ML110 G7 Graphics and Sound

[Cory Hug]

I have 3 ML110 G7's with 4 Gb RAM each that I'm installing Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (which uses Server 2008 R2 as it's base) on and see these things on all 3 servers.  I'm guessing this is by design (with the possible exception of #1) but I want to check to be sure.  I also do have the latest 2012.02.0 Support Pack installed for all firmware and drivers.

1. Graphics Performance - Specifically within the built-in Windows Notepad of all things.  This particular item I do see as an issue that I'd like resolved.  It's really annoying.  It happens only within Notepad (so far at least), but it happens on all 3 servers, but I've also never seen anything like this on any other computer (server or workstation) I've ever worked on.  When Notepad is open and I'm moving the mouse around the screen and around or within the Notepad window, the mouse always freezes for a couple of seconds as it transitions from the editing body window inside of Notepad and anything outside of that (either directly to the Windows Desktop background or another application's window depending on what's behind Notepad if I move to either side or the bottom of the Notepad window, or even to the Notepad menu bar if I move to the top of the Notepad window).  And it does the same thing when moving the mouse from anywhere outside to within the editing body window in Notepad.

2. Graphics Aero interface - Do the graphics card and/or drivers for this server ineed not support the Aero interface?  (I've tried selecting Aero in the Display themes but no matter what I do, I can't get Aero.)  One could argue that it's not that big of a deal on a server, but being used to it in Windows 7, I miss it on the server, particularly the window preview when hovering over a task bar icon for an application.

3. Sound - it appears there is NO sound device in this server model at all?  I see the "Volume" control icon in the System Tray with a red "X" and don't see anything in Device Manager for sound devices.  Although as I look at the server I also don't see any connections on the back for speakers.  I'd agree, a server probably doesn't really need sound so I'm not arguing, again, just confirming that this is indeed supposed to be the case (no sound device on this server).

Thank you.

[Cory Hug]

Just following up to see if anyone can answer this for me.  #'s 2 and 3 I'm mainly just looking for confirmation on if that's how it is supposed to be.  For #1, I guess I'm also just looking to see if this is normal, but I'm hoping it's not and looking for any ideas on what the issue might be.  #1 is just plain wierd, I've never seen anything like it on any other computer with any Windows OS version.

Thanks!

[Matti_Kurkela]

Here's the Quickspecs document for ML110 G7:

http://h18006.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/14012_div/14012_div.HTML

1.) It says the graphics controller is an embedded version of Matrox G200. That GPU design was originally released in 1998.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrox_Millennium_G200

At the time of its introduction, the G200 was a full-featured 3D graphics card... but in modern terms, that means nothing at all. In general, graphics controllers on server hardware tend to be very minimal, as the general expectation is that the servers will be operated mostly remotely anyway. (If a server is designed to run some Unix-style operating system, it might not even have a GPU at all: just a serial port for command-line access for initial OS installation and troubleshooting.)

2.) No, Aero support is not a requirement for either Windows Server 2008 R2 or the ML110 G7.The minimum display requirement for 2008 R2 is a basic 800x600 SVGA display, no particular performance level.

Aero requires DirectX 9 support; Matrox G200 was originally designed for DirectX 5.2 or so.

3.) You're correct, the ML110 G7 does not have any built-in sound device.

[Cory Hug]

Thanks much!

Wow, I don't quite get why they use such an old graphics controller.  I agree servers don't need much for graphics power but there are still quite a fewer newer generation and yet still cheap graphics controllers from both nVidia or ATI that they could use that would give a bit better support.

The Notepad thing is just weird.  I've never seen anything like that, even on previous HP servers we've had.  Though these are the first ML 110's we've had.  We actually downgraded from ML 330's to the 110's in some really small offices, and where previously they were running SBS 2003 are now running the SBS 2011 Essentials (we no longer use Exchange within those offices, they use 3rd party Hosted Exchange).

Yeah, I didn't expect Aero to be a requirement, it's just a nice-to-have (and again, there are many newer generation but still cheap graphics controllers that could do it, but it's not a huge deal).  Mostly, I'm so used to the window preview in the task bar from Windows 7 when I have multiple instances of the same application open that I miss it not having that when the interface in Server 2008 R2 is the same interface.  Again, not a big deal, just looking for confirmation.

Thanks again!