Comments on: A closer look at the new MediaSmart Server hardware

By: Alex Kuretz

Alex Kuretz — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:17:17 +0000

All versions of the EX4xx servers use 64bit processors.

By: Pooh

Pooh — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:37:35 +0000

Is the Celeron CPU in the EX48x 64bit or 32bit?

By: Diehard

Diehard — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:49:56 +0000

George, I don’t know as much as Alex, but I did read that some people are have problems with port mulitpliers on the EX470 if it has more than 4 drive. You can search the forums here to find out what I’m writing about.

Ernie, there is a post in the forum about someone messing up their BIOS and trying to recover, not sure if this is your problem. To make sure your server goes into a factory reset mode, you can start the machine without any hard drives in the unit, then after about 10 seconds slide the drive in the bottom tray while the power is on. Then run the Recovery CD. It should find the server.

option 2 you can always purchase the VGA cable from Charles in the Marketplace forum to see what’s happening. This cable should also work in the new EX48x

By: Ernie Tirado

Ernie Tirado — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:20:43 +0000

Thanks Alex, I just ordered a new 485(750 drive) because I believe I briked my new EX475 this weekend while upgrading it’s memory…What a kluts…My question is in two parts: 1-I could not get the the bricked system to go into a factory reset so how do you reflash the bios if during that process you coruppt it.
2. how would you ever be able to fix such a problem without having to send it back to HP.
It seem if it breaks down it becomes a throw away product

By: George

George — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:28:53 +0000

Alex,
Thank you very much for this additional work and information. In regards to the port multiplier issue, I will follow (with great interest) your further investigation of the possibilities with the BIOS settings and chipset drivers. I think this may have some bearing on the problems in am having with my external 5 bay eSATA enclosure, an AMS Venus T5 unit (my eSATA tower may use FIS Switching rather that Command Switching and that could be my problem) even though I have the EX47x series instead of the EX48x series you are discussing here.

Excellent and very good details! Thanks to your work explaining the inner workings of the EX48x series and the work of others on this forum, I may actually start to understand how the internals of the MSS work. My patience runs out way to early to contibute much to your ongoing efforts, I am afraid. But I sure benefit from those efforts and appreciate them.