Protectli VP2430 support

[maximum_output]

I just wanted to let you know that Protectli, when asked about a specific combination of software that does _not_ lock the GPU on Linux after some period of inactivity when connected via HDMI, says "they can't test everything" and they say they did a "quick search" without actually supplying any URL.

As such, I consider their "support" to be completely worthless. At this rate, one can indeed just better order directly from China.

This is my first computer ever that doesn't properly turn on the screen again after pressing any key on the keyboard. I run the exact same configuration on desktop and laptop (which is not at all marketed towards Linux) and those do not have any issues, but _surely_ it must be a problem with the software; no, Protectli, you built something that doesn't work and that's why it doesn't work.

Yes, I can understand I can disable all kinds of sleep modes. The point is that this shouldn't be needed.

FYI, I am not interested in your "solutions", unless you have had this _exact_ same problem and resolved it by executing some program (in which case you can reply with a bash script). So, keep your "Have you tried"-type of questions for you.

Be happy that I shared this experience so you can just buy from a different company.

(From what I can tell, literally every "MiniPC" sucks. So, if anyone of you is thinking of starting a company in this area: There is no competent competition. Until such time I recommend you just build a MicroATX server yourself and forget MiniPCs altogether. )

 

[giskard]

I have a Glovary mini-PC on which I've installed Proxmox, with OPNsense, TailScale and AdGuard Home as VM and LXC containers and it all works very well so far. I ordered mine from Amazon for much less money than I'd have paid for a much lower-specced Protectli, both in terms of CPU and number of Intel NICs, so I'm very happy with it. I've posted about it here in this forum if anyone's inteested in further details.

 

[rtech]

(From what I can tell, literally every "MiniPC" sucks. So, if anyone of you is thinking of starting a company in this area: There is no competent competition. Until such time I recommend you just build a MicroATX server yourself and forget MiniPCs altogether. )

I arrived at same conclusion.
You might get better results with big name brands like: HP,Fujitsu,Dell but i personally haven't bothered.

 

[phil-2024]

Yes found the same to be true. Months of a ticket open to them and no updates to it. Usual Chinese power hungry hardware and incomplete AMI BIOS with lots of stuff hidden and disabled, several of us fed that back months ago via their Reddit forum and then nothing. They are quick with the PR and the "we are listening and want to help" type replies but nothing actually happens, simply because they haven't really designed their products, they are just made by Yanling in China and they are stuck with their dismal support.

Protectli is just a marketing company really, the best they seem to be able to do is ship a replacement for a hardware failure, anything else they just don't seem to have the technical expertise to sort it out.

 

[ajohn]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the device and support. Personally I have good experiences with Protectli support. Even though I bought my vault second hand, I got decent replies when raising a ticket. Only needed to provide the serial, not the original invoice.

The hardware they use comes from China, but there is a definitely a quality difference. I have teared down a brand new TopTon N150 (X2G model) and a Protectli Vault V1410 and there is a big difference in the quality of the case. The case of the protectli snugly touches the CPU and SSD with the delivered heat pads. The TopTon has a visible gap between the CPU and heatsink, filled up with cheap thermal paste. The SSD and RAM in the TopTon cannot be cooled passively through the enclosure (there is a gap of 1 - 2 centimeters to bridge). I have applied copper heatsinks to SSD and RAM and put a fan on top of the case, but since there is no air circulation inside the case, the effect is limited. Also, the power connector of the protectli can be fixed/secured, which is a nice touch.

Protectli provides coreboot and a lot of documentation. Up to you to decide if a better quality case, support and coreboot is worth the difference in price, but there is definitely a difference buying from protectli or directly from aliexpress.

 

[phil-2024]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience with the device and support. Personally I have good experiences with Protectli support. Even though I bought my vault second hand, I got decent replies when raising a ticket. Only needed to provide the serial, not the original invoice.

The hardware they use comes from China, but there is a definitely a quality difference. I have teared down a brand new TopTon N150 (X2G model) and a Protectli Vault V1410 and there is a big difference in the quality of the case. The case of the protectli snugly touches the CPU and SSD with the delivered heat pads. The TopTon has a visible gap between the CPU and heatsink, filled up with cheap thermal paste. The SSD and RAM in the TopTon cannot be cooled passively through the enclosure (there is a gap of 1 - 2 centimeters to bridge). I have applied copper heatsinks to SSD and RAM and put a fan on top of the case, but since there is no air circulation inside the case, the effect is limited. Also, the power connector of the protectli can be fixed/secured, which is a nice touch.

Protectli provides coreboot and a lot of documentation. Up to you to decide if a better quality case, support and coreboot is worth the difference in price, but there is definitely a difference buying from protectli or directly from aliexpress.

Yes the extra money on recent kit has gone on a better case using more metal, but the internals are just the same as all other direct from China devices. Also they did have issues with poorly fitting CPUs not touching the case correctly on some of their units, so they've not been immune from the same issues that cheaper stuff has from Aliexpress.

Coreboot firmware is poorly implemented, it enables ASPM but not other power saving features, and no option to disable ASPM if there are incompatiblilites. The AMI version is the opposite, disables ASPM with no option to enable it (like most direct from China cheap stuff) , so little consistency. The fan control has a bug on the Coreboot version on their VP6600 series, not sure if that has been fixed yet.

Yes I agree there is a difference paying more in some aspects, but I've not had any updates to my ticket and on chasing they just said "No updates". They corrected their misleading advertising when this was queried about the products being designed and assembled in the EU OR Canada OR USA depending on which site you visited, basically PR telling you want you want to hear. As for being assembled in the USA, its not been denied that all they do is order fulfilment, i.e. they add memory and SSD if that has been ordered, but that's not most peoples definition of assembly. Their product pages if you drill down confirm they are Made in China. So I stand by what I say, its 90% marketing and PR.