This may have been addressed before but i don't see any post with the exact symptoms i am getting.

I have a HP Mediasmart Server ( rmn:hstna-w003 h/w:b). I just returned from a four month trip and noticed my server console was not green on my computer. the same goes for my home computer. I tried to remote into the server but that did not work. All lights are aqua with the health light flashing aqua. I looked at the ip address that were assigned by my router and my server was not listed. i changed cables and also changed to a different router with the same results. No matter what i try the server is not pulling an ip address from the router. I have tried the server restore and it saw the server once but it did not fix the problem.
Like i said all indications are normal:
1. the three lights on the front of the server are aqua/blue with the health light flashing.
2. the nic lights are green and amber ( seems like it is talking to the router).
3. the router port is flashing green (like it is talking to the server)
4. the router does not list an ip address for the server in the lan status screen.

If my nic card is bad is there any way to access the server that does not use the lan?
Can i use a wired lan usb connection to replace the nic?

I could use any help that yall can give.........

What model server do you have? It's most likely a failed hard drive, if you remove all drives it should boot off the internal flash (if it's an EX47x or EX48x) and show up in your router client list as minint*. If it's a failed disk you can try to boot it with just the system drive. If that fails, then you probably have a failed system drive.

Here's the USB NIC guide if you need it: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/06 ... ur-server/

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Alex Kuretz
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I had exactly the same problem/symptoms on my EX495 running WHS 2011 around 5-6 days ago.

I purchased one of the video/keyboard/mouse dongles advertised in these forums, plugged it in, and monitored the server boot. It actually booted okay. However on console login, it was prompting for confirmation to restart to apply updates. I'm assuming this prompt was obstructing the boot and preventing it grabbing an IP address.
I Said "Yes" to restart, it rebooted, and it's worked fine ever since.

Looking at the update history, there were a bunch of security patches applied March 14, and I'm assuming one of these was responsible.

It's possible that it was a mechanical problem and the act of me taking it to pieces and reseting the boards fixed the problem. However given the lack of any obvious physical problems, and given the prompt on startup, I'm fairly sure it was the patch prompt that did this.

Other than borrowing/buying the dongle my only other suggestion would be to jumper JP2 (on EX495 anyway), plug in a USB keyboard, boot, login blind (password enter), then hit Enter blind and hope it hits the restart dialog button.