Power Pack 1 and HP's add-ons make Windows Home Server a real grouch
By Darren Murph 
posted July 28th 2008 3:04AM
posted July 28th 2008 3:04AM
If you've experienced some shockingly slow results from your Windows Home Server-based unit, we've one question for you: do you have Power Pack 1 and the HP add-ons installed? If so, you may not be alone in your frustrations. Apparently a number of users have seen dramatic slowdowns that have rendered their WHS devices nearly unusable. It seems that all the "bloatware" really takes a toll, as the hard drives are constantly pounded and console menus take ages (minutes, to be more precise) to appear. According to Within Windows, the only real solutions are to install more RAM and / or tweak your pagefile configurations afterwards. Anyone else raging mad about the performance issues? What are you going to do about it?[Thanks, Bryant]
When will these people get a clue and build their own bare bones server for the same ammount or less, OR buy a simple NAS...this product has garnered nuthin but bad press. Maybe they will release a new model with no bloat? Doubt it, its HP and Windows.
let me know when these things are 64-bit. Otherwise the solution to upgrade the RAM sorta falls short when you have to stop at 4Gb.
You really don't need 4 GB for this server. I had been running it with the stock 512MB until this weekend. The HP MediaSmart only has one RAM slot anyhow.
zzz...
I upgraded to PP1 and the latest 1.3 update from HP and got the same results. I immediately upgraded my RAM to a 2 GIG stick as shown on the http://www.MyHomeServer.com site and that helped. I never selected to activate the MCAffee either...
So who here has one of these HP WIS servers and actually likes their's? I realize most people recommend upgrading the memory which I don't mind doing. But I've read reports of people adding more then one HDD to it and having trouble? Who's added more hard drives and liked the performance?
I'm also curious as to see if this would work nice with my popcorn hour unit. Anyone have experience with it?
I LOVE my WHS box, not only does it backup all my systems every night, I use it for all my media storage and I have added PHP and MYSQL and installed wordpress and use it to run all sorts of blogs for myself, friends and family. Since PP1, there are no problems with corrupted data and multiple disks....this is really one of the BEST server investments I have ever made, and its very quiet and a very nice looking box in the corner of the living room.
As far as Popcorn hour, never tried it yet, but it does stream photos, music and video fine to my media player.
I had a horrible time installing this update because of PVconnect. I started a thread about it at mediasmartserver.net. http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1794
After uninstalling the add-ons, things are back to normal. I do have to take issue with everyone ragging on the server though--I think it's been surprisingly good, and very easy to use. With nice add-ons like mediaguide, it's easy to stream everything off the server anywhere.
Just wait until November when the new models are out with more ram, faster proc and tons of new features.
I, uh, I'd run OS X server.
(Lowest ranked in 3, 2,...)
I've been running WHS on an old computer for several months and have no problems. My home theater pc and main pc are backed up like clockwork. My music, dvds and files are stored on the server and with a checkmark in a box were duplicated across multiple harddrives to protect against a harddrive failure. I can now access my files from anywhere using my web address. For a novice to intermediate level user, this software is a blessing. It's still relatively new and their have been a few kinks but I think Microsoft has done a great job on recognizing a new market and have been wise to give it a simple interface.
I've completely given up on HP because of their bloatware. I don't even buy their printers anymore just out of spite. It takes hours sometimes to clean a HP setup. Rot in hell, bloatware pushing bastards.
God, I just *knew* some Linux fanboi would pipe up. Here's a clue: this isn't about Linux. It's about *Windows* Home Server.
BTW: The comment regarding McAffee from dial0g was right on the money.
Ok simple as this. Yes WHS has some neat features. In my experience as a tech most people will never use them, regardless of how much they could benefit.
However once you get into the Linux realm you've reached a certain level of nerd-dom that is well above that of many people.
Honestly I went Linux and I am very happy, but I can see where other people would not make the same choice for whatever reason. That's fine, their network. (Personally I needed the extra 170 to spread around the rest of the project, so that was the big decider.)
What I see here is what I see with every single manufactured PC I work on: Too much crap. I love it when you unbox your clean, brand spanking new PC and there's all this trial/bloat/AV/whatever-ware filling the right side of the task bar.
Now we're specifically ragging on HP right now but all manufacturers I've seen are guilty of it. (If I remember correctly sony is at least letting you opt out...)
However I'm appalled that their idea of a fix is telling you to go out and spend money.
I installed PP1 just after release and I haven't had any major issues. I've found that performance for the web portal and connector are much faster. You can see details here:
http://terracode.com/WHS_PP1/WHS_PP1.html