HP Respond to Criticism on MediaSmart Server Performance Issues

By on July 29, 2008 in Add-ins & Apps, Hardware, Windows Home Server

Over the past few days a number of articles online highlighted a pretty major performance hit on the HP MediaSmart Server following the installation of the PVConnect and McAfee add-ins included in HP’s latest update.

We got in touch with HP yesterday to see if they wished to respond, and to enquire what was causing the issue. Brian Burch, Director of Marketing for HP’s Connected Entertainment team came back with the following explanation:

As you know HP released a software update for MediaSmart Server on July 21, following Microsoft’s release of Windows Home Server Power Pack 1. The HP software update provides support for 64-bit operating systems, plus two optional add-ins that a user may choose to install – McAfee Total Protection Service and PacketVideo PVConnect media server. The 64 bit upgrade prepares the MediaSmart Server for support of Vista 64-bit systems. Users do not need to enable this feature. It is an automatic update.

The PacketVideo Connect add-in provides advanced graphics such as photo thumbnails, in-menu browsing, and album art during remote access, as well as broader support for the more popular video, music and photo formats. The McAfee anti-virus add-in will provide Server side anti-virus protection with free virus definitions for seven months. Both of these are add-ins will be automatically downloaded to the Add-In folder in the software folder on the HP MediaSmart Server. The user can add them if they choose just like any other add-in.

The McAfee Total Protection Service must index all of the files stored on the Server in order to provide the protection against a virus attack. The PacketVideo PVConnect will, upon installation, create a database of all the media files such as photos, music and videos on the Server. When these two services are installed together, the combined ‘first run’ indexing by McAfee and database creation by PacketVideo, can use the majority of the resources on the Server. This may result in slow response times from the Server until those activities have been completed. If the user has also installed other add-ins or software packages on the Server there may be an additional lag in response time. It has also been reported that the Windows Home Server Console can become unresponsive during this time.

As a result, we recommend that users install each update one at a time, independently. Users should first install Windows Home Server Power Pack 1, then PVConnect followed by McAfee.

Additionally, since the release of the HP MediaSmart Server software update, it has been discovered that PacketVideo no longer supports media streaming to a Sony Playstation 3. This is an issue with PacketVideo, not with the MediaSmart Server. There are directions for opening the PV database and fixing the problem by inserting a space between “PLAYSTATION” and “3” at http://www.wegotserved.com/2008/07/25/how-to-play-media-stored-on-your-playstation-3-with-windows-home-server-and-pvconnecttwonkymedia/


Couple of things spring to mind here – as we’ve said consistently, whilst we love the HP MediaSmart Server here at WGS, we do recommend upgrading the memory if you wish to run a number of add-ins on the box (I upgraded mine to 2Gb), especially add-ins such as anti-virus packages. Why HP don’t release an official memory upgrade pack for the MediaSmart Server (or better still, revise the EX475 model for the holidays with 1Gb memory) I don’t know as I’m sure they’d clean up.

Secondly, a more widespread beta testing programme for HP updates would easily flesh out these kind of issues well ahead of public release, and at the very least, better installation guidelines could be packaged with their updates to ensure users avoid these kind of problems. Let’s hope something like this can be sorted out in the future – I’m sure the community would be up for supporting it.


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • G. Ambrose

    I installed McAfee and PV Connect based on the fact that it was promoted by HP, the manufacturer of my Windows Home Server. The entire system bogged down, and although the server seems to be working (backups ran as usual in the background last night, and I can access the user folders), I cannot connect to the server via the Console. When I pull up the Console, all I get is a blue rectangle, and no matter how long I wait, it will not go beyond that. After multiple attempts, I was able to get to the point where I could un-install (I think!) the PV connect software, but then I have not been able to get back into the server via the console. Very dissappointed with HP. I have avoided any add ons, with the fear that it would damage the server, and to be in this position with software “approved” by HP, is very disturbing. Will need to call them up and see if there is any resolution.

  • Stenton23

    Any way I look at it, I think the HP MediaSmart is a great deal; however, I will end up replacing the RAM (once my hands stop sweating about it).

    In any case, while I understand the value of HP’s partnering with McAfee, the fact remained that for the week when the software was loaded, my machine chugged. It’s not the consumer’s fault if the machine lacks the muscle to handle the add-in — HP certainly was developing a partnership long ago, and must have foreseen the result.

    No McAfee, better performance.

  • Bouncy

    Upgraded to 2GB of RAM just a few days before the new updates became available for download, Everythings running GREAT just as i’d expect it to be but i can sympathise with anyone still running on the stupidly low 512MB default RAM, Why oh Why HP ??? I had issues with the speed of my server on 512MB of RAM even without anything else installed.

  • revengineer

    I don’t mind upgrading my server’s RAM to get the add-ins working. But what really bugs me is loosing my warranty over HP’s oversight to adequately equip this product. They should have invested 10 bucks more. :-(

  • soaklord

    @revengineer If you are in the u.s. they would have a hard time proving you voided your warranty just by upgrading the memory due to warranty law here.

    I am a bit frustrated with the HP udpate. I need to figure out how to remove the McAfee add in altogether, as the Avast! product is far more suited to my needs/wants. And PVConnect was causing my server to run constant processor spikes over the course of 3 days. I finally disabled and am back to normal.

  • Reg

    HP repsonse is pure spin and BS. My experience ran as follows:
    1. installed macafee on MSS with over 70% free disk space, waited an hour before the console came up and even then it you could watch each object being formed in slow motion
    2. used remote desktop to check task manager – system idle at 98% no network utilisation, machine still very slow
    3. uninstalled macafee – system back to normal (though even thats sluggish)
    4. installed the pv connect software. The server only has photo’s on it but PVConnect refuse to ‘keep’ the folder designation and keeps defaulting to a sub folder with about 2000 jpg in it. System again crawling around in its knees. Left it overnight, no difference in speed and PVconnect can’t list ANY photos it has indexed
    5. removed pvconnect, installed MS download, updated connectors, re-installed macafee. Once again the console goes into freeze frame and even trouble getting RDC to work, once again no indication from Task Manager that the server is processor bound.
    6. setup a scheduled scan to run after the backup and left it for three days, no difference to speed, macafee refuses to schedule another scan and won’t tell me what happened in the first one. Uninstall Macafee, MSS back to normal sluggish but livable response.

    My questions are:

    1. Why Macafee? it clearly doesn’t step down its interference when processing as promised and seems more disk bound than processor bound
    2. what does PVConnect give me other than hassle?
    3. After all the fanfare the only useful update is the task launcher -did this really take six months to develop?
    4. And for Microsft – do you call that a backup solution? would you run your own server on it?

    I bought this box because it was reasonable value and it has HP name on it but the support is woeful and they don’t seem to care much. Ram for the upgrade is arriving today and stuff the warranty – I would rather junk it and start again than trust HP to do anything useful

    • Rich

      I have to agree that the HP Mediasmart servers are a "Joke" these have to be the worst investment any consumer could make, the other day one of my HP power strips almost caught fire and I wrote HP about the issue, and as expected they did nothing knowing that what they have was a totally bad product design, I will never buy another HP product what kind of company creates these typical bad performing products and basically don't responed to the consumers concerns, I think they call themself HP/COMPACT and who knows what other name these clowns go by ….

  • David Parkinson

    I would uninstall the Macafee, but just get an console error message saying “uninstallation failed”.

    Should have trusted my judgment and NEVER install a Macafee product. Only did it because if the HP endorsement!

  • David Parkinson

    Update to the above. PV connect won’t un-install either!

  • David Parkinson

    Further update NO addin can now be uninstalled!!!!

    Thanks HP you broke my WHS!

  • Ed Harrison

    Interesting that HP say their updates should be installed *after* PP1. As far as I’m aware, PP1 hasn’t yet arrived over Windows Update (although I see it is actually available for manual download), but the HP update was automatically downloaded to my WHS.

    I haven’t actually had any problems with the HP update (but then I have 2GB of RAM), but now want to know

    - whether I can safely install PP1 *after* the HP update
    - whether I will be able to remove McAfee (as I certainly won’t want to pay for updates to it after the 7 month trial).

  • Reg

    I had the same thought so installed HP stuff first. When it all went broken I thought maybe it needed MS package as well so downloaded that.

    this completely broke mcafee – so i removed all the add-ins re-installed the ms stuff and then continued with HP, worked ok but so slow (see above) that I’ve now pulled the mcafee and pv connect anyway

    I had a couple of problems with the ever so helpul ‘uninstallation failed message’ but rebooting and removing in the order i put them in sorted it out. I *think* the problem was something to do with how slow everything was working.

    Another note of caution – uninstalling mCafee does *not* stop the on access scanner – i had to manually kill it in services

  • endeavour_uk

    I was reallly enthusiastic about my MSS when it first arrived but this latest update has left me feeling disillusioned. My wish was not to treat it as another PC, but as an appliance. All my original experiences fitted with that wish. My only issue was video access via PS3, but I cut it some slack there as the PS3 is far from the Microsoft firmament. I looked forward to the new update to improve the situation and resisted the temptation to hack it.

    However, when the update arrived it appears it has a pre-requisite (PP1) it fails to mention and delivers add-ins that appear to overwork the (fixed) hardware. The PS3 connectivity actually makes things worse unless you remotely log-in and hack a config file. None of this seems to fit easily with the idea of the MSS being an appliance.

    So can HP tell us how we should consider or MSS? Either its an appliance, in which case we should expect the updates to be comprehensive and that we should have a single point of contact (and responsibility) for how it works with HP. Otherwise its a mini PC which they expect users to add their own software and make hardware changes without throwing their warranty out of the window.

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  • http://www.backupanytime.com John ONeill

    I have to get two new workstations and am considering DELL. Refarding MCafee and all the hassle the above posters had, can I ask Dell to remove pre delivery or do i have to go through that on each new system out of the box?

    Thanks
    John
    http://www.backupanytime.com/blog

  • soaklord

    John,
    Not exactly the place for this question as the article is in regards to HP by brand and servers by use so neither Dell nor workstations would apply.

    Having said that, I don’t believe you can choose the install package you get with your machine, it comes pre-configured. In fact, you will likely not even get an OS disc, rather you will get a partition that will happily reinstall OS and bloatware on your drive should you run in to any issues.

    On most machines, Bloataffee and Bloarton come as 60 day trials that you can then spend money on when the trial expires just for the privilege of bogging down your system for as long as you are willing to pay. Any machine I have helped to set up usually gets about an hour to an hour and a half of uninstall time before I anoint it as ready for battle. The first three things to disappear are Norton, McAffee and AOL. Once those have disappeared, I usually install an AV that makes sense for the machine (lately my favorite has been Avast!). Avast’s free product has done nicely on the machines I have supported of late.

    Now if you happen to be considering a home server, I love my HP (after adding RAM and a new proc) and would recommend it highly to date.

  • Mach1

    The McCaffe AV left my server sluggish, and the console was not connecting. This despite the fact that I have upgraded to 2GB of RAM. I uninstalled the Anti-Virus and all is well again. I have had no issues with the PVconnect update, but I have not really used it yet either.

  • Barry

    How do I get a Vista 64 bit machine to connect to the EX475 server?

    Thanks

  • Reg

    install the x64 connector from the share

  • Pinakin Desai

    @Bouncy -

    Have a HP Mediasmart ex 475 with 512 MB of RAM, want to upgrade it to 2 GB, can you tell me how to do it?

    thanks in advance

    Pinakin