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PostPosted: Sun Nov 07, 2010 5:46 am 
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Hi,

I bought an HP MediaSmart EX490 last December. Although I find it plagued with underperformance and a plethora of useless cpu-hogger applications, I did like the automatic PC backup and got to rely on it as my (single) storage and file sharing server...

Until 2 days ago...

Since then, the EX490 freezes constantly. After a reboot, I get about 20 mins of usable time, then it freezes. After 20 mins, my RDP session, access to the file shares, the remote console, everything stops responding. I can still ping the machine, but that's it. Even pressing the power button (to try and get it to power down properly) totally fails to do anything.

Obviously, since it comes without VGA port, I just find myself completely unable to perform any diagnostics...

So, here are the questions:
1) does anyone have any idea why the machine could behave like that (ie freeze 20 min after boot)? What should I suspect first: OS problem, hardware problem?
2) What should be my next step? Trying the restore the system or save the data?
3) Will I be able to get access to the data (including the all important PC backups and history of those backups)?

Any help solving this untimely nightmare would be more than welcome!

**Update**

Not sure if it helps, but just before coming completely unresponsive, the CPU (which normally oscillates between 20 and 80% with short peaks at 100% completely flat-lines...
Image

In addition, CPU temperature, fan speeds and voltages (as reported by HP's console tool) are all in the green during the whole 20 minutes, including at freeze time
I also installed MSE v2 beta antivirus, managed to do 1 quick scan, and that reported no problem.

I'm fucked...


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 9:59 am 
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I'd probably suspect a possibly failing hard drive. I'd shut down the server, and try connecting each drive to your PC and run a chkdsk on all the drives to see if there are any issues. Be sure to mark which drive is the System drive so you can return it to the bottom slot in the server.

You can recover your data off the disks if you need to, here's a guide on how to do that.
http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-U ... 573697777f

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PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 5:33 pm 

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You can also try the new WHS Home Server Smart that was released recently.

It will show you if there is a problem with a disk drive.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2010 8:17 pm 
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Installing Home Server Smart will determine the health of the drive itself but will not determine the health of the file system on the drives which running CHKDSK /r on the drives once installed in another computer internally or externally in an external enclosure or in a Docking Station.

It only takes one drive to misbehave to cause your server to have issues.

If your not using the media functions then your can alway remote into the server and set the Twonky Service not to start when the system boots up thus disabling Twonky and ruling that out should it may start misbehaving which can under certain conditions peg out your CPU.

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PostPosted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:10 pm 
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how did u get on? i am seeing identical symptoms. currently running disk diagnostics but nothing found so far ...


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 8:15 am 
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Has anyone found a solution to this problem? I am having huge problems looking much the same as described above. My EX490 works fine but suddenly stops working. I can ping it but I cannot access it in any other way. I have not run any disk diagnostics problem, simply because I refuse to believe that this is the problem. I might be wrong :-)

I am running Windows 7 Professional and access the server mainly via the file-shares.


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 8:51 am 
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Bonkyboy wrote:
Has anyone found a solution to this problem? I am having huge problems looking much the same as described above. My EX490 works fine but suddenly stops working. I can ping it but I cannot access it in any other way. I have not run any disk diagnostics problem, simply because I refuse to believe that this is the problem. I might be wrong :-)

I am running Windows 7 Professional and access the server mainly via the file-shares.


Why would you refuse to believe it's a disk problem? Why not do the basic debugging steps to be sure?

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:49 am 
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You are absolutely right. I should do that and I will. Right now I am working on a project where I just have to get my files out quickly. I am constantly restarting the box, hoping for a good 20 minutes of access to get the needed files out. During the weekend I will give the disk checking tools a spin.

What makes me think this is non-disk related is basically the number of people who face problems with Windows 7 and any type of network storage, not only the EX490. They actually explain the exact same thing as what I experience. It worked 100% fine with XP, then moved to Windows 7 and things went downhill.

Problems I have experienced myself related to my EX490 is black screen after logging in (You see only the mouse on a black screen and can do nothing). This is because I have a drive mapped up to a non-responsive EX490. When I remove the mapping in safe mode the problem disappears. The Win7 Problem is fixable with a 3rd party patch (At least that is all I have found). Not going to happen :-)

I have read loads of articles and forums the last days showing people desperately trying to figure out why Windows 7 and network storages (in many forms) stop working after a while. I kind of refuse to believe that this is all related to corrupt disks. Most if not all mention 15-20 minutes of action before it stopps completely. Many can only ping the box but not do any useful work towards the box.

I personally think this is a strong combo of Win7 versus EX490 not being compatible, one way or the other. Could be anything but high on my list is one recent windows update messing things up. Could also be NIC drivers? Who knows, I am no expert on OS and drivers.

I have disabled the Twonky service at least. The performance went up and the problem takes longer to surface but it is still there. Happened right now actually :-( Still, I appreciate the tip.

Any other input on how to get out of this mess is highly appreciated. I do not mind turning off services that I do not need. All I use the box for is file-sharing :-)


All the best,
Bjorn


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:59 am 
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In my case the problem DID appear to be disk related -- despite not seeing any disk errors.

This is what I did
- removed OS & datapool drives and ran low level media checks in a different pc
- ran a full chkdsk in another pc on both drives
- ran a full defrag on both
- reinserted into WHS

Despite all these checks WHS reported that the drives needed a repair (possibly due to the defrag/win 7 chkdsk), but that took a couple of minutes and there's no lost data I can see. However no hangs/crashes. I suspect the report was a minor structural issue

The data is backed up to USB and remotely in any case, but things look intact

I then re-enabled automatic updates & have since re-installed my printer driver.

Will be watching closely over the coming weeks


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:00 am 
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I'm currently dealing with an issue copying large files to my EX495 since I upgraded to Win7 on my desktop, but it's definitely not the same behavior described here of the server locking up after 20-30 minutes. If the server is freezing and completely inaccessible, then I would suspect a drive issue on the server. I believe my problem is something else, something on my client PC.

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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:17 am 
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Ok, thanks to both for explaining. I would like to run a system restore but my problem is that I don't have enough USB disc space to store my data. I am stuck in Malaysia for now but will head home to Europe in 1 months time. Back home I can probably find temporary space for my files.

Meanwhile I'll run the basic disc check tools this weekend. If it works, fantastic :-)

I'll let you know how it goes when I have done what I can. Thanks again!


Bjorn


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 7:29 pm 
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yakuza wrote:
I'm currently dealing with an issue copying large files to my EX495 since I upgraded to Win7 on my desktop, but it's definitely not the same behavior described here of the server locking up after 20-30 minutes. If the server is freezing and completely inaccessible, then I would suspect a drive issue on the server. I believe my problem is something else, something on my client PC.


I had a similar problem over the week too trying to move 200 Gig via Win7 PC to a EX490. After about 30 minutes the transfer stopped working and I could not access the EX490 nor ping it.


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 3:51 pm 
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I am starting to have this issue too .

all working good and all of a sudden freezing and freezing, event log shows nothing major
Error - asp .net 2.0.50727.0 (known bug)
error - appletalk
Error - Ci ( this one i do not know anything about , do you guys know about this one ? )


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:29 pm 
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did as recommended in the above thanked post and did find some corrupt / lost files on the main Seagate Crappercuda. [-(

lets see what happens when i plug everything back on.

I also did a fragmentation Analysis only ... 25% on one 20% on another .. geesh !!


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 25, 2011 5:22 pm 
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great news guys... it started to freeze again :(


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