From: jgnewsid@outlook.com   
      
   On 13/05/2024 in message  Jeff   
   Gaines wrote:   
      
   >I hope the new (to me) machine will arrive tomorrow and will have the   
   >replies next to me while I install. I will let you know how it went...   
      
   OK, update 1.   
      
   My very pretty blonde post lady rang the bell around 11:30 and said "oh,   
   this is a bit heavy dear, can you manage it". That completely ruined my   
   day before it had really started, I said yes thank you and waited to cry   
   until I had closed the door.   
      
   Anyway it was my HP MICRO SERVER G7 N54L which is brand new sealed in its   
   original box even though 12 or 13 years old. 2 GB RAM and a 2.2 GHz AMD   
   processor. These are really neat units.   
      
   Unpacked it, it had the biggest sachet of Silica Gel I have ever seen   
   inside but it is genuinely brand new and unused.   
      
   Decided best to make sure it worked before trying anything fancy so   
   connected it all up (VGA graphics), plugged in my Ventoy external SSD and   
   fired it up. No problems except it just didn't want to know the Ventoy. I   
   tried every configuration under the sun and even though the Ventoy was   
   recognised in the BIOS it wouldn't boot from it. Decided in the end it   
   must be because the BIOS is a real BIOS, none of this EFIng nonsense.   
      
   Decide to Rufus myself a thumb-drive, Rufus said there's an update so   
   downloaded it. Would only create NTFS and I'm not sure if that would be   
   recognised so went back to an older version and used FAT32.   
      
   Plugged it in and lo and behold it booted straightaway. I say straightaway   
   but with 2 GB RAM and the spinning HD that came with it it was a   
   horrendously slow process. Anyway it got there in the end and I had a play   
   and all seemed well but slow.   
      
   I had 2 x 8GB DDR3 and although the spec says 8 GB max several people have   
   said it will recognise 16 GB so I had the manual up on my Windows desktop   
   and followed it to slide the mobo tray out disconnecting all the cables as   
   I went. Took out the 2 GB RAM stick, put the 2 x 8 in and put it all back   
   together.   
      
   Re-booted and was going through its boot process when "critical error, no   
   fan" appeared on the screen. Pulled the power and re-checked and I had   
   left the fan cable out. Fixed that and it re-booted fine and seems to   
   recognise the full 16 GB of RAM.   
      
   So a good start with a fair bit of learning, including how to tell how   
   much memory it recognised with a command line involving a cat and   
   systeminfo.   
      
   Now I know it works next step will be to stick my DVD drive in (I want to   
   make isos from DVDs and Linux seems to be much better than Windows), then   
   I will follow all your input and perhaps later or probably tomorrow I will   
   set about installing it to a 2 x SSD setup, I have found cradles which   
   allow fitting 2.5" drives into the 3.5" standard frames.   
      
   Onwards and upwards...   
      
   --   
   Jeff Gaines Dorset UK   
   This joke was so funny when I heard it for the first time I fell of my   
   dinosaur.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)