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PostPosted: Thu Jan 15, 2015 8:51 pm 
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I was hoping to avoid asking for help, but I'm in a real pickle. I've owned an HP Mediasmart EX485 since June 2009. It's worked well, and I've had no complaints until recently. I use my regularly for streaming media and nightly backups of our computer systems.

The problem started on New Years day when I found my server with the dreaded "flashing blue health light" problem. The health light would just flash away, and no drive lights. After some research, it seemed that the most likely candidate was my system drive. It was the original 750 gig that shipped with it, so I'm wasn't too surprised. A few days later and I've got a new WD Red 1 TB drive, and the recovery was successful, or so it seemed.

A day or two later, it did the same thing, flashing blue light, but this time I was able to get it up and running. It seemed that the problem was if I let it go to sleep, so I kept it on for a couple of days straight. It worked for a while, but then even though I could access it, the backups stopped running.

After more research, the next likely problem was the power supply. On to ebay, and I bought a 300W PS from kdmpower for $60 or so. After the excruciating process of tearing it apart and putting it back together, I got nothing, or next to nothing. What it does is this: as soon as I plug it in, the fan on the PS spins for a second and the power light on the front "blinks" rapidly, and does this repeatably. Also the fans on the back begin to run. Hitting the power switch (or holding it in) does nothing at all.

If I re-install the old power supply, it still won't power up, but it feels like it's trying to boot, but immediately restarts.

One variable that I haven't mentioned yet was when I was tearing it apart for the second time, I found a small metal clip of unknown origin laying on the motherboard. I don't know what it's for or where it came from, but that can't be good.

I've already spent over $120 between the drive (which I can use) and the power supply (which I can hopefully return) but I want to figure this out!

Thanks in advance.


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 9:39 am 
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Hi SRGilbert welcome to the forums!

Sorry to hear about your issues. The PSU is by far one of the most common issue with any model of the HP MediaSmart Server. That metal fragment you mention is troubling because it adds complexity to the issue and what if any solder traces it may have shorted out and what their function is at best now a mystery.

To really be able to troubleshoot this problem you really need the following:

(1) A known working PSU or an adapter cable that converts the PIN Out from an ATX PSU to the MSS configuration. (2) A DEBUG board so you can see what is happening during the boot process.
(3) A Docking Station, External Enclosure or USB-SATA Cable for connecting drives externally to a PC

Troubleshooting is a process of elimination.

The most common issue for any WHSv1 Server is the health of the Hard Drives and WHS is very sensitive to hard drive issues. Hard drives which are failing can also cause boot issues and sometimes even cause a system to boot and reboot. Even new drives can often fail early one it happens its just the way things are.

The PSU which you attempted to address is a bit of a problem because the KDM PSU you purchased is not resolving your issue and to make matters worse that metal fragment may have caused a problem. Could the PSU be an issue? Certainly as with all things electrical failure will occur at some point in time its just when.

The DEBUG board would provide you with a VGA connection which would allow you to see the boot process. I personally recommend them but in your case I would only get one if you were prepared to purchase another MSS.

If your drives are in good working order and you were able to obtain a working EX485 or EX487 you could just pop your drives in the server and be back in business. You may have to adjust the router if you were reserving IP #'s since the new server would have a different MAC Address so that would need to be addressed.

I tell you honestly if you can obtain a copy of WHSv1-OEM you might just want to install it on a computer that's easier to work with. I have in the past used the COA Key on the bottom of the MSS in my case it was from a retired EX470 which I repurposed into something else. It worked for me at the time.

Last thing worth mentioning and well worth thinking about. Do not get me wrong the MSS is a way cool solution but its also showing its age and the OS has already reached its end of life. You may want to look for a new solution something more robust and more modern as WHSv1 will only go so far. Now is the time to review your current and future needs and then move forward and if your set on continuing with the EX48x then great I know others who love the MSS and will use it until they run out of spare servers and parts. Notice I said spare servers and parts, its the only way to keep an MSS going for the long haul.

Good Luck with your quest to get your EX485 running but you might be better off with purchasing a replacement which will allow to you to troubleshoot the original and enjoy your server at the same time.

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SRGilbert
PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 11:21 am 
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Thanks for the reply! I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do. I'm not married to MSS, it was just the best solution at the time. Previously, I had just been using a cast off pc with WinXP as a file server. I liked the idea of the data redundancy and automatic backups that the MSS offered, so I dropped the $500 for the EX485.

I was hoping it would last more than 6 years, but I'm not sure what the life expectancy was to begin with. As HP doesn't seem to offer much (if any) support, it might be best to cut my losses and move on. I don't really want to invest much money in a dead product line unless I know for sure it's going to work. With the metal clip having potentially filled the motherboard, that seems unlikely.

The good news is that I was able to recover all my media, so at least there was no loss there!

In years past, I used to love to tinker and build computers for myself and others, but I've totally lost interest in recent years to the point where my current computer is an off the shelf Dell from Costco. :oops: Actually, it's been pretty decent. :wink: So I'm definitely looking for a simple plug and play solution.

To be honest, my needs are pretty minimal. I really just need a central shared pool to access media from various devices and a place to do backups from networked computers. Mostly what I use are a couple of old modded Xboxes with XBMC as the front end, and now I also use a terrific Android TV box from Minix that also runs XBMC. I see WD offers a similar line of NAS systems call My Cloud EX4 that can also accept 4 drives in an array. Stupid name aside, it runs an embedded version of Linux and looks pretty interesting. I can definitely see the advantage of not having the OS on the same drive with your data!


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 12:42 pm 
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My 2 cents. The ex-485 seemed to have more problems then the others, might just be me, and I think they also did not have a port multiplier so are limited on how many external drives they can see.

These points aside, The metal clip floating around inside on the motherboard has most likely killed it.

I am a die hard MSS person and have (4) X-510 same hardware as the ex-490 2 of them are online, one is the main and it sync's to the other one just in case.
When picking a solution I was doing the same as you, old file servers, the reason I am sticking with the MSS and WHSv1 is because you can pull a drive and read it in any other windows pc. The NAS boxes you can't say that.
I wish you luck with whatever you decide to do, ebay is still a great place to pickup a couple used units. Spare parts and a video connector and the properly wired power supply on the shelf are all a good thing.

I would be tempted to mark all the drives, pull them all out and get 1 drive that you know is good and see if you can do a factory reset on it. That would let you know if the hardware is dead.

There is a buch of good stuff in the DIY Massive Storage thread you migh check out.

Also, I have seen some refurb Dell on newegg for around $400 that would make a good server.

Shout out if you have any other questions.

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[X510 /2 in box]
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 17, 2015 7:39 pm 
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I will say honestly the HP Solution worked well for me until I out grew them but I continue to run them for certain tasks and they just keep on working. I have sold a many over the years and only had one come back because of a PSU issue which I resolved.

I will say that WHS2011 is a very viable solution so if you can find it at the right price then grab it but make certain its in a sealed OEM Package. Even at $100 its still worth it even though over the years it was sold for $50 or less. Couple that with Stablebit Drive Pool or Drive Bender and you will have a very simple to use server solution that you can install on any readily available PC that meets the minimum requirements for WHS2011. Most of use have a working unit or two or three sitting in the closet which may be useful for running WHS2011 so its worth looking into or you could build something to meet your current and future needs.

A NAS Solution has its pros and cons like anything so you would need to weigh those against what your use to, and how they would fit in with your current and future needs. I use to use a NAS and at the time it served me well but then I found WHS and quickly replaced the NAS and never looked back. Today the NAS offing is more robust then it was when I ran one so maybe I am BIAS not wanting to run one here but for my needs I very much enjoy the Windows Server Solutions.

Some have turned a Win8 Client into a server of sorts. Not sure how that works out but for years you could also store files on a Windows computer and share them with other computers so that's always an option. The backup and restore features of WHS and now Windows Server are rock solid but WIn 7 and 8 have a built in backup feature where you can backup the clients. Personally if you keep your files in a central location then all you need to backup is the OS and only back it up when there is a significant change in the OS be it the addition of software or major updates. Manual backups are PITA and often forgotten and that's really the beauty of the daily incremental backup that WHS and Windows Server does for you. Once you see a client recovery work and how quick it is you will be hooked on it as your backup and recovery solution.

What ever you chose to do just take your time and give it plenty of thought and if you want to run your thoughts by others for feedback then by all means please feel free to do so.

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Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

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~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
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~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 9:39 am 
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Some of my family I knew couldn't handle a server so I set them up with a WD 2tb MyBook and they just use it to store files. Not saying you can't handle a server, but for some people a full server is not needed.
If it wasn't for WHS I would still be using those old second hand servers.
I make images of all the pc's in the house and make sure the girls keep all there impotent files on the server so backups are very small and have come in handy a couple of times.
Goodluck
We are all kind of in the same boat (What Next) we create more data all the time and since MS abandoned WHS it has been tuff to figure out which way to go.

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[X510 CPU/RAM/All 2 TB Red's] [X510 CPU/Sync'ed Backup/All 2 TB Hitachi's]
[X510 /2 in box]
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:twisted: Fear the Cloud :twisted:


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:45 am 
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Some routers have a NAS like feature for central storage and if yours supports that then it may provide a temporary solution to your need for centralized storage. What I am not clear on is if the router will reformat the drive into its own unique format making reading the files on the drive impossible if you were to move the drive say to a client.

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Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:28 pm 
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Thanks for all the replies guys, gives me stuff to think about.

I certainly have the know how (or at least the grit and determination) to set up another server, but for the most part my eyes just glaze over even considering it! If I were to try again (which I seriously doubt) , I would probably go for something with FreeNAS, which looks very interesting.

Funny you mention the router/NAS option. I recently purchased a new Asus RT-AC68u router and remembered yesterday that was an option.

I had been backing up my media from the EX485 to a 2TB external drive. All I had to do was connect it to the USB port on the router, log in from my various devices and it's working like a charm. I only wish the external drive was USB 3.0 instead of 2.0, but so far it's not been an issue.

The odd thing is, I've never looked at the files on that backup drive before. Turns out it was making a new copy of all the files every time it did a back up and saving them in a new folder. I just assumed that it was making incremental backups. I didn't do them very often, a couple times a year, but it's got like 8 separate copies of essentially the same files (not including what was added since the previous one of course.)

This obviously doesn't solve the issue of file redundancy, but it's a start anyway. Again, the important thing for now is I haven't really lost any data!


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