number.

_____________________________

Official Thecus Support Representative

[vibe666]

where is everyone finding these new frmwares, i don't see beta FW shown on the thecus site?

all i see is v3.00.08c

also, what's the deal with keeping updating the login page and not the rest of the GUI?

how about adding much needed features, functionality and increasing usability instead of prettying up a page that has no use other than to log in to get back to the same old interface?

I bought a Thecus N7700 NAS a few months ago for around £650 (before disks)

A colleague at work who had much less storage needs than I did bought a small, single disk Synology DS110j for about £120 (again, diskless).

When logging into our NAS’s from our office to do various tasks, my colleague has a faster responding, nicer looking GUI with much better features than I do despite the fact my broadband connection is 3 times the speed of his (mine is 30mbps/3mpbs, his is 5mbps/1mbps).