[rescue] Sun E450 - 'CPU Fan 2 Failure' but not failed

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On Sun, Nov 10, 2013 at 12:51:08AM -0500, Greg Jurman wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I just acquired a E450 that is running fine except for the
> environmental monitor constantly throwing that CPU Fan 2 has failed.
> Solaris is refusing to boot with this error even though CPUs are
> properly cooled.

I don't have any from the E-series so I don't know for sure, but I have
other Sun boxes and they will boot with various hardware faults.

The CPU fan may be below the safe range even though you can't tell by
looking or taking measurements. Or a wire may be disconnected somewhere so
the obp can't get a valid reading.

Is this your first/only Sun box? I have not heard of Solaris refusing to
boot on Sun hardware because of obp faults. Could you say a little more
about how you are trying to boot and what message you get?

>From the obp prompt you should be able to type boot and it should boot. If
not it should give you some message(s).

If you type showenvironment at the obp prompt it should show you all the
critical voltages and fan speeds and flag problematic parts. This is
supported on the Sun Fire boxes, I don't know what the E-series had but I
guess it was similar.

> Does anyone know if there a way to bypass this in-order to get Solaris
> to suck it up and run or a known fix to correct this problem properly
> (other than replace the main-board)?

I suspect it will just be a fan replacement at the most. You don't want to
get into buying a new mainboard!