HP Elite Desk 800 Gen 4

[TrueNasNoob79]

Hi everyone,

Can anyone help in regard to installing TC 12 onto an HP Elite Desk 800 SFF Tiny PC i5
6 Core 2.1 Ghz
16GB RAM

Ive created multiple USB installers and initially it loads the installer but shows the attached error message:

I've tried an SSD drive as an install drive. various USB keys. created drives using Balena etcher and Rufus. All the same error messages.

To the best of my knowledge I have disabled all BIOS security like the TPM and other boot blocks that where initially stopping the installer boot. Some guidance would be greatly appreciated and to educate me on what the above errors mean?

Ill attempt to find an answer in the hope that someone can just nudge me along in the right direction and from there I should be good!
TIA

 

[Ericloewe]

Are you booting in EFI mode? Try booting in BIOS mode. It looks like the boot process either got stuck or the console just isn't working. If it's the latter, BIOS is simpler (crappier too, if you're feeling less charitable).
Those errors feel just like noise, not serious issues.

 

[TrueNasNoob79]

Eric,
Thanks for the reply.
I’m still unsuccessful at this point! I’ve been trying a multitude of settings and still I’m getting the same errors.

In the HP BIOS I turned the mode to Legacy enabled , UEFI disabled.
The problem I’m having is the system does not see this USB install disk when in the boot screen. It displays the USB drive next to the UEFI summary of drives ok.
Legacy mode does however see the other installed drives in the system. Currently 2 x NvME and1 x SATA SSD. Next to their description on the boot screen it offers to boot those either in EFI or Legacy.
Booting into UEFI on the USB thumb drive is the only option I have as legacy cannot see it.
The only other thing to note is that currythe system has 2 x NvME M2 installed and an additional SATA SSD.
The NvME’s currently have windows 10 installs on there. This was to create the install media for TrueNAS. Ultimately if I can get up and running they’ll will become my storage media with the SATA SSD acting as my TrueNAS OS disk.
An external drive will be used to back up the whole system….
That was the plan! It’s definitely not how I planned it at this stage though.
I’ve tried creating the USB install media on both a Windows OS and Mac OS. Using both Balena and Rufus drive tools. Regardless it always fails at the first hurdle.
to the best of my knowledge TPM and all the security is turned off. Rebooted. Cleared. This is the first Windows Machine I’ve had with this TPM. I’ve been a Mac user for many years so thought I would just get away with flashing an install with the TNC OS and installing from there!

Im really hoping that a solution can be found and to get this tiny server up and running running!

 

[Ericloewe]

You can try installing on another system and moving the boot device back.

 

[TrueNasNoob79]

Eric,

Thanks again for the reply!
Tried your suggestion and managed to boot the Flash Drive with TCS in a Mac. It did scroll through the aforementioned errors but I managed to get to the install panel.
conmected a SSD via a caddy and when I select the disk and click install here it says that to select at least one disk!! Maybe something to do with the SSD connected via USB caddy. Arrrgh!!!
Unfortunately I don’t have access to another desktop set up so for now I’m at a stop.

Thanks for the help anyways Eric. It’s more than likely something to do with my server choice as the USB install drive at least booted through in the Mac.

 

[TrueNasNoob79]

Just to add that with your solution of installing on a another system I’ll pass that on to another user who’s experiencing the same issue. TIA

 

[Ericloewe]

I select the disk and click install here it says that to select at least one disk!!

Did you mark the disk for install with spacebar? That installer is not as intuitive as it could be.

 

[TrueNasNoob79]

Hello Eric!
Thanks for this! I didn’t hit space on the selected install disk. I highlighted it initially and hit enter and it was then I was presented with the message “Must select disk!”
I will try this today when I’m at the system. Hopefully a step in the right direction. Thanks again for your time!

 

[TrueNasNoob79]

Did you mark the disk for install with spacebar? That installer is not as intuitive as it could be.

Hey Eric,

Today I managed to get the installer to boot via Mac OSX and following your avice I managed to get the software onto an externall SSD. It booted externally ok and I thought great!

I then installed the SSD with now TNC on into the HP and connected via SATA. Tried booting to the drive but it for whatever reason booted into the install screen as seen in the installer! Then from there it was the usual problem with my original issue. Fails to boot and Im back at square one.

As a matter of interest I downloaded both a fresh Ubuntu and Windows 10 install. Flashed USB drive. This was to see if the Hp will boot from USB install disks and to verify that indeed the HP is in Legacy mode with secure boot disabled.

I managed to boot through the installers for both the OS's so Im leaning towards thinking there is an issue that maybe just cant be resolved.

Perhaps there is a compatibility issue with HP hardware and the TNC. At this stage Ive ran out of ideas so I'll have to keep on the search! Thanks for your help up until this point. Appreciated.

 

[Ericloewe]

The install screen? Are you sure? I can't see how that would happen.