Running a client OS on a server


Recommended Posts

Hello,

Related to a thread nearby, Ive installed Windows 7 32bits on a server that was running Ubuntu (nonserver) and now its just plain horrible.

Mouse studders always.

No Aero (video card limitation).

For a i3 and a brand new HDD, the computer feels VERY slow. The client PC I used to run was a P4 and it felt faster.

Going to Dell's site, they only have drivers for server OSs for this PC:

OoEpaNG.png

Tried Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows 7's server equal) but nothing.

Is this normal?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Keep in mind that "Windows 2008 R2" is an x64 option. Windows 2008 x86 (effectively Vista x86) still uses the WDDM driver model; drivers for it, in most circumstances, should work with Windows 7 x86.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello,

Is this report enough:

--------[ Summary ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Computer:

Computer Type Equipo basado en ACPI x86

Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate

OS Service Pack Service Pack 1

Internet Explorer 11.0.9600.16428

DirectX DirectX 11.0

Computer Name

User Name

Logon Domain

Date / Time 2014-02-04 / 16:21

Motherboard:

CPU Type DualCore Intel Core i3-2100, 3100 MHz (31 x 100)

Motherboard Name Dell PowerEdge T110 II

Motherboard Chipset Intel Cougar Point C202, Intel Sandy Bridge

System Memory 3061 MB (DDR3-1333 DDR3 SDRAM)

DIMM2: SK Hynix HMT351U7CFR8A-H9 4 GB DDR3-1333 ECC DDR3 SDRAM (10-9-9-24 @ 666 MHz) (9-9-9-24 @ 666 MHz) (8-8-8-22 @ 609 MHz) (7-7-7-20 @ 533 MHz) (6-6-6-17 @ 457 MHz)

BIOS Type Insyde (03/13/2012)

Communication Port Puerto de comunicaciones (COM1)

Communication Port Puerto de comunicaciones (COM2)

Display:

Video Adapter Matrox G200eW (Winbond) (8 MB)

3D Accelerator Matrox G200eW

Storage:

IDE Controller Intel® 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 Port SATA AHCI Controller - 1C02

Disk Drive Cintra USB USB Device (1928 MB, USB)

Disk Drive ST1000DM003-1CH162 ATA Device (1000 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-III)

Optical Drive HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM DH40N ATA Device (16x/48x DVD-ROM)

SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:

C: (NTFS) 931.4 GB (908.7 GB free)

Total Size 931.4 GB (908.7 GB free)

Input:

Keyboard Dispositivo de teclado HID

Mouse Mouse compatible con HID

Network:

Primary IP Address

Primary MAC Address

Network Adapter Conexi?n de red de doble puerto Gigabit Intel® 82576 (192.168.100.73)

Network Adapter Conexi?n de red de doble puerto Gigabit Intel® 82576

Network Adapter Gigabit Ethernet Broadcom NetXtreme

Peripherals:

Printer Fax

Printer Microsoft XPS Document Writer

USB2 Controller Intel Cougar Point PCH - USB EHCI #1 Controller [b-2]

USB2 Controller Intel Cougar Point PCH - USB EHCI #2 Controller [b-2]

USB Device Dispositivo compuesto USB

USB Device Dispositivo de almacenamiento USB

USB Device Dispositivo de entrada USB

USB Device Dispositivo de entrada USB

USB Device Dispositivo de entrada USB

USB Device Generic USB Hub

USB Device Generic USB Hub

DMI:

DMI BIOS Vendor Dell Inc.

DMI BIOS Version 2.0.5

DMI System Manufacturer Dell Inc.

DMI System Product PowerEdge T110 II

DMI System Version

DMI System Serial Number

DMI System UUID

DMI Motherboard Manufacturer Dell Inc.

DMI Motherboard Product

DMI Motherboard Version

DMI Motherboard Serial Number

DMI Chassis Manufacturer Dell Inc.

DMI Chassis Version

DMI Chassis Serial Number Chassis Serial Number

DMI Chassis Asset Tag Chassis Asset Tag

DMI Chassis Type Main Server Chassis

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you can, I'd get 64-bit on there. I don't know how much of a difference it will make, but that hardware certainly supports it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Really guys? You're just going to keep berating him about superficial things like 32-bit vs 64-bit when the box doesn't even have 4GB of memory or putting Windows 7 on hardware meant for Server 2008 R2, oh wait, they're practically the same! 

 

Edit: So the machine has 4GB of memory with some allocated to video and other resources. Still, there's no reason to blame the bits.

 

My best preliminary guess would be graphics related.

 

Also,

Tried Windows Server 2008 R2 (Windows 7's server equal) but nothing.

Server 2008 R2 is a 64 only OS. If you have 7 32-bit, your only chance is to use Server 2008 x86 drivers.

Noticed xpxp2002 mentioned it too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello,

Server 2008 R2 is a 64 only OS. If you have 7 32-bit, your only chance is to use Server 2008 x86 drivers.

Noticed xpxp2002 mentioned it too.

Tried Server 2008 x86 and still the same thing. The device manager shows all device installed.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello,

Tried Server 2008 x86 and still the same thing. The device manager shows all device installed.

Would be better to show a screen shot because the graphics adapter could very well look fine but is using a basic, generic driver. Also could be generic SATA controller drivers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Throw an entry level AMD Radeon Gfx card in there, install the latest Catalyst drivers for it, and see how it goes from there.

That should at least resolve the Aero issue, and could work out far better than the onboard GPU that machine came with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is so much wrong with this, I don't even know where to begin.

 

1) Yank the Matrox video card, it is from 1999. The CPU has onboard Intel HD2000, which will be much faster and WDDM compliant.

2) Why Windows 7?  Windows 8 runs faster on older hardware.

3) Match your drivers via the OEM, do not use Dell that doesn't provide any drivers.(Intel, Broadcom, etc.)

4) If you want to keep the Matrox video card, use Windows 8, it will turn on DWM/Aero even with an ancient video card. (Win7 has no CPU/software DX, Win8 does)

5) At least use the x64 version of Windows 7 - so that the x64 Windows Server drivers from Dell will work.

(Just noticed they have x86 Windows 2008 Server drivers. Use them, they are Vista based and should work on Windows 7.  Use compatibility mode when installing if they don't want to install.)

 

Windows works fine, even with crazy configurations, but if the maker 'Dell' doesn't support the version of Windows you are installing, you need to get the drivers from the companies that made the hardware that Dell used. 

 

You could also install any of the Windows Server versions 'supported' from Dell, just turn off the Server features. It is the SAME CODE base as the 'client' version of Windows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is so much wrong with this, I don't even know where to begin.

 

1) Yank the Matrox video card, it is from 1999. The CPU has onboard Intel HD2000, which will be much faster and WDDM compliant.

 

 

That server has an onboard Matrox card video chipset. It works great for what it is meant to be used for, and also works with iDRAC if the system is equipped for out of band management.

Dell Supports the following OS's on that system

 

 

 

Microsoft? Windows Server? 2012

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Essentials

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, x64 (includes Hyper-V?) 

Novell? SUSE? Linux Enterprise Server

Red Hat? Enterprise Linux?

 

 

There are no drivers for 7/8/8.1 so he should not be running those OS's on that system, it's not good for stability or production if it hasn't been tested. Dell has top-notch Enterprise equipment, and although this is a budget server, I'm positive they tested those OS's above and I do see they provide drivers for them also.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello,

Ill do a quick bootup tommorow and post a screenshot but I dont think Ill use this as my daily....I dont have time to keep tinkering it to get it to work correctly.

You want only a screenshot of the Device Manager with everything expanded right? My main issue is the mouse stutter. Besides that, I can live with the rest.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm almost bemused as to why you'd install windows 7 on a server...

Because it's being used as a workstation, maybe?

Repurposing old servers as workstations has a LONG history - in fact, said history is at least as old as NT or even UNIX (as in Solaris, when it was still owned by Sun Microsystems, and the SPARCstation 1 was their flagship).  Even today, the real differences between workstation and server motherboards are in two (and only two) areas - graphics and storage.  Naturally, there is little reason to have even midrange (let alone high-end) graphics in a server - especially if it will be accessed remotely most of the time.  What servers need lots of is I/O - that means storage (drives), bandwidth (networking) or both.  However, such designs are supreme overkill for most workstations, and even most desktops.  Because of the use of third-party controllers for server I/O (both storage and networking), downgrading a server to a workstation is usually as simple as pulling the third-party storage and/or networking cards.  In the case of Windows Vista and later, if you go x64, the differences between the client and server sides of both OSes are minimal to the point of being almost zero, even in terms of those areas where desktops, workstations, and servers are "supposed" to be different.  Two of the OSes I multiboot are Windows 8.1 (ProWMC x64) and Server 2012R2 - desktop OS and server OS, respectively.  The driver differences between the two are not merely close to zero, but absolutely zero.  And that is despite my motherboard chipset (Intel G41) and GPU (nVidia GTX550Ti) being "seemingly" JPW (Just Plain Wrong) for use in a server (G41 is consumer-stable/corporate-stable, and is expected in low-end desktops and portable computers of the Vista era, while GTX550Ti is a gaming GPU of the same era - of what advantage is either for a server?).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ OEMs don't want the headache and people exaggerate. In the end it's all hardware from major manufactures and they support all OSes. Hell, I have cheap clients who've gone and bought a desktop PC and told me to make it a server. I used on board Intel raid and added another drive for a mirror and installed Server 2008 R2. Seeing as the original OS was 7 x64, it's a perfect match, although very, very cheap in both senses of the word.

 

We'll know more with the device manager shot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ OEMs don't want the headache and people exaggerate. In the end it's all hardware from major manufactures and they support all OSes. Hell, I have cheap clients who've gone and bought a desktop PC and told me to make it a server. I used on board Intel raid and added another drive for a mirror and installed Server 2008 R2. Seeing as the original OS was 7 x64, it's a perfect match, although very, very cheap in both senses of the word.

 

We'll know more with the device manager shot.

That is exactly why I used the word "seemingly".  G41 is usable for the purpose (bottom-end server) for the very reason of that corporate-stable/consumer-stable design feature; remember, servers are supposed to be about reliability - which CSM-designed chipsets have in abundance. Admittedly, nV GTX550Ti is overkill for a server - however, it's more a mater of using what's there; besides, the current Forceware driver is actually WHQL for Server 2008 and later, in addition to Vista and later.

 

Because this is a multiboot PC, it's influencing my upgrades - such as the next motherboard.  While Intel Ethernet is preferable (peace of mind), the current Intel gigabit chipset design (Intel i217V) is NOT supported by Windows Server - not even 2012R2.  ("Houston, we have a problem.")  That's why I moved away from midrange (let alone high-end) Intel Z87 motherboards (which use the i217V) to lower-end, if not bottom-end, Z87-based motherboards (most of which use Realtek gigabit, and specifically the RTL8111F or G, which is actually a derivative of, and uses the same driver as, the WHQL-certified RTL8111C/D/E - which is in my current motherboard).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That server has an onboard Matrox card video chipset. It works great for what it is meant to be used for, and also works with iDRAC if the system is equipped for out of band management.

Dell Supports the following OS's on that system

 

 

 

There are no drivers for 7/8/8.1 so he should not be running those OS's on that system, it's not good for stability or production if it hasn't been tested. Dell has top-notch Enterprise equipment, and although this is a budget server, I'm positive they tested those OS's above and I do see they provide drivers for them also.

 

I agree, with the exception that this user has been using it for a client OS and is preparing to continue to use it with a client OS.  There is nothing wrong with repurposing hardware like this in a new role.

 

As for drivers, outside of signing logistics, there is NO difference between 2008 R2/Win7 2012/Win8 - they are the same x64 code base, and are even the same binaries. This is also true of x86 Vista/Server 2008 x86, which may provide the drivers the user needs if they are forced to stick with Win7 x86.

 

I didn't realize the Matrox card was onboard, but now that you mention it, makes sense for this generation of Servers. 

 

 

For the OP...

 

If you are going to use it in a non-Server capacity, you need to consider moving to Windows 8.1 for performance, with the exception of the GPU, the chipsets are fully supported from the vendors directly (Intel, Broadcom, etc.) If you want to keep the existing GPU and 'want Aero', you have to run Windows 8.1, as it no longer require DX9 hardware for the vector composer, and will function with a generic SVGA class driver.   Again, as a client system, even a cheap $15-20 video card would be a vast improvement over a 1998 GPU technology.

 

 

Off the record tip:

Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 would also be the easiest if cost/access is problem, as the user could install the trial versions and renew them for a full six months of operation.  With even a fast 'reinstall' after that if they migrate their profiles or use a MS Account to retain all their settings.  Server 2012 can work well as a client OS as well.

 

 

Side Note:

My problem is users getting upset with Windows on a system where XYZ distribution of FreeBSD/Linux worked fine. Windows will work fine as well, but they have to go beyond the vendor (Dell) to get the drivers, and they need to be installing the best version of Windows for the hardware, and right now that is usually Windows 8.1.

 

(I don't think people appreciate how much optimization is in Windows 8.1 and how well it works on slower hardware.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello,

Couldnt get it to work under Windows 7 and Im not wasting more time on this. Sorry I couldnt get you guys a screenshot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hello,

Today Ive got a chance to get a second look at this, so lets try to retackle this :)

Sadly, all of it is in spanish. Is there a way to generate a short list of hardware inside the PC?

A SM Bus Controller's driver is missing.

BTW, I dont mind reformatting it but I would like some help beforehand as I dont wanna waste another round doing the same thing again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello,

Today Ive got a chance to get a second look at this, so lets try to retackle this :)

Sadly, all of it is in spanish. Is there a way to generate a short list of hardware inside the PC?

A SM Bus Controller's driver is missing.

BTW, I dont mind reformatting it but I would like some help beforehand as I dont wanna waste another round doing the same thing again.

 

Admittedly I haven't read the earlier topic, nor do I have time to while I'm at work. However you can generate a list of hardware by typing System Information into the start menu and then save that and update the .nfo file here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.