The HP tx4x-series thin clients are coming...

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WANg

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Well, looks like HP will be making an announcement soon regarding the tx40s, a few new machines just showed up on their warranty care/carepack site...Their expandable thin clients are a favorite super-NUC for almost-disposable home servers.

No corresponding quickspecs sheet yet and nothing yet on hp.com, but hopefully soon. Hoping these will be AMD Ryzen embedded or Ryzen low-voltage based.

 
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zack$

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Now to only wait __ years before we can get a hold of them at liquidation pricing :D.

Definitely still interested in the update.
 

WANg

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Now to only wait __ years before we can get a hold of them at liquidation pricing :D.

Definitely still interested in the update.
Or looking at the flip side, depending on when the channel partners get notice of the new device, there will be a corresponding fire sale soon enough on t630/t730 stock...plus considering the pricing on the EliteDesk 605 G4 (its nearest corporate NUC equivalent), the t640/t740 shouldn't be very expensive even when new, assuming that you gun for the cheaper SKUs. My guess is around 350-450 USD when they hit secondary markets. If they are Ryzen with good BIOS support they should make good nodes for ESXi or Proxmox.
 
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t730joe

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I'd be satisfied with my t730 if I could access the BIOS.... Setup still Password Protected with no options in sight!
 

t730joe

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Yes, I tried that as mentioned in HP's troubleshooting guide as well as other suggested methods like removing the cmos battery for 24 hours.

From what I can tell, there's a "Stringent Password" that's been configured. That's the only thing that can explain this BIOS lockout.

Question is, why would this unopened, BRAND NEW, sealed in the factory packaging t730 Thin Client have a stringent password?

Any takers?

...did you try to pull the password jumper PSWD/E49? It's in appendix B of the t730 troubleshooting guide....
 

WANg

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Yes, I tried that as mentioned in HP's troubleshooting guide as well as other suggested methods like removing the cmos battery for 24 hours.

From what I can tell, there's a "Stringent Password" that's been configured. That's the only thing that can explain this BIOS lockout.

Question is, why would this unopened, BRAND NEW, sealed in the factory packaging t730 Thin Client have a stringent password?

Any takers?
Most likely because the machine is factory configured with a deployment profile for a major university or trading firm, and when they liquidated the stock the password was probably left in place as a sloppy exercise.

Well, there are several things you can do -

a) Try the default root password for ThinPro based machines, which is toor
b) Use flashrom to dump the BIOS contents and try to reverse engineer it (I am sure there are already t730 BIOS dumps posted here)
 
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t730joe

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Great insight. Even better advice... I shall attempt to gain access and will report back asap.... Thanks WANg!

Most likely because the machine is factory configured with a deployment profile for a major university or trading firm, and when they liquidated the stock the password was probably left in place as a sloppy exercise.

Well, there are several things you can do -

a) Try the default root password for ThinPro based machines, which is toor
b) Use flashrom to dump the BIOS contents and try to reverse engineer it (I am sure there are already t730 BIOS dumps posted here)
 

t730joe

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toor did not work.... as soon as I figure out how to use flashrom to reverse engineer the bios, I'll post my results.

Most likely because the machine is factory configured with a deployment profile for a major university or trading firm, and when they liquidated the stock the password was probably left in place as a sloppy exercise.

Well, there are several things you can do -

a) Try the default root password for ThinPro based machines, which is toor
b) Use flashrom to dump the BIOS contents and try to reverse engineer it (I am sure there are already t730 BIOS dumps posted here)
 

WANg

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Alright boys and girls, looks like HP JUST PUT IT OUT THERE. Just announced today, the t640 and t740. I'll concentrate on the t740 as their documentation are mostly present - the e-cycling disassembly guide for the t640 is not out yet, so I can't pull it apart to figure out its innards.

Spec sheet is here. Ryzen Embedded V1756B based on the great horned owl platform (so its Zen+), Quickspecs and e-cycling disassembly guide is here. My guess is around 7500-8000 CPUMarks (CPUMarks published but with a rather high margin of error - it's actually close to the V1807B, ~mid-8000s and close to the CPU on this Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen6 sitting next to me) - should be a good little box for home labbing - although that BIOS is still a bit of an unknown quantity, and I haven't seen anything fun on HP's support site yet (besides the e-cycling guide). Well, we should start seeing some fire sales on the t730s when this is on general availabability.

Note that the new chassis doe have the second M.2 PCIe port so you have the option of a fiber NIC along with a 40Gbit Mellanox card. I am going to ask my vendor to quote general availability (I don't see any yet) and pricing - word on the street is about 650 USD, but I expect it to drop. Let's see what happens. I am excited - maybe we can get it with ACSCtrl so we can finally do proper SRIOV. Hell, a thin client that outperforms the HPe Microserver line?!

@Patrick know anyone at Palo Alto who can lend you one to play around with? :)
 
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fossxplorer

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@WANg awesome news again and that didn't take long time for HP to announce.

Availability and Pricing


  • The HP t740 is expected to be available on September 26 starting at $651.
  • The HP t640 is expected to be available on September 16 starting at $514.
  • The HP ThinPro PC Converter with 1-year maintenance and support is available today starting at $122.
  • HP Device Manager 5.0 is available now and comes at no additional cost with the purchase of any HP Thin Client.
 

WANg

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What is the configurable option port??
Ah. Its a carrier board that can hold either a blank, a serial port (with lines to the breakout on the board) or the external Wifi antenna connectors (looks to be Hirose UF.L to MMCX). It's only useful to for getting cables into the chassis.

Okay, if we take a look at the e-cycling disassembly instructions, there are some head-scratching surprises on page 26...



a) It has a SATA M.2 and an NVMe M.2 port next to each other (number 3) - Hmmm?!
b) The M.2 Key-E port for Wifi/BT combo connectivity is on the bottom rear (number 5) and would require a cable route to the back between 2 and 3 for the external antennas to poke out
c) The riser for PCIe will bring the PCIe card on top of the SATA/NVMe boards
d) There is a single CPU blower for the heat sink, which sits between numbers 4 and 5.

So right now, in terms of ports and expandability:
1 M.2 SATA
1 M.2 NVMe
1 M.2 PCIe x1 Key E (for the wifi/fiber card option)
1 PCIe x16 port (might be x8 just like the t730)
2 USB 2.0 ports (rear)
3 USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 (1 front, 2 rear)
1 USB-A 3.1 Gen 2 (1 front)
1 USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 (1 front)

Note that compared to the t730, you are losing the internal USB ports and the easy/direct breakout to the M.2 Key-E/PCIe x1 port. If HP releases a fiber card it’ll need a fiber PHY module breakout and a connector cable to reach the option port.
 
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zack$

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If the rj45 is an Intel (as opposed to a realtek) then I think there is no real loss (in terms of no SC fiber).

The internals of the t740 are pretty nice for a microserver though. Gotta have that nvme.
 

WANg

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If the rj45 is an Intel (as opposed to a realtek) then I think there is no real loss (in terms of no SC fiber).

The internals of the t740 are pretty nice for a microserver though. Gotta have that nvme.
Nope, according to the Quickspecs it's a Realtek (RTL8111 EPH-CG). But yeah, this machine will make for a nice, small superNUC (especially if it can do 40/100Gbit on the PCIe) - I am hoping that it'll do AMD-Vi and ACSCtl right off the bat so we can get SRIOV networking going. Personally I would rather retain the ability to fit an M.2 fiber slot and the onboard Realtek alongside the PCIe - my t730 just got its fiber port lit (via an SC to GigE media converter) and its super-useful.
 
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WANg

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toor did not work.... as soon as I figure out how to use flashrom to reverse engineer the bios, I'll post my results.
Did you also try swapping the flash chip and/or erasing it? (It's a Winbond 25Q64FVSIG, 3v 8 pin SOIC/VSOP). It's on page 18 of the t730 disassembly guide. I haven't tested it yet - but my guess is that if you pull it the BIOS password will disappear, and by either sourcing a replacement chip or by putting it into an EEPROM programmer and erasing it you will be able to clear it out.
 
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