HP Investigating RAM Upgrade Options

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by Cindy W August 15, 2008 08:10 PM

Categories: News, Rumors and Gossip Patches and Upgrades Server Mods and Hacking

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Carlos Montalvo, HP’s Vice President of Marketing, recently told our good friend Terry Walsh:

“As we continue to extend the features of the MediaSmart Server and plan the next release of the hardware it’s important for us to allow owners of the current version of the product to continue to benefit also – we’re actively investigating supported options for users to upgrade their MediaSmart Server’s memory. . . We need to work out what support users will need when they upgrade, but you can expect to see a solution from us in the next 6 months . . .”

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Discussion: Add a Comment | Comments 1-15 of 15 | Latest Comment

Harley

Member

member since: 05/30/2008
rank: 34 of 1717
22 comments

August 17, 2008 12:36 PM

Holy crap, about time!!

What in the blue blazes were they thinking anyhow? 512 megs of RAM? My PDA Phone has more memory than that!

Hurry! I finally got mine set up and like it - but it's slow to do an ything.

Servant

Member

member since: 08/11/2008
rank: 241 of 1717
location: Lebanon, TN, United States
1 comments

August 20, 2008 9:56 PM

Agreed. Its a server. It may be a home server, but it is a server. More people will be providing add-ins and companies are developing software to take advantage of the platform.

Bob

Member

member since: 05/09/2008
rank: 156 of 1717
1 forum threads started
8 comments

August 22, 2008 1:15 PM

Hi Cindy:

If HP does do this I would to see HP drop the issue that the RAM upgrades already done or done with parts not provided by HP do not void the MSS warranty. A number of people have already done the upgrade and some of us are almost ready so having the warranty issue dropped would be a great benefit.Thanks....

Bob

Harley

Member

member since: 05/30/2008
rank: 34 of 1717
22 comments

August 22, 2008 1:23 PM

Bob said: Hi Cindy: If HP does do this I would to see HP drop the issue that the RAM upgrades already done or done with parts not provided by HP do not void the MSS warranty. A number of people have already done the upgrade and some of us are almost ready so having the warranty issue dropped would be a great benefit.Thanks.... Bob

I'd have to agree with this. I think it was pretty silly for HP to only put 512m of RAM on a media server, and to punish people for wanting to upgrade the RAM to get more out of this otherwise pretty cool peice of equipment isn't right - especially if HP makes upgrades available.

Mitch

Member

member since: 08/20/2008
rank: 186 of 1717
1 forum threads started
2 comments

August 23, 2008 11:48 AM

Six months is a long time to wait for an HP solution. Since the PP1 "upgrade", the performance of my MSS has slowed to a snail's pace, and it has become persnickety about letting me log in. It takes forever for it to react to any command.

I'd happily upgrade the RAM to get the performance back. Six months is too long to wait for a solution. Is there a means of rolling back the MSS to uninstally the "upgrade"?

Thanks,

Mitch

Cindy W

Working on Behalf of HP

member since: 04/21/2008
rank: 1 of 1717
location: Fort Collins, United States
1 articles authored
30 blog entries posted
6 forum threads started
71 comments

August 25, 2008 11:40 AM

Hi, Mitch,

Microsoft released PP1 in order to address the DE bug. You probably don't want to un-install PP1.

If you un-install the McAfee and PVConnect add-ins, along with any other add-in you have installed, you should see better response times.

Cindy

Disclaimer: Any opinions I might express are my own, and in no way represent HP.

Andy B

Member

member since: 08/29/2008
rank: 7 of 1717
22 comments

August 29, 2008 11:39 PM updated: August 29, 2008 11:42 PM

Mine also stopped responding to Home Console logon after the PP1 and Add-in installs (PVCONNECT and McAfee) remotely or on a remote desktop on the actual server. Reboots did not help or leaving it running for a day or so in hopes that the file indexing that might be needed was still going on, etc. I wound up deciding to log in with remote desktop, going to control panel, add/remove programs and I uninstalled PVConnect add-in. Once that was removed and server was rebooted, everything seemed to respond normally again within the Home Server Console. Unfortunately, from the Home Server Console it still showed that add-in as if it were installed which would be a problem if/when I try to re-install later if needed, so I went back into remote desktop connection, ran regedit, searched for keys relating to PVCONNECT and deleted them. After that, PVCONNECT showed as a ready to install add-in again. However, for now I will not re-install it. The server has continued to run well ever since removing PVCONNECT.

Mitch

Member

member since: 08/20/2008
rank: 186 of 1717
1 forum threads started
2 comments

August 29, 2008 11:50 PM

Thanks Andy. I un-installed PVConnet and McAafee, and things are seemingly back to normal.
However, I remain dissappointed in the server overall. It is an awesome back up tool, but the MediaSmart name implies it is adept at streaming media, and that is just not true. Without a RAM upgrade, the webshare is glacially slow, and one has to be a hacker to get the thing to actually stream media. I think I'll eventually get there, but its much more effort than I originally bargained for.

Mitch

Martin C

Member

member since: 06/11/2008
rank: 37 of 1717
location: Canada
9 comments

September 3, 2008 8:56 PM

Hi Cindy. Here are my thoughs.
1) Given RAM is now dirth cheap it was not wise for HP to setup the platform to the bare minimum and now easy way to add RAM. But that's the past.
2) I have swaped the 512MB for 2GB and the performance impact is clear. And to me disk swaping is an evil inventions - computer just work much better when they don't run out of RAM.
3) HP has to recognized its mistake and not penalize customers for it. Customers will appreciate this - those that already upgraded the RAM because they know better, and those that will do it the HP way once it is available.

Thanks.

Luis

Member

member since: 07/02/2008
rank: 289 of 1717
1 forum threads started
3 comments

September 10, 2008 5:48 AM

Hi Cindy,
I posted a problem I have had with my unit using video; no solution yet. I load the video in, and when I want to display video it plays ok unless someone else is trying to display another video and play. Then the video flickers. It looks like a bandwidth problem. I have matching gigabit cards on the router and the two computers; have upgraded to cat 6. I have asked before in the forum and HP tech, will the ram upgrade reduce or eliminate this problem. How about an upgrade to a faster cpu? I have not gotten satisfactory answers from HP. Some of the forums indicate that a lot folks are breaking warranty just to get this product working. Any solutions before I sell this unit and go some other route?

Harley

Member

member since: 05/30/2008
rank: 34 of 1717
22 comments

September 10, 2008 7:05 PM

Do we have any word on this yet? I'd really love to upgrade my RAM without hosing my warranty.

Cindy W

Working on Behalf of HP

member since: 04/21/2008
rank: 1 of 1717
location: Fort Collins, United States
1 articles authored
30 blog entries posted
6 forum threads started
71 comments

September 10, 2008 7:09 PM

Thanks for all your inputs. We've taken them under consideration, and I believe you will be happy with some upcoming news.

A note: I would advise against a CPU upgrade.

Stay tuned!

Cindy

Disclaimer: Any opinions I might express are my own, and in no way represent HP.

DickDay

Member

member since: 09/07/2008
rank: 24 of 1717
location: Norfolk, NE, United States
6 forum threads started
17 comments

September 25, 2008 9:14 AM updated: September 25, 2008 9:44 AM

Cindy, greetings from Nebraska...

After installing PP1, my 470 now does some sort of house keeping every hour without fail. Prior to PP1, if it did this, I never noticed it occuring. I have just the one drive and all folders have duplication turned off. I have less than 13GB of data on the drive and do not use the Photo Webshare or iTunes. I use the server as a file server. Until PP1, latency was never an issue. Now, when the HD activity starts, I must wait until it's finished before I can resume using the server.

Also, I have no add-ins installed.

HP support says upgrading memory will void the warranty and they do not suggest restoring the server and leaving PP1 off of it.

Before I look for another solution, do you have any suggestions?

Thanks!

DickDay