Fun Day!

[Jeff Gaines]

What a day.

I bought an HP MICROSERVER G7 N54L on eBay, 12/13 years old but still in
its unopened box with the massive bag of silica get they came with. AMD
2.2 GHz CPU and a whole 2 GB RAM. I put Linux Mint xfce 64bit on it (250
GB spinner) and it ran (that's exaggerating a lot) fine.

Put in 16 GB PC3 RAM and re-booted and it was recognised OK, spec says 8
GB max but it seems to depend on the RAM. Had a play and re-installed to
an SSD and it's not a bad little machine.

I though I'd try Windows so a disk swap and Win 10 went on OK. Problem is
although there's no blobs oh Device Manager the Broadcom network adaptor
doesn't work in Windows (it's fine in Linux).

It needs a BIOS update - SP64420.exe. I managed to find it after what
seemed like forever Googling (HP don't make it available). It includes a
utility to make a bootable Thumbdrive but even though I've tried to do so
on a couple of machines it gets so far then says the Thumbdrive is write
protected (it isn't).

I then thought I'll make a DOS Thumbrive (using FreeDOS) and copy over the
files it needs. This worked to the extent I got a bootablle Thumbdrive and
it booted from it but using Rufus and the FreeDOS image I ended up with a
full Thumbdrive so no room for he needed files.

Anybody tried this or got any ideas? If I can create a DOS bootable
Thumbdrive and copy the files over I could be in business but when I was
using DOS there was no such thing as a Thumbdrive.

Incidentally I spent a couple of hours this morning swapping power cables,
data cables and eventually complete DVD drives between machines because I
just couldn't read the drive. Discovered in the end the DVD itself is
damaged.

All good fun!

[Theo]

Post by Jeff Gaines
What a day.
I bought an HP MICROSERVER G7 N54L on eBay, 12/13 years old but still in
its unopened box with the massive bag of silica get they came with. AMD
2.2 GHz CPU and a whole 2 GB RAM. I put Linux Mint xfce 64bit on it (250
GB spinner) and it ran (that's exaggerating a lot) fine.
Put in 16 GB PC3 RAM and re-booted and it was recognised OK, spec says 8
GB max but it seems to depend on the RAM. Had a play and re-installed to
an SSD and it's not a bad little machine.

They're nice... I've failed to upgrade my two - the Gen7 series chassis is
more flexible than the successors, even though they're very slow. Currently
pondering repurposing the chassis with Pi5 + Penta SATA HAT, or using it as
an external disc box for something else.

The VGA ports are a weak spot, so don't apply too much bending force on
them.

Post by Jeff Gaines
It needs a BIOS update - SP64420.exe. I managed to find it after what
seemed like forever Googling (HP don't make it available). It includes a
utility to make a bootable Thumbdrive but even though I've tried to do so
on a couple of machines it gets so far then says the Thumbdrive is write
protected (it isn't).

For the record, there's some hacked BIOSes floating about which switch the
DVD/external SATA ports from pretend-IDE (necessary to get XP to boot on it)
to proper-SATA (faster and more stable). They also unlock some other BIOS
options.

https://n40l.fandom.com/wiki/HP_MicroServer_N40L_Wiki
has lots of info.

Post by Jeff Gaines
I then thought I'll make a DOS Thumbrive (using FreeDOS) and copy over the
files it needs. This worked to the extent I got a bootablle Thumbdrive and
it booted from it but using Rufus and the FreeDOS image I ended up with a
full Thumbdrive so no room for he needed files.
Anybody tried this or got any ideas? If I can create a DOS bootable
Thumbdrive and copy the files over I could be in business but when I was
using DOS there was no such thing as a Thumbdrive.

All I can remember is having a 2GB SD card with DOS and the BIOS reflasher
on it (booted via a USB reader)

Not sure what the current way to install FreeDOS to USB is but I'd do that
and then copy the BIOS files on there. It's just a FAT drive after all.
The Gen7 doesn't use UEFI so it's just traditional MBR boot.

Theo

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by Jeff Gaines
I then thought I'll make a DOS Thumbrive (using FreeDOS) and copy over the
files it needs. This worked to the extent I got a bootablle Thumbdrive and
it booted from it but using Rufus and the FreeDOS image I ended up with a
full Thumbdrive so no room for he needed files.
Anybody tried this or got any ideas? If I can create a DOS bootable
Thumbdrive and copy the files over I could be in business but when I was
using DOS there was no such thing as a Thumbdrive.

Blimey, it's built into Rufus, who'd have thunk it (probably everybody
except me I suppose).

Anyway it worked, BIOS updated, re-booted and the Broadcom NIC works under
Windows.

I was going to make this a Linux box but it's tempting to use it as a
intelligent backup, need to think about it.

[Andy Burns]

Post by Jeff Gaines
It needs a BIOS update - SP64420.exe. I managed to find it after what
seemed like forever Googling (HP don't make it available).

They don't make anything downloadable without a paid CarePak now ...