DL585 G7 wont run SmartStart

[Stuart Cohnen]

I have a new DL585G7 with 4x12 cores and 192G of memory. Smartstart (either 8.50x64 or 8.60 X64)starts booting, gets up to 100% and then NOTHING. Machine is unresponsive and has to be powered down to reboot it. Support had me reset the NVRAM, no help there. Anyone have an idea on what is going on? I access the machine either via a KVM or ILO3.

[Michael A. McKenney]

Reduce the RAM to 32GB and try it. Install the extra ram after you are done.

[Stuart Cohnen]

Turns out to be a simple problem. The SmartStart won't run without a PS/2 keyboard and mouse. I was using a USB (Avocent) dongle. Changing to a PS/2 dongle allow it to boot. This is very lame of HP! Who bothers with PS/2 anymore?

[Michael A. McKenney]

I have seen Smartstart in the past not work with over 32GB of RAM. Now, you need PS/2 keyboard and mouse. Can you disable the PS/2 in CMOS and get it to boot from USB keyboard?

[Stuart Cohnen]

Good question. I'll have to try this.

[Terry Hutchings]

This server is meant to be able to work with USB dongles as well. HP's KVMs are Avocent also, so I do not believe it's a problem specific to these. I suspect the firmware on the interface adapter may need to be updated.

[Michael A. McKenney]

I usually do firmware upgrades before OS upgrades.

[Stuart Cohnen]

Which interface adapter? The dongle or on the 585? I went through the BIOS settings, there is no place to disable the ps/2 in favor of USB.

[Michael A. McKenney]

No setting to disable PS/2 in CMOS. I guess HP wants PS/2 keyboard for smart start to work. You could get a $4 PS/2 keyboard from Micro Center.

[Stuart Cohnen]

Conclusion: Those HP machines with PS/2 ports require a mouse/kb plugged in if you want to run SmartStart. Very lam.