Headless Shuttle SN45G

[puffpio]

I set my BIOS to never halt on errors with the intention of running the unit headless

I can boot up w/o a keyboard, but if i remove the video card it wont boot up.

has anyone got this or other shuttle sff to work w/o a video card?

 

[jaqie]

My old SN41G2B worked fine without one on the internal card when I had a card in the AGP slot, I remember, I think I powered it up once or twice without one on either and it worked, but my memory from those days isn't crystal clear, sorry.

 

[puffpio]

for now i just have a vid card in the AGP slot w/ no monitor connected to it...
but ideally i would like to run w/o the video card and downsize on the power supply

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: jaqie
My old SN41G2B worked fine without one

That's because it had integrated video that it falls back upon.

puffpio, you still need to run a video card. "Headless" really just means you're running it without a monitor, keyboard or mouse, and just typically have the power and network plugged in. If you want to minimize power usage (which is IMO a good idea) you can start by looking for the oldest video card that still works with it. For instance, an old ATI RageLT 8MB card would be fine, and draws so little power that it doesn't even need a heatsink. Alternately you can go for an old PCI video card. Those are available as far back as even without 3D acceleration whatsoever, such as the Tseng Labs ET6000 I have in my headless server.

Trident Blade 3D 9880 8MB AGP $6

ATI Rage XL 8MB PCI $10

I'd actually go with the PCI card instead of the AGP, because PCI slots are still found in newer systems while AGP slots are not.

 

[jaqie]

Zap: you didn't read or fully understand my statement.
It had one onboard, but it would not pass POST without a monitor attatched no matter what BIOS boot options were (halt on error setting). I assumed the OP had the same problem, which is why I said what I did - that with an add-in AGP card, it started up fine without a monitor hooked to it.

As for Zap's reccomendations, they are spot on.

 

[puffpio]

yeah i pretty much gave up not using a video card

so i installed a video card and no monitor and all is good except i can't power it off 😛

i have windows setup to power off when i hit the power button..but that doesn't do it.
it i remote desktop in and shut down the comp, it doesnt do it either...

not gonna be as easy as i wanted it to be 😛

 

[jaqie]

Perhaps changing the STR type in the BIOS will fix that. I have seen BIOSes that act like that if it is set to S1, and some that do if it is set to S3. so play with that setting and you may be pleasently surprised.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: jaqie
Zap: you didn't read or fully understand my statement.
It had one onboard, but it would not pass POST without a monitor attatched no matter what BIOS boot options were (halt on error setting).

OIC. Yeah, seen similar problems with some old S3 and Permedia chipset cards, but that's a first for an Nvidia chipset IGP.

 

[puffpio]

Originally posted by: puffpio
yeah i pretty much gave up not using a video card

so i installed a video card and no monitor and all is good except i can't power it off 😛

i have windows setup to power off when i hit the power button..but that doesn't do it.
it i remote desktop in and shut down the comp, it doesnt do it either...

not gonna be as easy as i wanted it to be 😛

Figured out the issue. Since i had remote desktop'd in..when i hit the power button there was a prompt asking if i REALLY wanted to shut down since there was a remote user connected.

However I never saw the message cuz there was no monitor attached!

fixed

 

[tronsr71]

Alternatively, you could shutdown the computer remotely with the shutdown command. Just use shutdown /? if you aren't familiar with its switches.

Personally, I use RTFM as a little pnemonic to help with shuting down remote computers (wheather headless or not).

The /R is for restart (not usefull for you since you want to actually shut it down).

The /T is for a timeout; which is nice since the default is 30 seconds if unspecified (I typically use /T 3 for quick reboots)

The /F is for force quitting any apps and suppressing any such prompts like you described, "Are you sure you want to shutdown windows"

The /M is used for remote computers.... i.e. /M \\ComputerName

All put together I typically use the following from the command line: Shutdown /R /T 3 /F /M \\MyComputer

You however, may want to consider the following: Shutdown /T 3 /F /M \\YourShuttlePcName

 

[noluckjim]

The SN45G has no internal video card, unlike the SN41G - which is why you need a video card to actually POST. Zap's suggestions about video card sounds spot on for your needs, as does tronsr71 tips for shutting down remotely. Heck, you could even go one step further and set up wake-on-lan functionality so you'll never have to physically touch the computer again.