T5530 Thin Client - Display Issues

T5530 Thin Client - Display Issues - Intro

I while ago I wrote a post on using thin clients in the home, a good idea if you can hold of a copy of windows server, 2003, 2008 or 2008 R2 would all allow for 3 users to be logged on, thus reducing your hard wear costs to a third. This would work all well and good except for the fact I am using a rather bunk thin client the HP T5530, which is not performing very well at all.

T5530 Thin Client - Display Issues - Symptoms

It soon became apparent that even slightly graphically intensive operatioins such as rapid scrolling, never mind watching videos is not possible on the T5530. There is significant lag in commands issued from mouse / keyboard to things happening on screen. Video comes over is chunks with gaps and is unwatchable.

 T5530 Thin Client - Display Issues - Diagnosis

So how am I sure the T5530 is at fault: You can watch vdieo fine via remote desktop from a standard pc over the same network. View from a XW8400, over a wired connection through a router, the remote dektop experince is flawless. Doing the same with the T5530 is not possible.

T5530 Thin Client - Display Issues - A Cure?

If you are running Windows CE 4.0 on your T5530 then you might consider swapping to CE 5.0, for this you will need to visit the HP website download windows CE 5.0 for the T5530.

1. Download this file.
2. Run the file.
3. Choose to intsall the image on a USb pen drive.
4. Insert Pendrive in to T5530
5. Switch on.
6. Follow on screen prompts.
7. Switch off when it tells you to "power cycle"

 This help a bit, and certainly made the remote worksation by usable, but by golly it is no good for video.

 T5530 Thin Client - Display Issues - Conclusion

The T5530 was evidently designed to used for text only applications, and it struggles to do that. For multimedia use at home you would do far better to  reuse an old windows xp machine as a thin client.

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