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What's this mobo header for?
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Author:  cakalapati [ Mon Apr 29, 2013 10:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

TIP: To help identify which wire goes to which terminal, use a multimeter and put it in "continuity mode". In continuity-mode, the multimeter will *beep* when the probes touch one another.

I describe the process here:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=622&start=210#p93895

Good luck and be sure to post pictures if you can.

Author:  jhennesey [ Sun May 12, 2013 11:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

So, I got the German cable for video and it works fine for $30 cable. I can not seem to get my system to boot from any of the freenas or nas4free images. When I hit F12 and choose USB-ZIP it just reboots (It sees the drive and lists it just above the SMI drive during normal boot screens). Any other choice causes the system to continue into the windows home server recovery from the SMI disk (which appears to be an on chip usb drive) Setting the boot order in the bios doesn't make any difference. I have tried several USB drives, I've used the active @ killDisk utility to wipe them first then used win32 disk imager to write the extracted .img file to the drive. I've tried both the 32 and 64 bit versions. I've tried ubootin and while this actually looks like it would boot I get invalid boot image message.

System Info:
EX470
upgraded single core CPU
upgraded ram 2GB
bios is stock (The links to the upgrade bios stuff doesn't work anymore)

Anyone got their system running FreeNAS or something similar?

Author:  Comp1962 [ Tue May 14, 2013 1:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

Have you tested your USB Devices on another system to confirm they are indeed bootable? Also to boot from USB the device must be in the bottom rear USB port to work properly. The EX470 will boot from the SMI when it does not see any other bootable devices or when trigger it following the HP Proceedure.

If you want to boot from USB all you really need to do is plug a bootable USB Device into the bottom rear USB port and make sure there is not a bootable drive in the bottom bay of the server which elliminates the need for F12 unless you modified the default BIOS settings.

Author:  jhennesey [ Tue May 14, 2013 12:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

Yep, I was able to boot from the usb drives on my desktop system without an issue and I was using the bottom rear usb port. I am going to try a windows storage server 2012 install from the USB drive and see if that works. I'll let ya know... Still open to suggestions on getting a Linux version to boot...

Author:  Comp1962 [ Tue May 14, 2013 3:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

If you search the forums you should be able to find some very old posts from forum members about installing Linux on their EX470 and some of the issues they had to deal with.

Here is a Link about installing WS2012E on an EX470: viewtopic.php?f=40&t=12568

Author:  jhennesey [ Sat May 18, 2013 10:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

Thanks, I kept getting an error about windows not being able to find a volume to install on even though it could see the drives. Your last post pointed me to the fact that I needed to boot it as USB-CD instead of USB-ZIP or letting it boot automatically. I now have Windows Storage Server 2012 Standard installed on my EX470. For anyone who wants to do this in the future. I used ISOtoUSB to take the bootable CD image on to an 8 GB USB thumb drive. I inserted only the bottom drive in the front, and put USB drive in the bottom back USB port. During boot I hit F12 until the boot menu came up and then chose USB-CD. After that I was able to run the install just fine. After reboot and login to the server I was able to insert the rest of my hard drives without a problem. Now I have a NAS.

Thanks for your help!

Author:  database00 [ Thu Oct 31, 2013 1:08 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VGA-PS2-Board-A ... 3a729ea0b8
Image
I recently got an lx-195 and was thinking of swapping the os.
has anyone seen these? would this be an easy conversion to use?
for 6 bucks could be an easy way to make these things awesome.

Author:  Comp1962 [ Thu Oct 31, 2013 8:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

Seems to me that you would still have to build the cable to attach to the device you listed and the LX195 motherboard. Not so sure your actually saving funds. There is another board similar to that which others have listed in the forums that would be more interesting that I think Diehard used.

Anyway your probably better off getting a VGA Connector with a ribbon cable already attached and just installing the debug connector to the cable. I happen to have an LX195 here and there appears to be plenty of room to mount a GEN3 Debug Board and you can probably order one from Charles that just has the circuit board and cable. At the very least you can order just the actual cable for like $30 already made up so no need to buy the connector, pins and crimp tool unless you already have that but if you do not then it will be more expensive to build the cable then to buy one already made.

Now I have several HP MSS Servers and I can build my own cables but I just do not see the cost benefit to buying the components at this time to make my own DEBUG Boards not to mention the time and those little pins can be frustrating to work with. I build cables at work with much larger pins and I have never enjoyed doing it but hey I am getting older and my hands are not as steady as they use to be so even soldering is becoming a challenge.

Whatever you do please share with us your experience.

Author:  database00 [ Fri Nov 01, 2013 12:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

thanks for the reply, and for 30 I just might. Only place I found them was like for 80 bucks. who sells them for 30?
But I did find an old vga extension cable and thinking of doing this. need to find the digi keys http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/e ... -ND/608619
But might just solder directly onto board. and prey I get it right the first time lol.
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Author:  Comp1962 [ Fri Nov 01, 2013 8:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

VOV Technologies will sell you the cables separately and the last price I recall was $30.

Here is a link for the items VOV Sells and in that link you can find the contact information: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/05 ... available/

EDIT:

Sorry use this link: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8066

The first link provides an overview of the DEBUG Boards

Author:  dpetr [ Thu Nov 21, 2013 4:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

Having constructed this debug cable, I now find myself in the position of not being able to enter the BIOS. Have no idea what key to press. Post does not indicate what key to press. HP Model X310. It boots to USB just fine, but WHS 2011 errs during the install because of the hidden flash drive I suspect. But can't figure out how to get into the BIOS to select Boot device manually. Hp's no help as this "isn't supported". The instructions on this forum suggests F12 but that key does nothing, as does F11, F1, DEL. For those that have installed WHS2011 on this box, how on earth did you get it to install? There's a lot of instructions out there for other HP servers, but none specifically for this model. One other note, there IS a set of jumper pins next to the HD upright board. Shorting them together didn't make a difference. I' nearly giving up. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Author:  Comp1962 [ Thu Nov 21, 2013 5:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

I ran into this issue with one server using a custom DEBUG Cable on an EX490 which no matter what I did I was unable to get into the BIOS until I purchased a DEBUG BOARD from VOV Technologies and then I had no problem getting into the BIOS. I moved that same custom cable to an EX470 Test Server and I was able to get into the BIOS but on that server there is no need to set the jumper as HP never locked out the BIOS.

I know its not an X310 but my intention here was to point out your not alone even though I experienced this with a different model. Hopefully someone with an X310 will chime in and shed some light on this for you,

Author:  dpetr [ Thu Nov 21, 2013 6:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

@Comp1962 Thanks for the info. I wonder what the difference is between a self made video cable and the purchased board aside from being able to use a ps/2 keyboard, which I don't own anyway... What really baffles me are those folks who've managed to install WHS2011 on this very box, but nobody mentions the steps they took to do so. No mention of a purchased debug board or what they did to enter the BIOS settings, or a workaround for the installation error.

Author:  Comp1962 [ Thu Nov 21, 2013 6:56 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

There are 2 ways to install WHS2011 on a headless server. One requires the use of another computer to begin the install then at some point you would move the System Drive to the server. The other requires you to configure a USB Flash Drive with the install image and boot off it,

Personally have done all my WHS2011 installations the conventional way so to speak using a DEBUB Board and Optical Drive with full KVM Connections as its just a simpler process as I do not like doing things blind.

What I am uncertain of is exactly how many forum members actually use the X310 if you scan the forums you will see the bulk of form members using EX47x, EX48x, EX49x and some using X510's with many using DIY Builds after out growing their MSS. I personally do not read many posts about the X310 and if I had I would be looking to add one to my collection and may do so at some point just to see what it can do. I actually looked for one on eBay today to see what they might be selling for but if I acquire one I will try to look into the BIOS issue but that's not helping you right now. All I know about it was that it was a scaled down version of the X510 or EX49x marketed as a lower cost solution for file sharing and computer backup that did not come with the full HP3.x software lacking the Media Converter and Online Media Streaming and such which is no big loss because that can be done better with other software but I am not sure how the Atom Processor could handle transcoding but that's another topic.

Author:  yakuza [ Fri Nov 22, 2013 1:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: What's this mobo header for?

dpetr wrote:
@Comp1962 Thanks for the info. I wonder what the difference is between a self made video cable and the purchased board aside from being able to use a ps/2 keyboard, which I don't own anyway... What really baffles me are those folks who've managed to install WHS2011 on this very box, but nobody mentions the steps they took to do so. No mention of a purchased debug board or what they did to enter the BIOS settings, or a workaround for the installation error.


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