I am playing with thin clients again and someone made me an offer I
could't refuse on a Dell/WYSE quad core 1.5 gz machine. It is still
far more than I need. I just want a TV "smarter". (basically
streaming.)
The one I bought has internet exploder and Chrome.
Should this work right out of the box?
This is either W7 or W8.
Should I expect a familiar skin on it?
What won't it do?
Plan B is to try to load W7. Drivers might be fun.I think I would try
to extract them from the embedded version and hope they work on the
retail build. I have 2 in shrink wrap.
OTOH they are probably on the Dell site if I knew what to look for.

I am anxious to see exactly what I bought for the price of a couple
Whooper meals. ;)

On 3/24/2024 8:03 PM, gfretwell@aol.com wrote:
> I am playing with thin clients again and someone made me an offer I
> could't refuse on a Dell/WYSE quad core 1.5 gz machine. It is still
> far more than I need. I just want a TV "smarter". (basically
> streaming.)
> The one I bought has internet exploder and Chrome.
> Should this work right out of the box?
> This is either W7 or W8.
> Should I expect a familiar skin on it?
> What won't it do?
> Plan B is to try to load W7. Drivers might be fun.I think I would try
> to extract them from the embedded version and hope they work on the
> retail build. I have 2 in shrink wrap.
> OTOH they are probably on the Dell site if I knew what to look for.
>
> I am anxious to see exactly what I bought for the price of a couple
> Whooper meals. ;)
>

It may come with a rather small NVMe in it.

The board seems to have a couple SODIMM slots.
You would not particularly want that to be DDR3,
as DDR3 chip production stopped a year ago.

The finished-device adverts, refuse to show a picture
of the back panel. The motherboard (AliExpress picture),
seems to have I/O connectors on both edges of the board.
This means a picture of the back panel of the machine
would be important.

You'd want it to come with its (laptop) power supply.

It's a situation where having to kit it with accessories,
may cost more than this retired box. If the power was missing,
that could be an extra expense.

There was one SOC style CPU, where the graphics chip on
the CPU was "not a good choice". Meaning drivers would be
hell for it. Intel only made one driver available, and the driver
might have come from a third party, with no intention
of a "maintenance strategy". That being said, this J5005 entry
looks OK. Given the date of introduction, there might still be
issues with a W7 driver.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/128984/intel-pentium-silver-j5005-processor-4m-cache-up-to-2-80-ghz.html

Launch Date Q4'17
Intel UHD Graphics 605
Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type) 8 GB <=== two 4GB ?
Memory Types DDR4/LPDDR4 upto 2400 MT/s
Max # of Memory Channels 2

The memory cap is an artificial limit.

The BIOS may be unhelpful, which is yet another factor.
But other than that "it's a computer of some sort".

There are no SATA ports on it ("thin"), and at best, a SOC processor
like that, may have two SATA (when the device is used in
a laptop scenario). I can't see anything that looks like a SATA.
And the one NVMe, should allow an upgrade. Not stuck with eMMC.

If it's a "refurb", it could be loaded with some version of Windows.
Who knows, it may boot for you.

With the USB3 ports, you could do some USB3 storage. Once you've done
your initial inspection and kitting, there's not going to be
many reasons to open the case. It'll be interesting to see
how the cooling works. It might use a laptop blower.

To get Win7 to install, might well be a chore. USB3 XHCI ports.
Might need a driver slipstreamed into the DVD or something.

If it is a refurb, with a "Refurbisher OS" on it, record the
license key at your earliest convenience. There will be no
COA sticker. Via year of introduction, there might be a
Win8 key inside it (ACPI MSDM), plus the Win10 key which is a
Refurbisher key. But since the Win10 key is not written down,
you may want to record that. It's not likely to be the
generic "free upgrade" key, as with a Refurbisher, a new
key for the Win10 OS on it would be assigned. And since the
free upgrade is over, any Win10 keys need to be managed
to "retain value" for you.

There is unlikely to be any "Dell-ware" in the OS on the NVMe.
It's just a Microsoft image. You would prefer an OOBE experience
(have to go through setup), as refurbs that have been sitting in
someones shop, could have malware introduced by visiting customers.
Not all refurbs are untouched by human hands. The refurb I got
from a local store, had one malware entry, and it was a "display unit".

Paul

On Mon, 25 Mar 2024 00:42:37 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
wrote:

>On 3/24/2024 8:03 PM, gfretwell@aol.com wrote:
>> I am playing with thin clients again and someone made me an offer I
>> could't refuse on a Dell/WYSE quad core 1.5 gz machine. It is still
>> far more than I need. I just want a TV "smarter". (basically
>> streaming.)
>> The one I bought has internet exploder and Chrome.
>> Should this work right out of the box?
>> This is either W7 or W8.
>> Should I expect a familiar skin on it?
>> What won't it do?
>> Plan B is to try to load W7. Drivers might be fun.I think I would try
>> to extract them from the embedded version and hope they work on the
>> retail build. I have 2 in shrink wrap.
>> OTOH they are probably on the Dell site if I knew what to look for.
>>
>> I am anxious to see exactly what I bought for the price of a couple
>> Whooper meals. ;)
>>
>
>It may come with a rather small NVMe in it.
>
>The board seems to have a couple SODIMM slots.
>You would not particularly want that to be DDR3,
>as DDR3 chip production stopped a year ago.
>
>The finished-device adverts, refuse to show a picture
>of the back panel. The motherboard (AliExpress picture),
>seems to have I/O connectors on both edges of the board.
>This means a picture of the back panel of the machine
>would be important.
>
>You'd want it to come with its (laptop) power supply.
>
>It's a situation where having to kit it with accessories,
>may cost more than this retired box. If the power was missing,
>that could be an extra expense.
>
>There was one SOC style CPU, where the graphics chip on
>the CPU was "not a good choice". Meaning drivers would be
>hell for it. Intel only made one driver available, and the driver
>might have come from a third party, with no intention
>of a "maintenance strategy". That being said, this J5005 entry
>looks OK. Given the date of introduction, there might still be
>issues with a W7 driver.
>
>https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/128984/intel-pentium-silver-j5005-processor-4m-cache-up-to-2-80-ghz.html
>
> Launch Date Q4'17
> Intel UHD Graphics 605
> Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type) 8 GB <=== two 4GB ?
> Memory Types DDR4/LPDDR4 upto 2400 MT/s
> Max # of Memory Channels 2
>
>The memory cap is an artificial limit.
>
>The BIOS may be unhelpful, which is yet another factor.
>But other than that "it's a computer of some sort".
>
>There are no SATA ports on it ("thin"), and at best, a SOC processor
>like that, may have two SATA (when the device is used in
>a laptop scenario). I can't see anything that looks like a SATA.
>And the one NVMe, should allow an upgrade. Not stuck with eMMC.
>
>If it's a "refurb", it could be loaded with some version of Windows.
>Who knows, it may boot for you.
>
>With the USB3 ports, you could do some USB3 storage. Once you've done
>your initial inspection and kitting, there's not going to be
>many reasons to open the case. It'll be interesting to see
>how the cooling works. It might use a laptop blower.
>
>To get Win7 to install, might well be a chore. USB3 XHCI ports.
>Might need a driver slipstreamed into the DVD or something.
>
>If it is a refurb, with a "Refurbisher OS" on it, record the
>license key at your earliest convenience. There will be no
>COA sticker. Via year of introduction, there might be a
>Win8 key inside it (ACPI MSDM), plus the Win10 key which is a
>Refurbisher key. But since the Win10 key is not written down,
>you may want to record that. It's not likely to be the
>generic "free upgrade" key, as with a Refurbisher, a new
>key for the Win10 OS on it would be assigned. And since the
>free upgrade is over, any Win10 keys need to be managed
>to "retain value" for you.
>
>There is unlikely to be any "Dell-ware" in the OS on the NVMe.
>It's just a Microsoft image. You would prefer an OOBE experience
>(have to go through setup), as refurbs that have been sitting in
>someones shop, could have malware introduced by visiting customers.
>Not all refurbs are untouched by human hands. The refurb I got
>from a local store, had one malware entry, and it was a "display unit".
>
> Paul

This actually looked pretty easy to work with. Four USB2s and two
USB3s. I have fought the battle to slip USB3 drivers into a W/7 WIM
and I can repeat it but I am glad I don't have to. I have more detail
on the one I bought and there does seem to be a SATA power and a
header on the board for the power cable but I might just go with a
thumb drive in a 3 port.
The "drive" now is a 16g SATA DOM. Probably not really that useful
since a regular W/7 load is bigger than that.
This is not a production machine and speed is probably not going to be
an issue. The thing comes with W/8 Build 9020 embedded. Is there any
chance the W/8 drivers would work on 7?
What is the best tool to extract them?
I also worry a little that the user privileges for the default log on
might be limiting. I will know a lot more tomorrow or the next day
when I get it.
There is one other option, perhaps.
Dell does seem to have a W/7 E load on the web site and although I
would not have a license to run that, maybe I could suck out the
drivers and load a W/7 I already have.

OTOH just ;looking around, if this is not locked down tight or if I
can get a password cracker to get into "administrator", folks I am
reading about say Windows E is pretty much just like Windows for most
things.

I am not sure the retailer actually spent any time doing anything with
this machine for $30. It is probably just as he found it.

On 3/25/2024 6:27 PM, gfretwell@aol.com wrote:

> This actually looked pretty easy to work with. Four USB2s and two
> USB3s. I have fought the battle to slip USB3 drivers into a W/7 WIM
> and I can repeat it but I am glad I don't have to. I have more detail
> on the one I bought and there does seem to be a SATA power and a
> header on the board for the power cable but I might just go with a
> thumb drive in a 3 port.
> The "drive" now is a 16g SATA DOM. Probably not really that useful
> since a regular W/7 load is bigger than that.
> This is not a production machine and speed is probably not going to be
> an issue. The thing comes with W/8 Build 9020 embedded. Is there any
> chance the W/8 drivers would work on 7?
> What is the best tool to extract them?
> I also worry a little that the user privileges for the default log on
> might be limiting. I will know a lot more tomorrow or the next day
> when I get it.
> There is one other option, perhaps.
> Dell does seem to have a W/7 E load on the web site and although I
> would not have a license to run that, maybe I could suck out the
> drivers and load a W/7 I already have.
>
> OTOH just ;looking around, if this is not locked down tight or if I
> can get a password cracker to get into "administrator", folks I am
> reading about say Windows E is pretty much just like Windows for most
> things.
>
> I am not sure the retailer actually spent any time doing anything with
> this machine for $30. It is probably just as he found it.
>

It will be an experimenters paradise :-)

Scan for malware. Shields up.

Paul

On Mon, 25 Mar 2024 20:47:52 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
wrote:

>On 3/25/2024 6:27 PM, gfretwell@aol.com wrote:
>
>> This actually looked pretty easy to work with. Four USB2s and two
>> USB3s. I have fought the battle to slip USB3 drivers into a W/7 WIM
>> and I can repeat it but I am glad I don't have to. I have more detail
>> on the one I bought and there does seem to be a SATA power and a
>> header on the board for the power cable but I might just go with a
>> thumb drive in a 3 port.
>> The "drive" now is a 16g SATA DOM. Probably not really that useful
>> since a regular W/7 load is bigger than that.
>> This is not a production machine and speed is probably not going to be
>> an issue. The thing comes with W/8 Build 9020 embedded. Is there any
>> chance the W/8 drivers would work on 7?
>> What is the best tool to extract them?
>> I also worry a little that the user privileges for the default log on
>> might be limiting. I will know a lot more tomorrow or the next day
>> when I get it.
>> There is one other option, perhaps.
>> Dell does seem to have a W/7 E load on the web site and although I
>> would not have a license to run that, maybe I could suck out the
>> drivers and load a W/7 I already have.
>>
>> OTOH just ;looking around, if this is not locked down tight or if I
>> can get a password cracker to get into "administrator", folks I am
>> reading about say Windows E is pretty much just like Windows for most
>> things.
>>
>> I am not sure the retailer actually spent any time doing anything with
>> this machine for $30. It is probably just as he found it.
>>
>
>It will be an experimenters paradise :-)
>
>Scan for malware. Shields up.
>
> Paul

If this thing doesn't work right out of the box, I think I am loading
7 I am guessing I can use DISM to extract the drivers, I just wonder if
W8 drivers still work on W7. They are similar. I suppose once I get
the W8 driver I could find out what chip set it addresses and go get
that one for 7.
It will be interesting I suppose. Once I break the code, I may look
for more of them. At $30 it is hard to go wrong.
It does have a lot of stuff
1gb LAN
Bluetooth
HDMI
DVI
6 USB, two of them 3.0

On Mon, 25 Mar 2024 22:09:16 -0400, gfretwell@aol.com wrote:

OK I got this thing. It is a WYSE/Dell 5020.
The embedded 8 loaded on this is a small subset of windows.
Booting anything else seemed cranky until I set BIOS at default and
pointed the boot drive sequence
I got a password cracker and made myself an administrator. If all I
ever want to do is stream, It might be good to go now.
Chrome works. I have a fresh copy of 8 embed on the way.
Since I have another one on the way I played with loading W/7. The
only drivers I seem to be missing with a 7 home 32 load are Network,
Bluetooth and the USB 3.
That is just a driver hunt and Dell is making it hard then there is
fixing the ugly external drive problem.
The SATA MLC (not DOM) is only 16m and they seem to be hard to come
by but it is a SATA plug (data/power) on a really short SSD. There is
already a SATA port there and I am in that with an external power
supply but I think I can come up with an extension cable, then just
stick my 2.5 spinner in there.