Windows Home Server on Athlon XP3000?

[darkenedsoul]

Hi,

I have tried 4-5 times to get this to install from the image I downloaded today to test it out.

Config:
MSI K7N2 Delta 2 Platinum mobo
Athlon XP3000
3Gb DDR PC2700 memory
2 300GB IDE drives
1 IDE DVDRW
ATI X1600 AGP video card

That's all I have in this box and it wouldn't get beyond the black screen. I know the system works because I have XP Pro SP2 installed on it and booted it up before/after with no issues with and without the 2nd IDE drive installed. I could access the 2nd drive as well.

Is this not going to work or what? I can't see spending $600 on the HP box, I can build something comparable for a lot less (at least $200 less nowadays) but I figured I'd only be streaming mp3's and maybe use it for backing up my 2 desktops on a schedule and maybe stream mp3's from my PS3 on occasion as well.

Any ideas?

Mike

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Try taking some ram out and see what happens.

 

[darkenedsoul]

Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender
Try taking some ram out and see what happens.

Take ram out?! The board has 3 slots, I've got it maxxed with 3 1Gb sticks I put in last year some time. I know they aren't faulty as the system has been shut down for almost a year since I built a replacement system back in Mar. 08 timeframe. I think it's more the video card since WHS is based on 2003 SP2 Server which probably didn't have support for the X1600 at the time. I found an older GeForce card which I think is a GeForce4 model which I'll swap in pobably tomorrow night and give it another go. If that doesn't work I'll pull 1 DIMM out as well and see if it makes any difference.

Mike

 

[darkenedsoul]

ok, first off this is pretty LAME if you ask me. My mobo can take up to 3 DIMM's so I left it as is....it wouldn't install WHS so I switched video cards, same crap. So from SoundTheSurrender's suggestion I pulled the 3rd DIMM out and VIOLA! It installed ok. Now the question is, where is the product key for this beast for the 120 days eval period? I haven't found it yet on the DVD disc I burned. It is up and running at this point with a 300GB IDE drive as the install disk. For some reason it made a 20GB SYS partition and the rest another. I don't know diddly about this yet but want to get to testing it out after mucking around with it for MP3 playback across PC's as well as testing connectivity to my PS3.

Pointers?! ;-)

Thanks,

Mike

 

[darkenedsoul]

Well, apparently with the PP1 downloadable ISO you are stuck with 30 days to test it out. If you want to update w/product key you have to reinstall it (another hit imho). But I decided to pre-order the HP ex485 box since my system went blackscreen during a backup (flashing monitor, no input from keyboard, etc...) so I decided cost-wise i'd be better off buying this box (amazon has it for $50 off regular price - compared to hp/best buy) and I'd have to build up a system to replace my old setup which apparently isn't in as good a shape after all these years as I thought. So now the waiting game for it to ship.

 

[mc866]

Why don't you just purchase a full version of the OS from newegg? I have it running on a 2800+ with 1GB of memory and haven't had any issues unless I'm trying to stream HD content with TVersity. The box above should be more than enough to run WHS.

 

[JonB]

I am also running the downloaded test version of WHS and it says it will expire in 30 days unless I Activate it. The download gave me no activation code and calling Microsoft's phone number gave me a "We don't recognize that software" type phone message.

So, I ordered the 120 day kit from Microsoft. It will have the install disc plus the connector disc plus the recovery disc (plus an Activation code).

Hasn't arrived yet but I've still got 22 days until the activation deadline. Odd thing is, there is one screen that says it won't expire until August 2009.

Your XP3000 processor and 2gb of ram would be PLENTY to run this. Where you should spend any money is installing a gigabit switch if you don't have one.

 

[darkenedsoul]

Originally posted by: mc866
Why don't you just purchase a full version of the OS from newegg? I have it running on a 2800+ with 1GB of memory and haven't had any issues unless I'm trying to stream HD content with TVersity. The box above should be more than enough to run WHS.

I did order it but was unable to cancel after I ordered an HP ex485 WHS system. So I will sell off the software. Reason I bought the box as the system went black screen and needed to be power cycled before it would give me video/input. I suspect something is going bad in it. And to update things in that case would cost me close to what I am spending on the box itself. So I figured smaller footprint, less power consumption, etc...was the way to go.