Whining Sound from Swann NVR

[SB_Jim 1]

Hello,

 

For the past month or so I've noticed that my NVR is now producing a slight whine - which fades in and out at times. It's not unbearable, but when combined with the sound of the cooling fan (which I've grown to accept over the past 4 years+) I'm a bit annoyed. My NVR is located in a cabinet w/a door (that's vented at the sides) and in that cabinet space I also have a nearly silent fan that exhausts the air out of the cabinet. It's very effective.

 

The spacing in the cabinet is such that I avoid trying to remove the NVR at all due to the many cables in play and tight spacing. I also have some PIR's attached w/ fine pwr wires, so I don't want to just pull this out of the cabinet if it can be avoided.

 

I'm not suspecting the NVR cooling fan of making the noise, so I'm wondering whether or not it may be the HDD? I've heard that it's relatively painless to replace the 2 TB drive.

 

Ideas from your experiences? Thanks in advance!

[SB_Jim 1]

Really? Out of all you very smart folks, nobody has any experience w/ this? I find that kind of surprising.

[GadgetAssistant 0]

Hello. You seem to have a grasp of the situation, it is either the hard drive or the fan and you will not be able to replace one or the other or both without opening up the DVR. If you have had the DVR for several years, you might want to start with the fan which would be the least expensive of the two items.

[SB_Jim 1]

Thanks Gadget for your reply. I realize I can't do anything w/out making access to the "insides". I'm just more thinking it's the HDD due to the pitch, and what I perceive to be the rpm related characteristics of the sound. Because I still can hear the ever-present sound of the cooling fan (which doesn't appear to have changed), I'm guessing HDD. If my NVR were in some other location, it'd probably not give it any thought. But, it's something that can now be heard in my dining room / living room due to the proximity of my cabinet where all of my "hub" stuff in located.

 

I'll have to commit to a couple of hours of removal / exploration some weekend. I think there were suggestions in this forum about which HDD would be appropriate for the replacement. Something like a WD 2 TB "purple" or some designatioin for video use.

[GadgetAssistant 0]

Yup. That Western Digital Purple drive seems to be the consensus replacement drive. Since you can no longer hear the cooling fan, you might still want to consider replacing the 4+ year old fan. There are some new bearing technologies that make fans quieter if not silent. A well working cooling fan will allow that new drive to keep that NVR going for at least another four years. And if I could put in my two cents in about drives, SSD's have no moving or spinning parts. Although quieter and faster, SSD's are still more expensive and probably do not last as long as conventional drives.

[SB_Jim 1]

Thanks again Gadget - for your comments. I hadn't even thought about an SSD. I was presuming that I'd buy an equivalent to what's been humming along for the past 4-5 yrs. I might be tempted to add the second 2 TB drive - if I could configure to write to the first drive, and then the second drive - to have the net affect of a 4 TB drive. Is there a 3TB drive that I could "upgrade" to as a single drive, or must I stick to the existing original configuration?

 

However, I do believe the cooling fan in my Swann is a variable speed fan (driven by temp). If I had an SSD, it may run much cooler and perhaps the fan would auto-spin at an even lesser RPM - yielding me a far more desirable sound than what I've grown accustomed to. Much like my newer Dell laptop that is SSD and whose fan almost never makes a peep! I'd actually be willing to spend a bit more on the SSD just for the lack of fan noise that most all of us had objected to when we first bought our NVRs.

[SB_Jim 1]

I've been told that I could swap a 4TB drive for the existing 2TB drive - since my NVR has a capacity of 4 or 6 TB. With regard to the connection, is this one standard for drives?

 

WD4NPURX 4TB SATA 6Gb s IntelliPower 64MB

 

Is it likely that I'll find a SADA connection inside my box that's being used for my existing 2TB factory drive?

 

Thank you.

 

PS - The Mfr indicates that an SSD is NOT an appropriate drive for a surveillance system.

[GadgetAssistant 0]

Swann would be the appropriate source for the specific parameters of the hard drive replacement for your system. In general, I do believe most DVR's will only accept a single internal drive. So if you want to upgrade to 4TB hard drive, you may want to look for a single 4TB drive that meets the whole set of specifications for your particular Swann DVR.

[SB_Jim 1]

Okay, I'm now fairly confident that the issue I need to solve is the cooling fan for the POE power supply. I noticed a "hot" scent when I got up the other morning in the proximity to my NVR (which is in a vented cabinet). And, my NVR had never been SO quiet. If only it could stay that way!!

 

I felt the case in the area of the rear-mounted air vent on the back of the NVR and the localized materials were quite hot. So, I've turned it off for now. I called Swann and they only offered for me to replace the NVR or send for repairs. I told them that I wasn't in need of a new NVR, but simply a single fan. They don't offer the part.

 

I plan to open the case this weekend and have a look at the fan which I believe will be mounted directly above the pwr supply. Can one of you please suggest a replacement fan? I don't wish to change the configuration of my POE switch or the Pwr supply as some have done. I'm simply wanting to replace the original fan for an equivalent fan.

 

Many thanks for your ideas.

 

Jim

[tomcctv 190]

Hi. Jim any PC shop will stock the fan they are more or less same connections.

 

I would say if you want it silent go for the brushless fan

 

Don't know we're your located but £10 -$12 is around the price.

[SB_Jim 1]

Hi. Jim any PC shop will stock the fan they are more or less same connections.

 

I would say if you want it silent go for the brushless fan

 

Don't know we're your located but £10 -$12 is around the price.

 

Thanks TomCCTV! That's encouraging - so now I know where I'll go first. Thankfully our small town has at least one really good "electronics" store where I've had good luck before.

 

I kindly "called-out" the gal at Swann after she offered to help me select a new NVR the third time. I had to remind her that my NVR works perfectly well, and that I am looking to buy a $7 fan and not an entire new NVR! However, it's tempting when I see the newer products (well-priced) that are 3-5 MP and come with a whole lot more analytics than my older NVR offers.

[SB_Jim 1]

Well, I think I got lucky. I disconnected all the cams / PIR power wires and other attachments and removed my NVR from the cabinet. I was able to remove the cover and also the power supply with enclosed cooling fan. And then I needed an extra hand in getting the power supply opened. Got that done, and found I had to remove the board at the bottom of the enclosure in order to remove the fan. The power wires for the actual fan are potted twice, and there's no obvious connector as there were for the connections from the power supply to the two primary boards in the NVR.

 

The fan is not a real common fan from what I could see. Not that it isn't used in many NVRs - but in looking up the P/N it wasn't the run of the mill part (IMO). I'm now of the impression that what was happening which caused my NVR to heat up (around the pwr supply) was that the fan was running slowly. I did a thorough cleaning of the interior of the "box" and ditto for the power supply enclosure and fan blades. Lots of dust accumulated. Same for the larger fan in my cabinet that the NVR lives in. So now I have it all reassembled and closed up (testing it) before I install it back into the cabinet. Thus far - 3+ hours - it's acting like new

 

Tomorrow I'll put it all away again and hopefully I'll be good for another 4-5 years. The estimated fan cost was $30, and a new P/S with the fan would cost about $100. Not terrible, but not real cheap - given the cost of newer NVR's w/ better cameras and features. But for now, these 2MP cams keep a pretty good eye on things - and it's been quite reliable for many years.