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Showing posts from August, 2020

Adding a WiFi adapter or dongle to your Windows Server 2019 server

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This is useful when RJ45 ethernet connection is not available or when the network switch does not have any more spare ports to connect to. But getting WiFi ability enabled on Windows Server requires a little bit more work. First, I purchased an inexpensive USB WiFi adapter/dongle. This is an USB 2.0 802.11AC WiFi adapter/dongle. This thing is really small. Here’s a size comparison against a AA battery As this WiFi adapter uses the Realtek RTL8811AU chipset, the next step for me is to look for the driver on Realtek’s website. It did come with a driver CD, but I thought it would be better to install the latest driver from the website. There’s no driver specifically for Windows Server OS, however, there is a workaround. (Note: this WiFi adapter will work in a Windows 10 without additional driver installation). Here’s the link to the windows driver: https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zoo/category/rtl8811au-software The direct file (0002-Realtek_WindowsDr...

Inexpensive USB sound card solution for Windows Server 2019

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Thought I would give this a test. I have this simple and inexpensive USB sound card that I bought quite some time ago and I was wondering if this would work on Windows Server 2019 OS. I plugged in the USB sound card into the server and very quickly, the device is detect and the driver was installed automatically. The USB sound card is ready for use in less than a minute after plugging in. No additional driver installation needed. Basically, plug and it will play. From the Device Manager This USB sound card has onboard buttons for, Volume Up and Down. Audio Output Mute and Mic Mute. Although, on the device it says “7.1 channel audio”, I doubt that it is possible with this sound card. The audio output from the 3.5mm audio out sounds clean and noise free. The audio output quality is nowhere near that of Creative Sound Blaster surround that I have, but it is decent enough for general audio.   This cheap USB sound card uses the C-Media sound chi...

Windows Server 2019 Task Manager CPU updates not working HP or HPE Proliant Servers

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For some strange reason, after installing Windows Server 2019 on HP/HPE Proliant Servers, the CPU graph realtime update will stop working. The graph does not update any CPU usage in the graph chart. After some researching and doing some testing on my own, this issue seems to affect the older Proliant Servers. After testing it on ML310E Gen8, DL380 G7, DL380 Gen8 and DL380 Gen9, it seems like only DL380 Gen10 does not have this problem. The work around to solve this issue as provided on some forum is to change the BIOS “Power Regulator Settings” to “OS Control Mode”. The setting can be accessed from the ILO settings. Here’s the various ILO examples: ILO 2: ILO 3: ILO 4: Here’s an example of Before and After the changing of the settings: Before: After: That’s it. Hope this helps.  

Skype for business no mic audio output in Windows Server 2019

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Found this problem after migration to Windows Server 2019 from Windows Server 2016. Everything worked fine until I performed an OS upgrade to Windows Server 2019. Tried to use Skype For Business for phone calls and I found that the other party is not able to hear me. After debugging and some troubleshooting, I managed to locate the cause of the issue. In Windows Server 2019, apps(A.K.A Programs) microphone access have been disabled by default. To enable access to the microphone, just go to Settings->Privacy->Microphone   I toggled the “Allow apps to access your microphone” to “On” and the issue is solved. Going into Skype’s audio setting (Tools->Audio Device Settings), The mic’s VU meter is responding when I speak into the mic. That’s it. Hopefully this might be of some help to anyone out there.