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On Fri, 3 Sep 2021 17:32:38 +0100
comrade meowski <mr.meowski@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 03/09/2021 12:44, fraser kendall wrote:
> > Dell T7810
>
> Nice: Dell Precision T-series are 'proper' workstations and they're
> built and run like tanks.
...
> With that out of the way, google how to extract the license key of
> your Win10 install with a powershell one-liner, write it down and
> then blow windows away forever on the bare metal... grab a clean ISO
> from Microsoft
It had a digital license and all the various methods returned an empty
string. I used the create W10 installation disk for another machine
(4.4G, so fitted on a single layer DVD; why they wanted a >8G USB stick
is a mystery to me).
> Make sure the system is setup correctly in it's BIOS. Enable all the
> latest UEFI
Done. But there were no EFI boot paths ('No bootable systems found')
on a reboot because it was in Legacy.
>+ secureboot options.
Couldn't access. Setting admin password in BIOS greyed out all the
options; trying to F2 into the BIOS thereafter just returned blank
screen, which admin password failed to unlock. (Very nervous by now!)
>Dell Pro systems have *very*
> comprehensive UEFI/BIOS setups with every option you can imagine
> available so spend a while combing through it to familiarise yourself
> with it fully. It's easy to miss things defaulting to weird values
> like memory timings. Workstation firmware defaults are usually setup
> to quite conservative values and can often tolerate a fair bit of
> tweaking.
Not done. I wouldn't recognise a conservative memory setting from a
reckless one, but BIOS not accessible, so just rebooted with an
installation disk as the bootable media and hoped for the best.
> Finally if you got one with a HBA then watch out for it - it might
> have a Dell PERC or a LSI unit and not all HBAs are created equal.
> Generally speaking unless you got one that can be easily reflashed to
> IT mode you'll be better off ignoring it and using the normal SATA
> backplanes to attach your disks.
???
> Anyway have fun, that's a cool machine!
Installation went smoothly, got machine up and running within a day,
including running some cables. Got hotter than I'd like during
benchmarking, but lm-sensors and fancontrol sorted that; your last
comment
>Workstations can be noisy...
particularly applies (3 fans all>5000 rpm, but temps all <65oC). Just
as well it's in another building...
> Cheers
Last, thanks for the advice. I'll wait until I'm on-site and have
another look at the BIOS. The black screen appears on another
password-protected machine (although I'd have to remember which one...)
then responds to the correct password by entering the BIOS or shutting
the machine down to an incorrect one. That seems to be an intelligent
way of proceeding, so I'm hopeful it's blank by design!
Thanks again
fraser
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