I picked up some old datacenter servers and network gear with industrial-grade noise pollution (as expected). The equipment is just to play with and for home server/lab use, not for commercial purposes. I worked on the servers, got them quieted down to easily tolerable normal-desktop noise levels, same with the network gear system board fans. BUT, the network gear's hot swappable PSUs are giving me trouble.
I swapped out the stock 404028 fan for similar size 404020 Noctua, but now the PSU consistently shuts itself down to standby mode after 10s of applying power. I scoped both fans, Noctua's tach output is about 165Hz, and stock is 600Hz. I am assuming there are 2 pulses per rotation, so Noctua measures at about 5kRPM which is spec, and the stock fan is running about 18kRPM for a Nidek Ultraflow Ultraloud screamer of a enterprise network switch cooling fan. All fans are 4wire, power plus tach plus PWM.
1) I am guessing that the PSU firmware does not like Noctua's lower RPM, so the fw is failing poweron tests due to fan speed? If so, does anyone know if this fan speed check is pretty much standard for all hotswap PSUs, thus no point in me picking up other ebay PSUs to try and find one that won't shut itself off after I've modified it with a quiet fan?
2) I am assuming the issue is PSU firmware, but could a system board fw setting be causing this behavior? Just FMI, I don't think those settings are exposed, so I couldn't change them even if on systemboard.
3) Is there any way to fake out the fw, or solder a few passive components together, squeeze them into a cramped PSU case to triple the tach signal output frequency? I have no idea on this part.
Thanks!