toastboy

Unplug the fan. Fire it up and let it run for a bit. Take the side off (with the computer running) and check the temp of the heatsink. An IR thermometer is best, but even your finger is good. If you can't leave your finger on it because its too hot, it needs a fan. If you can leave your finger on it, its fine to leave the fan off

Can you not click that little triangle next to LAN2 and change it to LAN1?

I suspected it doesn't like the USB drive so is hanging trying to boot from it.

What happens if you delete your test file without un-linking? Does the file get deleted off your NAS? Try having multiple test files in your drive on only deleting one of them. I suspect the NAS thinks it has an empty folder so will copy everything over as there's no record in the drive of the locally-deleted file being removed.

I use Photo Station regularly without any problems. I've never done anything to make sure I have a valid serial number

You wont need the video card anymore so thats a help. However, the motherboard only has two SATA connections, so if you want to run more than 2 HDDs, you'll need an add-on card or replace the motherboard with something else. I have a NAS running an i3-4160 which is a touch faster, and its definitely capable of far more than I throw at it using Xpenology

Cloud station works just fine. Most packages work just fine Quickconnect runs through Synology's own servers. That's why its a violation.

Why not just set up two different volumes within DSM? Populate one with your RAIDed drives, and assign the other volume with non-RAID drive(s). I have roughly the same thing with my baremetal install.

I have one folder syncing to OneDrive, and I have two more folders each synced to a separate Google Drive account. Yes, 6.1.5

SHR is good if you have mismatched drive sizes. I have SHR enabled on mine because I have 2x3TB and 2x2TB drives, but when I eventually replace the 2TBs with the 3s that I have, I'll go to a RAID-5 If they're all the same, SHR is the same is RAID-5 (SHR-2 = RAID-6)

I use it in a small office setting and it works with no problems. I also have in synced to 2 different google drive accounts and all three work just fine. Do you have the sync schedule turn on? Does what's in the OneDrive cloud match whats on the NAS (more or less)?

Yes, VMM only works with BTRFS

Did you make the USB bootable? Thats a pretty important step. If you used Rufus, make sure to select NOT the UEFI option

Make sure it is set to boot off the USB (and is capable). You may have to hit the 'boot options' key or change a Bios setting or two. Some motherboards only want to boot from specific USB ports as well. Try one directly connected to the motherboard rather than a front-panel one

Have you tried doing it with complete fresh components. Fresh bootloader USB and without your old HDDs to see if that will do it? If you can get a working config, then plug in your old HDDs and migrate. I've had (and seen) issues where an existing DSM install on previous HDDs gets in the way of a new install.

Is it picking up an ip adress (check the router)? Can you ping it? find.synology.com or assistant find it? If you connect a monitor to it and boot, does it show the normal screens?

Your x4 NIC may still work, especially if the x1 slot has a notch cut in the back to allow it to fit. You'll just lose the difference in bandwidth (which may not even be noticeable)

I would also like this to work. My guess is the pcspkr module isn't loaded in DSM as a normal synology box uses something other than a BIOS-controlled sound device

I haven't noticed anything different through all the Win10 versions I've had. Do a DISKPART clean on your stick and try again. Maybe starting fresh will clear the issues up.

Are they on the same Workgroup or domain?

I'm pretty sure you have to specify the port number along with the ip address if you haven't done that already. Same thing with remote connecting to any other service as the NAS is only listening on a specific port. So if you have your router forwarding external port 22 to internal port 22... "x.x.x.x:22" or something like that. You could also forward ports that don't match. I have a random external port forwarded to an internal 5000 so I can access my DSM externally (sometimes).

I had a similar issue, but the fact that the old USB isn't working tells me there might be a corrupted DSM install on your old drives. Start with the basics: 1. VID/PID correct? MAC needs to be different from any other device. If you're copying the MAC from your Windows PC, that will explain why it doesn't work. Make sure you SAVE the updated grub file (I made this mistake once) 2. Network cable plugged in? Seriously, check that there are little lights on the NIC showing its connected. 3. Before powering up anything, unplug the router and plug it back in so it clears the DHCP leases. Then power everything on. 4. Check the router to see if your NAS is pulling an IP address. If it is, try navigating to it directly, if not... 5. Try both Synology Assistant as well as find.synology.com. I've had one work where the other doesn't. 6. If nothing works, disconnect your HDDs and plug in a single temporary drive and repeat. If that works, install xpenology as normal, then disconnect the temp drive and reconnect the old ones. Check my "Recoverable Loop fix" thread in the Tutorials section. If none of that works, let us know

Is it picking up an IP address visible on your router/dhcp server? When you say "generated sn/mac" are you not using your hardware mac? If it is picking up an IP address, can you navigate directly to it? I've seen it where going to find.synology.com works when the assistant doesn't (and vice versa)

Fresh install (wiped drives) or is there an existing DSM setup on the drives?

I had a problem where my baremetal (6.1.3-8) became undiscoverable on the network following a reboot and would not pick up an ip address (according to the router). Putting in a newly created bootloader USB made the device discoverable through Synology Assistant and find.synology.com, but was listed as "recoverable". Clicking "recover" (the only option) started an immediate reboot which caused the diskstation to become undiscoverable again. Symptoms: 1. Diskstation disappears from network and is undiscoverable (no IP address) - possibly associated with an update. 2. New USB bootloader makes DS reappear but is marked as "RECOVERABLE" 3. Hitting recover causes an immediate reboot where DS returns to symptom #1 (disappears from the network) 4. Going to an older bootloader version shows the DS as "migratable" but refuses to install the associated .PAT due to the older version 5. Going to a newer bootloader version shows as "recoverable", returns to symptom #1 Causes - Not sure but likely a corrupted or mismatch in the DSM software on the volume. Fix (following the synology data migrate process for 5.x) 1. Remove ALL HDDs associated with the DS 2. Prepare new USB bootloader using the established processes. Must be the same version of your old volumes or later 3. Plug in blank temporary HDD by itself (I used an 80GB laptop HDD so anything will do) 4. Go through normal installation process. Setup as per old DSM settings (can use config backup files). Test with a restart or two 5. Shutdown DS, unplug temp HDD, reconnect HDDs 6. Power-on. Find using find.synology.com or Synology Assistant. Should be shown as "Migratable" 7. Chose "Fresh Install, Keep my data". Go through normal process. 8. Setup however you like. Success!! I'm not advanced enough of a user to know if there are other methods of repairing this problem; this is the one that worked for me.