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Author Topic: Dead DSS100 Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 09-06-2017 10:46 AM                    I must state up front that this is not an emergency as I do not use this equipment. I have a Dolby DSP100 / DSS100 that I keep around as a potential backup for my DSS200 server. I have in the past set it all up and hooked it up to my projector and successfully run open content on it and even made a little encrypted test DCP, generated a key, and played it. So it was all in working order. Yesterday I was going to run a test and found the DSS100 totally dead. Neither power supply seems to be working. No fans, no PS LEDs. They do seem to warm up after a time and I do see an LED inside the DSS lit but no fans or drives. I've tried reseating the PS's. I've also tried powering one of them while outside the DSS (not sure if that is a good idea) and it's just as dead. FWIW I'm feeding power directly not through the pass-through. Seems unlikely both would just die during non use at the same time although that's theoretically possible. I did just move this server to a new cart so there's the possibility of something being jostled around. I don't see anything amiss inside the DSS, not that I would necessarily know. Anything I should look for? As I am not very familiar with this equipment I keep imagining there is a PS switch someplace that I've simply forgotten but probably not. My PS's are Cat.991's which apparently are generally available as GIN-6350P. Nothing in the manual about fuses like there is on the DSP power supplies which are different.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-06-2017 11:28 AM                     It's unusual that both would be dead at the same time, but believable because power supply failure is a Dolby tradition. Some times it's an easy fix as the most common failure mode is the main input capacitor on these power supplies tends to fail. After that the caps on the output side also fail. A quick visual of the power supplies will tell you if any caps are leaking, I had dozens of CP-650's with leaky caps and actually carried a kit of caps around until all of them were rebuilt. Use 105C rated caps! Some bench checks would be in order to confirm if the input cap is has failed. Most of the DSS-100's around here are now booth door stops (Quite literally in one location). There is only one still functioning that I know of... I have a USL booth monitor sitting here waiting for an AC input capacitor. Some times it turns on and some times not. Mark  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 09-06-2017 12:11 PM                        One 11-plex that I service has two DSS100/DSP100 combos still in use, and still going strong (with a Barco DP1500 and DP3000). All the others are Series 2 screens, on a DSS220/DSL200 network. I've made the manager there aware that the software can't be updated beyond 4.7.8.7 unless she's prepared to do ingestion and scheduling manually in the Series 1 screens (i.e. not through the DSL200), but they haven't come across any DCPs that won't play with that version, and so for the moment they're happy to keep the 100s in use until they croak, and stick with that software version until they have to take the 220s to 4.9. We've got several used DSS100/DSP100s in storage at the shop anyways, and so could replace one pretty quickly on an emergency basis if one of theirs dies. As this is a mainstream house that still plays 99.9% Interop DCPs, I can't see them getting rid of the 100s until either they encounter an SMPTE DCP that won't play on them, or upgrade those screens to a Series 2 installation. But so far at any rate, there is no reason or need for them to do so. I do agree that both of Steve's units being dead is weird, though. Could it be that the DSP won't even begin to boot until it senses that it's connected to an "alive" DSS, and that only the DSS is actually dead? Does the DSP take its power fromor through the DSS, and therefore a dead power supply (or -ies) in the DSS would TARFU both? Just speculating - I've never observed the startup sequence, or looked at the connections in the back of them, in enough detail to see.  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 09-06-2017 01:01 PM                    Two power supplies on each box (but of different types). I would ordinarily plug all 4 into an outlet strip and plug it in so it all goes live at once. The DSP comes up and the screen says it's searching for the DSS. There are some used PSs on eBay for not too much so I guess I could spring for that and see if that solves it. I did open one PS and did not see anything noteworthy.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-06-2017 02:40 PM                     Yea, since these are the slide in type I would get one and see. Server Supply has them too. It's a pretty common supply used in Supermicro servers and it's certainly worth the 20 bucks to find out. If that fixes it then replacing all of them would be a good idea since it's a backup and has to function. Plus, they already have a gazillion on-hours on them. I have a rack of Dell R620 servers here at home for various stuff and I have already lost a couple of the slide in supplies in them. But they were also used when I bought them, probably also with a gazillion hours on them. They have redundant 700watt supplies so they never actually go off line. I just get a email notification a supply failed and the server display screen turns orange as an alert. Mark  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 09-06-2017 06:05 PM                     Afaik, the DSS100 is not a Supermicro machine, and it doesn't use the Supermicro PSUs. The GIN-6350P should be the correct OEM part. The subsequent DSS models were based on Supermicro OEM hardware. Not wanting to rain on your parade, but two PSUs dying at the same time while not being connected to anything is kind of implausible, I'm afraid the problem is most likely located on either the backplane or the mainboard. Both communicate with the PSUs. Obviously, if you can Ebay a replacement for ~$20, it's worth a try.  |  IP: Logged Stephan Shelley Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 854 From: castro valley, CA, usa Registered: Nov 2014 posted 09-06-2017 06:23 PM                     No light at all on PSU? Did you try bypassing the power conditioner and go directly to the PSU? While no power switch you can momentarily short the start pins on the motherboard. Or connect a momentary switch to it. The connection for a start switch is on the motherboard just nothing connected to it. I have had to do this in the past.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 09-06-2017 06:30 PM                        Is it possible that one power supply died a long time ago and you just didn't notice? I've always wondered that about the GDC cinema server that I have here. "Dual power supplies" -- would it tell me if one of them quit?  |  IP: Logged Stephan Shelley Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 854 From: castro valley, CA, usa Registered: Nov 2014 posted 09-06-2017 06:56 PM                     On the Dolby stuff there is an audible alarm and I think with the GDC as well.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-06-2017 07:27 PM                     quote: Marcel Birgelen Afaik, the DSS100 is not a Supermicro machine, and it doesn't use the Supermicro PSUs. The GIN-6350P should be the correct OEM part. The subsequent DSS models were based on Supermicro OEM hardware. Same one from that era Supermicro server that I have TMS running on at several locations.I did not use more than a few of them because they are noisy bastards! The H-P and Dell's run whisper quiet. There is absolutely an alarm on GDC and a red button on the power supply cage to defeat the alarm. Mark  |  IP: Logged Steve Kraus Film God Posts: 4094 From: Chicago, IL, USA Registered: May 2000 posted 09-06-2017 07:59 PM                    Yes, Frank, I came to that conclusion earlier today since I cannot swear that both were working and I'm not sure they alarm like they do on the DSS200. I don't know if Zippy just made the PS's or the entire server but I did see that name in there.  |  IP: Logged Stephan Shelley Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 854 From: castro valley, CA, usa Registered: Nov 2014 posted 09-06-2017 08:02 PM                     DSS 100 do have an audible alarm and like the GDCs have a cancel button. DSS200s and DSLs do not have the cancel button.  |  IP: Logged Marcel Birgelen Film God Posts: 3357 From: Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands Registered: Feb 2012 posted 09-07-2017 01:44 AM                     The cancel button for the Supermicro/Ablecom based PSUs is yanking the PSU out of the chassis. quote: Mark Gulbrandsen Same one from that era Supermicro server that I have TMS running on at several locations.I did not use more than a few of them because they are noisy bastards! The H-P and Dell's run whisper quiet. I agree, the SuperMicro machines are almost always noisy, although their large machines do have larger fans and therefore a less penetrating noise. HP(E) and Dell seem to have better power regulation for their fans, so in normal conditions in good ventilated rooms they run pretty quiet on average. For the DSS100, Dolby seemingly sourced most of their components from EMACS/Zippy Technology, resulting in a far more customized box, more in line with Dolby's other custom designed hardware. This box is also noticeably quieter than the other servers. For all future designs they seemingly didn't want to go down that ally again and just sourced an off-the-shelf OEM server platform rather than building one their own. Regarding Steve's problem, he does see an active LED in the machine itself, most likely on the mainboard. So at least one of the 5V circuits on one of the two PSUs must still be working.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 09-09-2017 10:07 AM                     Yea, all the TMS servers I use are 2 RU high. The ones I switched to were Dell 2950's and they are whisper quiet, and now I use Dell 720's and you can't even hear them run. I could also use a 1 RU Dell 620, but most of the theaters are already dealing with having spare 3.5" drives around so I tend to leave things there as the 720's I use take 3.5's. The 620 uses 2.5" drives. Mark  |  IP: Logged Greg Routenburg Expert Film Handler Posts: 178 From: Toronto, ON, Canada Registered: May 2003 posted 09-18-2017 02:06 PM                     The power supplies were available OEM from Zippy in California. You might have a failed power supply enclosure. I've seen that a couple of times. The Zippy model and part numbers are: R2G-6350P (Enclosure) GIN-6350P (Individual Supplies) - (P/N:B000780001) The default p/n for the R2G-6350P is B000790004. For a small fee, three years ago it was $20USD, they will rewire the harness to p/n B000790067 which was specifically done for the dolby servers. If I remember correctly, the R2G-6350P comes with two supplies installed. This information is about three years old now though so I'm not sure if they're still in production. It doesn't hurt to contact Zippy and ask. You can test the power supply itself by shorting the Power_On pin on the ATX connector to any of the ground pins. If you look at the pin count of the ATX connector in the server, you can google it to get a pinout. The Power_On wire is typically green and the ground wires are typically black. If you manually short those pins, the supply should power on and you should be able to test the output voltage with a standard multimeter on the various pins. If it tests OK then you've got a Motherboard problem. Before swapping the motherboard though, you can verify that the auto_on jumper is properly set on the motherboard. If that jumper is not set, the motherboard will be looking for an intermittent contact on the power button header to turn the unit on. The manuals for the motherboards that were used are available online or from SuperMicro. I hope that helps.  |  IP: Logged

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