Shane said:

"Any luck figuring out the shut down power supply issue. I'm having the same issue with my new e3300."

and:

"...I had to do a hard shut down as my server wouldn't fully shut down and restart on its own (I think this might be a e3300 issue). ..."

I can confirm that I'm having the exact same issue with my E5200 installed in my EX485. It's the only thing that's not working perfectly since the CPU upgrade.

FYI I did need to change the PECI option to enable the alternate temperature sensing (otherwise it wouldn't boot) and I noticed that the CPU temperature did go up somewhat, however I can also confirm that they also went up before the CPU upgrade (i.e. with the original Celeron CPU) due to the alternate sensing technique that is what the PECI option is all about. W/ the E5200 installed the temperatures seems to be similar to what I experience with the original CPU which is good. (I used Arctic Silver for my thermal compound).

So I would very much like to resolve this shut down issue, it seems like it's not a big deal either way what would certainly be nice to be able to completely shutdown remotely...

From what I can tell the system pretty much shuts down most of the way and it's only one last minute thing that seems to keep the PSU engaged (the OS seems to shut down nicely and the drives park too) I suspect it's either a BIOS option or otherwise a driver issue that can be fixed if only we knew what it was...

Unfortunately it got really late and I need to but everything back together however I'm now kicking myself for not try at least a few things, such as:

* Playing with the ACPI options in the BIOS
* Trying a load optimized defaults
* Setting Plug and Play OS to "Yes"
* and maybe a few other things...

If anyone else find themselves in the same position as me I suggest trying these options to see if you can fix it, otherwise I suspect you'll all have the same issue as me and Shane!

Oh maybe it's possible to fix it by simply trying to find a better CPU driver from Intel, actually that's something I can easily try tonight, stay tuned...

All -
I am having the same shutdown issues as everone else.... Also I found out that the sleep option doesn't work either. It just hangs the system. Just to see if it made any difference I also tried a E6300 with the same results.

I have tried all of the Bios options I can think of fixing these issues but havn't come up with an answer yet. Although I don't think I tried the "Plug and Play Bios option...
If anyone has a EX490 and could post the different options or post a copy of the actual bios, this may give us a clue how to get this resolved.
-Cadman-

BTW for those of you who are thinking about upgrading, who are now wondering if this a deal-breaker (specifically the shutdown issue), I'd say it's not.

Here's why, because the system can "restart" just fine the OS is essentially able to shutdown gracefully and then begin the restart process and boot up just fine, so IMO the integrity of the s/w side of the system is fine i.e. the reboot process doesn't crash and all is good. The problem is only related to the way the system deals with the Power Supply Unit which is why it doesn't actually turn off when shut down or when entering sleep for that matter (which also requires control over the PSU).

The restart and a shutdown process are the same until the point where the OS is done with cleaning up and then makes a choice to either go right back into the full restart process from the beginning (just fine) or otherwise hand control back over to the BIOS to deal with the PSU (fail).

So I'm fully confident that when I shut down my EX485 it actually shuts down however it then finds itself in limo with the PSU once the job is done. At that point (i.e. after 1 - 2 minutes of waiting to be safe) I just hold down the power button for a few seconds to force the PSU to turn off and all is good.

So it's a hassle and obviously can't be done remotely, other than that it's awesome!

I also upgraded to an E5200...

And i also got the shutdown problem, BUT, not alway's.
Sometimes it actually shut's down, most of the times it doesn't.

But then again, i agree it's a Server, no need to shut it down anyway.

EDIT, did a littlemore fiddling. Thought it would make a difference if i would shut it down from the Console or RDP.

Last 20 BootUp's and Shutdown's, Yeah Shutdowns. It actually worked and it didn't matter which way i used to do it.

Hi,

To be honest, i didn't do anything except swapping out the CPU.
At first it randomly would shutdown properly or not...

Now a few days later it seems fine.

I'm getting my 4x2Tb Seagate LP's next week, maybe that makes a difference ?
I'll keep you all posted.

Greetings from the Netherlands

GJ51 said: I just finnished upgrading my e485 with an E5200 CPU.  It's a big improvement, and even considering the shutdown issue, it's a great upgrade considering that I leave it on 24/7.  I was never able to get consistent results with setting the overnight sleep feature with the original Celeron CPU.  I get really good thermal performance if I turn off Twonky Media, which uses a about 50% CPU utilization when it's enabled.  With Twonky running I get from 55 - 65C measured at the server settings panel.  Core temps with Speedfan show between 45 - 51C.  With it uninstalled, the temps run below 50C consistently at idle.  I was wondering if anyone else has the same issue and know a good solution other than disabling the service. I'm still not certain how to disable speed stepping in the BIOS, but I also don't quite understand the benefit of doing this if the CPU ramps up under load. Many thanks to all the brave pioneers who blazed this trail.

I don't believe you want to disable speedstepping at this point with the processor you have.  I was initially under the same impression as you about this but Cadman helped clarify the issue - many thanks to him for that.

Regarding Twonky - I ditched mine long ago and I am exclusively using PS3 Media Server (I think you can use it for more than just PS3 but not 100 percent sure). 

My temps are dead nuts at 42C with e3300 installed.  I don't have much to complain about at the moment.  I almost wish I could turn my fans down a bit to reduce the noise but I'm not so sure the MSS Fan add-in works with ex485's.  Can anyone tell me otherwise?

HP EX485, Intel e3300 2.5 ghz dual-core, 2 gig memory, two 1TB WD Caviar Black, One 2TB WD Caviar Green.

My understanding was the speed stepping wasn't working correctly with the E5200 and was limiting the speed to ~50% of the capability and that is why the disabling was necessary. Can anyone else shed some light on that? My E5200 never showed 2.5GHz until I disabled speed stepping no matter what the load was. IIRC, it was always at 1.19GHz until I disabled speed stepping.

Thanks guys, you are awesome. I found the BIOS tools and upgraded my bios and added an E5300 today. System seems more response now, and streaming Internet Video, Pictures, and Movies seems to work much faster... Now if i could only get the TIVOHD to work better with the HP485...

Just keep an eye on those temps. It looks like you are right at the top of TDP for that cpu, and you don't have any more fan to through at it. I think the included Fans top out at around that speed. You probably are ok now but if dust or anything builds up it could start to cause you issues. Most of the core 2 based CPU's start to shut down in the low to mid 70's so you are right on the cusp of thermal issues..

When I setup the E5200 in mine it got up in the low 70's but the fan's were never running all out. Closer to the 1600 range. Just something to think about.

Another thing to think about is the ambient temp in the room. If you currently are haveing nice weather and the temp in the room is staying fairly low you will probably have issues if the room warms up much with warm weather.

Mavrrick

HTPC1(Phenom 9950/8GB/HDPVR/HVR-2250)(Bedroom computer and TV with 24" Dell Ultrasharp)
HTPC2(Athlon II 7750/2GB/HVR-1800)(Serves living room TV)
MSS EX485 with Pentium Dual Core E5200(2x1.5TB,1x750GB)

That Quadcore also is a 95 watt part. Do you have anyway to check and see what the powersupply is being pushed to? I am just wondering how close you are to it's max.

Probably on idle it isn't any worse then any other but under full load you could be pushing it close to it's limit as well

Mavrrick

HTPC1(Phenom 9950/8GB/HDPVR/HVR-2250)(Bedroom computer and TV with 24" Dell Ultrasharp)
HTPC2(Athlon II 7750/2GB/HVR-1800)(Serves living room TV)
MSS EX485 with Pentium Dual Core E5200(2x1.5TB,1x750GB)

I believe they already looked at the lower powered xeon and they were no dice. You may want to look earlier in this thread. I don't remember them mentinoing the one you stated, but i do believe they had issues.

Mavrrick

HTPC1(Phenom 9950/8GB/HDPVR/HVR-2250)(Bedroom computer and TV with 24" Dell Ultrasharp)
HTPC2(Athlon II 7750/2GB/HVR-1800)(Serves living room TV)
MSS EX485 with Pentium Dual Core E5200(2x1.5TB,1x750GB)

I ordered an L3110, I'll report back what happens.

I want to thank you for the detailed instructions on how to upgrade the RAM on my HP EX470 Home Server. I was able to complete in within 15 minutes start to finish and that was with a delay in getting the 2 black screws that holds the front grill on back in place.

Sincerely,

Phil Mogerman