MSS Fan Control is a Windows Home Server Add-In that allows you to change the behaviors of the exhaust fans in the HP MediaSmart Server EX470 and EX475. In the new 3.0 Software Upgrade for the HP MediaSmart Server EX470 and EX475, HP made a few changes that caused the Add-in to no longer work. Fortunately the fix was fairly simple and I’m happy to announce the availability of version 1.0.0.9 that supports EX47x servers running either HP 1.3 or 3.0 software. Note that this Add-In only works with the EX47x servers, as HP moved the fan controls into the BIOS in the EX48x and EX49x series servers.
While making the changes necessary to support 3.0, I took the opportunity to fix another minor bug with the way settings were initially loaded, plus added a new “Please Wait” dialog to inform the user that Fan Control is busy changing the server configuration.
You can download the updated Add-In here, and let me know how it works for you. I’d also like to thank the Private Beta testers who help make sure my Add-Ins are working well before I unleash them on the general public. In particular the following testers that helped with this Add-In: Cougar, Comp1962, cavediver, erail, JohnBick, and Diehard.
Article by Alex Kuretz
I'm Alex Kuretz, and I'm the founder of MediaSmartServer.net. I was the Lead Test and Integration Engineer at HP for the MediaSmart Server until April 2008 when I moved on to other opportunities outside HP. I've kept active in the Windows Home Server community, creating several add-ins and helping users make the most of their Home Servers.
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Works great Alex, nice touch on the “Please Wait” dialog box. Great job!
Thank you very much. This is excellent!
Alex its working perfectly in both EX470′s, one running 1.3 the other 3.0 which I just installed and gave it a push to tax the BE2300 Processor. I do see a few processes running that are spiking the individual cores in the BE2300 but they are momentary spikes. The CPU temp did hit 49c so I adjusted the Fan Speed Control a little and the CPU temp with all that activity is now floating around 42c. Although I do not use nor require it I did turn on Twonky and its behaving itself. The other media functions are not yet turned on because I want the system to settle in for a few days.
Thanks Alex,
The Fan Ctrl seems to be running on my EX475 HP 3.0 (Spanish) but an error msg pops after install : “Error in write operation, see the internal exception ……”
Can I you send a PrintScreen from the msg?
Those are bugs in the HP 3.0 software, from what I understand. You can post the error message in the forums in the Fan Control topic (preferable) or email it to me yakuza AT mediasmartserver DOT net.
Anyway to adjust the fan controls via bios for ex490? PSU fan very annoying! Thanks
PSU fan speed isn’t controllable for any model. The case fan speeds are controlled in the BIOS for the EX48x and EX49x so you need the debug board to access those controls. The EX49x models have the newer power supply that is significantly quieter than previous models, if yours is noisy I would suspect it has an issue and may be on the way out.
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