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USB Loader won't boot any version


SmellyOldMan

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Hi everyone,

 

I recently got my hands on an older Shuttle PC (a very compact square little PC) with the following specs:

 

- Core 2 Quad Q9300

- 4x 2GB DDR2 @800mhz

- 2x 1TB HDD

- 1x 128GB SSD

- Nvidia GT 210

 

I would like to use this machine to run my Plex media server using XPEnology. I got 5.2 to work once but ruined it by attempting to update it to 6.2 (Plex Media Server apparently requires at least 6.0 to run). Since then I haven't been able to get any version of XPEnology to boot from a multiple different USB sticks. I've tried basically everything:

 

- Two different brands and sizes of USB 2.0 sticks and one again differently sized USB 3.0 stick

- Writing images with both Rufus and Win32DiskImager

- Formatting sticks in both NTFS and FAT32

- Using UEFI settings and MBR settings in Rufus and Win32DiskImager

- Basically every loader available on the internet, almost every version of Jun's, Quicknick's and Xenoboot's loaders

- Every BIOS setting that may influence boot behaviour

 

I've followed numerous guides and videos online but every time I end up with my Shuttle freezing at post whenever a USB with any version of a loader prepared on it is inserted. 

The only time I almost succeeded was with 5.2 again, with which the Shuttle did come past post but ended up with a boot error.

 

I noticed that in most guides they refer to the syslinux.cfg file placed on the USB, which should be opened with preferably notepad++ to be edited. This .cfg file is missing for me with every loader I've written to any USB so far. Most of the files which should be on the USB after using Rufus or Win32DiskImager seem to be missing. 

 

What am I doing wrong? Would greatly appreciate some help here!

 

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Sorry for the late reply! I read that 6.2 messed some things up real good for some people so I gave 6.1 a try.

 

I followed this guide but it just doesn't seem to work for me. The only reason why it won't work I can think of is that this custom motherboard that Shuttle made is the culprit. 

 

Followed every step exactly as instructed till the point where it says to plug in the USB in the NAS and change some BIOS settings. My NAS just freezes at post every time with any XPEnology loader written on it. It boots just fine with a Windows 10 image, or other random files. I used Genesys' MBR loader since it's an old machine. 

 

Any idea as to what could cause this strange behaviour?

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You still have not answered the question.  Which loader (exactly), which DSM (exactly).  Your CPU won't work with Jun 1.04b and DS918 6.2.x.  Your NIC probably won't be supported by 1.03b and 6.2.x, so you are left with 1.02b DS3615 6.1.x for your best chance of success.

Edited by flyride
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I last used the loader and DSM provided in this guide, so the Genesys' 1.02b loader and DSM 6.1.4 for DS3615sx. However, the results were the same as with any other loader. The only loader I got to work was a 5.2 version but I'm not sure exactly which one that was. Upgrading it to 6.1 using the afformentioned guide resulted in the entire system crashing. 

 

Every other attempt after the crash in installing a higher version XPEnology resulted in a post freeze every single time.

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Your processor is Yorkfield, which was replaced by Nehalem.

 

The hardware the 1.02b loaders are based on (3615, 3617, 916) have post-Nehalem processors.  Someone may pipe up and prove it wrong, but I'm not aware of anyone 6.1.x running on earlier than a Nehalem family chip.

 

See this: https://xpenology.com/forum/topic/13333-tutorialreference-6x-loaders-and-platforms/

 

Edited by flyride
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