NV5216 works w/ single 4TB HDD (but not 2)

[IdRatherBeAnonomous]

I just spent the better part of the last 2 weeks trying (unsuccessfully) to get my new Amcrest 5 Series (NV5216) working with 2x identical, 4TB drives.

Right out of the box I got it working with an old 500GB 7200RPM desktop drive that I had laying around.

But my ultimate plan was to install 2x, low-hour, 4TB drives that I took out of service when I upgraded a Synology NAS at work.

These are just run-of-the-mill Seagate Desktop HDD's (Model: ST4000DM000 if it matters).

So I got one installed onto the second SATA port, powered up the NRV, and it recognized the drive, allowed me to format it, and seemed to work with no problems.

So I thought, great, I'll swap in this second, identical Seagate 4TB drive, which will give me a total of 8TB, and life will be grand!

Well, not so fast.. when I installed the second drive and booted the unit up, it would get past the logo screen then hang up with an error on the screen that said something about no writable destination hard drive (or something like that.. I don't have it in front of me right now) and it wouldn't respond to any mouse or button inputs, it would just sit there and beep with the HDD light flashing and the little error window frozen on the screen.

I can get the NVR to work with a smaller 500GB drive on one of the SATA ports along with 1 of the two 4TB drives on the second SATA port.. OR with just the 500GB drive (by itself) OR just one of the 4TB drives (by itself), but whenever I try to install BOTH 4TB drives together it wigs out!

The specs say that it should be able to handle up to 2x 10TB drives, and I know it can recognize and function properly with that particular model of 4TB drive just fine, just not when 2 of them are installed together for some reason, and it's driving me NUTS!

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with it, but I DID notice that when I have the 4TB drive(s) hooked up and they're being powered by the Amcrest board, the LED's on the front of the unit appear less bright, and this made me think maybe these drives are just too power-hungry, or there's an issue with one of the drives or something.. so I hooked my multi-tester up in-line with DC side of the NVR's external power supply, and while the unit is powered up, it draws anywhere between 1100mA and 2200mA (for short bursts while it's booting up).. but it "settles" down and rests somewhere between approx 900mA and 1200mA.

With just the one 500GB (Western Digital 7200 rpm) drive plugged in, the unit draws less than 1000mA (1A DC), so there's no doubt that the bigger drives draw more power, but the unit's external power supply says it's rated at 4A, and even when both of the bigger drives are installed it's not drawing anywhere NEAR that much!

Maybe I'm crazy, but I also think that the button backlighting seems noticeably dimmer, and it also seems like the initial fan test speed sounds a bit lower pitched (ie: slower) when it boots up while both drives are installed, the fan kicks into full speed for a moment as part of the NVR's boot routine.

I bought an identical replacement NVR unit and tried to use the power supply from that one, just to see if I got a bad PSU, but it behaves the same even with the PSU from the second unit.

Does anyone know what the deal could be?

I've tested both 4TB drives for operation and power draw, just to see if that second drive might have some sort of problem where it's drawing excessive power or something, but nope, they're both identical, they're both tested/working, I just can't get them both installed at the same time in the Amcrest unit without freezing up and throwing an HDD error.

This really sucks, because the entire reason I bought this particular NVR was because it was priced right (because it came bare). And I knew that I had these 2 spare 4TB drives laying around, so getting them working in this NVR was integral to my plan.. and having to buy 2 new drives in order to get this working kind of defeats the purpose of buying a bare NRV with the sole intent on using up the drives I had laying around.

Thanks!

[Revo2Maxx]

If you bought the NVR cheap as you said it was Priced right? It might have been the old owner had the same issue and was after a lightning strike or something that has cooked the HDD Controller.

However what is odd is if you tested the HDD yet in your post you didn't say if you ever tried to install just the 1 4tb without the second one that you installed and working.. It could be a Cable issue, So swap the HDD cables and see if it will work just like the first 4tb you installed did (Alone) I mean my 4216E-AI NVR is working with a 6tb and a 4tb HDD without an issue. So it could be as I said maybe a Cable Issue or a HDD Controller issue.

However you are using a 4amp brick power mine is like a mini computer power supply. So it could be an issue with your power supply. While your NVR does say it requires a 4amp power supply it very well might be that the power supply you have isn't the right one for it. I mean I can't say it much easier then this. I have a 5amp power supply that I bought for LED's that I have. I know from another 5amp power supply that was working with it that when I was powering then leds it took about 4.21 amps peak and then would run once over that Peak inrush to at around 4.8232 amps. When I bought the replacement 5amp brick and plugged it in to use it I found out that it really wasn't a 5amp power supply. I did testing with some tools that I own and found it was really a 3amp power supply marked at 5amp and had a peak voltage of 3.6xx amps and after that it wouldn't work. I thought ok maybe bought old stock with bad caps. Took it apart and sure enough the parts in side was only designed for 3amps..

So it could be the Power Supply just isn't what it says it is and buying one from same type and brand would most likely yield the same results. So I would test the Power supply even using some 1157 lightbulbs 2 of them on the brake/blinker element could be more then 4amps but should be enough on the current limit to power both bulbs even if the power supply was to voltage limit by reaching the max current threshold. However most 1157 are only 1.80amps at the max so a 4 amp should be able to power both. Remember to connect them Parallel. If you connect it Series it will need more voltage then 12v.

[IdRatherBeAnonomous]

I hooked up an oscilloscope to the power supply, and whenever both drives were hooked up it did something weird with the AC phasing. As soon as the phase went out of sync, the unit went crazy. I swapped one of the drives with a different brand (WD Red) of the same size (4TB), and everything has worked fine ever since. Both of the Seagate drives worked in the NRV by themselves independently. But when both were powered simultaneously through the NVR, the power supply went nutty! I'm not an electronics expert or anything, so I couldn't begin to guess what's causing this, I just know it doesn't happen when I swap one of the drives for a WD Red.