HP Thin Client- Help Needed!

[Ki99]

Hello all,

I have been given a HP thin client I believe is a T5000, I was hoping to flash it with windows or linux but I am having a problem in doing so as both the windows logon and bios are passworded and I don't have either (and cannot get them). I have tried removing the battery but this has not effect so I am guessing the password/s are on the flash memory.

I just wanted to know if there is anyway around this, will buying a new stick of memory and putting it in solve this problem?

Also, I may be totally off the mark here but I wanted to use the thin client to attach an external HDD via usb and use it as a network server to download and stream multimedia around the house. I'm guessing this would be possible but can anyone confirm this??

Cheers :beer:

[PhilEnfield]

I think you can reset the bios by opening up the case and removing the battery for an hour or two .... this should reset it.

[Van Nugent]

Also, you need to make sure the PC is not connected to the wall outlet (disconnect it from AC). Otherwise, removing the CMOS battery or clearing the CMOS with jumper will have no effects.

[Ki99]

That worked thanks.

Has anyone had a go at using a thin client for the purposes, have been doing some reading on it today and looks like a lot of hard work...might jump ship and get a NSLU2 instead :saywhat:

[Van Nugent]

Life will be much easier if you can get a NAS enclosure like this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817193041&Tpk=nas%20enclosure).

[Ki99]

Well, ideally I want something that I can leave on all the time (low power), that I can log in to remotely, download repair and extract from newsgroups and stream to my 360's (and anything else). I don't think I could do the newsgroups part with the NAS enclosure could I??

[Van Nugent]

I don't see why not. Since the NAS drives are plugged into the router directly, you don't need to turn on any host PC for other systems to have access to these drives.

[Van Nugent]

Now if you want to use a USB drive connected to the HP, you'll need to assign it a drive letter then enable file sharing for it.

[Ki99]

Just an update in case anyone wants to do the same thing, got it all up and running set it up with alt binz and downloads and extracts to the external HDD fine, put logmein on it so I can access from anywhere. Also put the free TVersity on (pro will not connect to the server for some reason) and this has worked fine with some xvid and .mp4 streaming to my xbox's although I haven't tried it with any HD yet I suspect that it will struggle.

As I got the thin client for free its not a bad little set up, good for setting up downloads remotely and streaming SD round the house, if I had to pay for it I probably wouldn't have bought one of these :beer: