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PostPosted: Tue Dec 04, 2012 2:20 am 
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A low cost VGA-adapter with PS2 mouse and keyboard connectors is being sold by a firm in Germany for about $40.00 US. Here is the EBay link to their site. I don't have mine yet so can't comment on how it works...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130552692103?ss ... 1438.l2649

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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:18 pm 
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Hey guys, sorry to bump an old thread but I just need some guidance on making this cable.

I've got the terminals and the connector that fits on the mobo. I've successfully crimped all the terminals onto all the cables on one end of a standard VGA cable. I have a multimeter. Basically, I just need it spelled out a little more simple on what the resistance or ohm reading on each cable should be and where that cable should correspond to plugging into the connector I bought. If you could help that would be great.

Thanks!


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 5:03 pm 
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@davidhasedge: Welcome to the forums! Most multimeters have a continuity testing mode. When your multimeter is in continuity testing mode, it will make a *beep* sound when the two probes touch one another. Your best bet is to simply use a paperclip and jam it into pin1 of the VGA female connector. Attach one of the continuity probes to the paperclip. Next, go to your soldered (or crimped) terminals and find the corresponding wire. You know you found the correct wire when you hear a *beep* noise coming from your multimeter. When you found the correct wire, insert the wire into the corresponding location on the 26-pin debug connector. Rinse and repeat for all the pins on your VGA connector (there are 15 in total).

@craig-69: Did you finally get that cable from Germany? I'm curious how that eBay company added signal conditioning to the data and clock lines on the PS2 connectors. Without signal conditioning, the PS2 ports don't work on the EX-48x and EX-49x models. There are many posts on this forum that document this. If you have some time, can you post your findings?


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davidhasedge
PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:34 pm 
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cakalapati wrote:
@craig-69: Did you finally get that cable from Germany? I'm curious how that eBay company added signal conditioning to the data and clock lines on the PS2 connectors. Without signal conditioning, the PS2 ports don't work on the EX-48x and EX-49x models. There are many posts on this forum that document this. If you have some time, can you post your findings?

I'm perfectly happy with the two cables -- US-made cables -- that you made for me. One on my EX487 and another on my EX490. Had them both for over a year and never had a lick of trouble out of either one. They handle Windows Server 2012 mighty fine too, including 1280x1024 resolution. Well done Charles!

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HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 7:38 pm 
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cakalapati wrote:
@davidhasedge: Welcome to the forums! Most multimeters have a continuity testing mode. When your multimeter is in continuity testing mode, it will make a *beep* sound when the two probes touch one another. Your best bet is to simply use a paperclip and jam it into pin1 of the VGA female connector. Attach one of the continuity probes to the paperclip. Next, go to your soldered (or crimped) terminals and find the corresponding wire. You know you found the correct wire when you hear a *beep* noise coming from your multimeter. When you found the correct wire, insert the wire into the corresponding location on the 26-pin debug connector. Rinse and repeat for all the pins on your VGA connector (there are 15 in total).


Thanks! Took me no time to make the cable after doing this, I just never thought to try that. So, upside... I have VGA now and I can make my drives work in the BIOS. Downside... my already installed and configured Ubuntu server 12.04 hated the controller change and looks like I'm going to have to reinstall after the change to get things working. But that's not a huge deal.

Thanks again!


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 2:22 pm 
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Ok... has anyone successfully gotten their mediasmart to boot from USB CD? The options are in the bios but she seems like she just doesn't want to do it.


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:33 pm 
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Did you try connecting it to the bottom rear USB Port? I assume you have video and you can always force it to boot from a CD by hitting the F12 key which will give you the option to select which boot device to use regardless of the BIOS Setting.

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PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 8:59 am 
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Which MediaSmart server device do you have? Doing a search on the forums brought up a few promising articles:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1233&view=previous
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9285
viewtopic.php?t=1133

On my EX-470 device, I had to select the "USB-ZIP" option in the boot menu to boot from my USB key. Yours may be similar but you may want to do some experimenting on this.


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PostPosted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:16 pm 
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I use the Windows 7 USB DVD Download tool to create my bootable flash drives. Just copying the contents of the DVD or ISO file onto a flash drive isn't good enough. The DVD Download tool, available for free from Microsoft, formats the flash drive and lays out the files so that they are correctly detected by the target computer, whether BIOS or EFI.

On both my EX487 and EX490, it's a cinch to get them to boot from the USB. Just make sure it's in the BOTTOM port on the back! I have Charles' debug cables on both, so it's easy to follow along with what the server is doing. When I rebuilt them to 2012 Essentials and 2012 Standard, respectively, even after the OS was installed on the system disk, they still rebooted back to the flash drive. I had to pull the flash drives out and reboot the servers to get them to boot from the system SSD.

Of course it is theoretically possible to boot from any of the USB ports if you use the boot menu, which is only possible with a debug cable attached.

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HP EX490, 4GB, E5300, 15TB - Server 2012 - Sharing and Streaming
HP EX487, 4GB, E5300, 13TB - Server 2012 Essentials - Backups


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:41 pm 
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Hi, I am looking to convert my old EX470 to a NAS using FreeNAS. However, I haven't found any way of modifying the boot order without making or buying a custom vga cable. I'm not into making the cable myself, does anyone here in the US make these cables? Or does anyone know of a way to modify the boot order in the bios without actually seeing it? Is there another option besides the custom cable like usb to vga cable that is confirmed to work?

Thanks for your time,
Josh


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 4:12 pm 
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Hi Josh. Welcome to the forums!

These debug cables ship from Austin, TX, USA to anywhere in the world. Would they help?


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 5:46 pm 
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Thanks, it does look like a nice little box, but $80 is a little expensive for a cable I plan on using about once... I was hoping for around $20 cable. Anyone else have a solution? Or someone in San Antonio, TX have a cable I can borrow for a few min to make the changes I need in the Bios (email me if you do Josh[AT]Hennesey[DOT]net)?


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 6:36 pm 
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That Debug Board is worth its weight in gold. While you think you will only use it once the fact is the doing anything blind is a PITA and one mistake and all you will know is something is not working but with the Debug Board you get to work on everything. If your LAN Port Fails and you want to install a USB-LAN Adapter this DEBUG Board will help you get that done. When the need to troubleshoot arises and they will arise you will find that cost will save you a ton of time and being blind with a problem is not a good place to be.

I own 2 of these and I am contemplating ordering one or two more.

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PostPosted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 3:39 pm 
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I am working on building my own VGA cable, mainly to troubleshoot issues with the RAM I'm trying to install, check some things in BIOS.
In the interest of simplicity, what are the VGA cables that are REQUIRED for this to function?

I'm ready to go with RGB, H and V sync. Which ground pin(s) are needed to be connected? Anything else?

If all connections are needed, that is fine... I just wanted to check first.


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 7:56 pm 
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This will help you build the Debug Cable: viewtopic.php?p=4416#p4416

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