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Yep, 3 week old Touchsmart, BIOSH8 error (or something like that). The computer still runs ok, but will not pass a diagnostic test for the hard drive. Grrrr. I hate the idea of boxing it up and taking it back.
Hi all,
here is my tale of woe...
I came home to a working TouchSmart, but before I went to bed, I tried waking it up from Sleep only to see the Vista donut of death. So I did a forced shutdown and reboot. I then got a "media missing, please reboot" error. So I did. Multiple times only to see the same error. I tried to run the F9 diagnostics (which was sluggish to run) and found that the the diagnostic tool could not find the HDD. I rebooted again and went into Setup. Sure enough, no hard drive detected.
I have gone into BIOS to check the device listing and have seen that the hard drive is not showing up (1st device). My DVD burner, however, does show up...which tells me that the SATA controller is still ok.
I do hear the drive spinning up and initializing. It does not do the repeating "click of death" that I have had on drives before, so my inclination is that the electronics are maybe shot, like the drive is somehow overheating or the PC overheated and damaged the drive somehow.
I have never had a crashed drive stop showing up in BIOS. I can't imagine that an update (or even a virus) could accomplish that feat. Data loss, yes. Corrupt MBR, sure. I could even imagine an intricate stealth virus which hosts itself in some hidden partition and runs a corrupting firmware upgrade on the drive itself. But damage the drive in some way that fries the PCB? So that not even BIOS recognizes it?
Drive type is a Seagate. Model: ST350062OAS
Over on the HP forums where I originally posted this, I got several responses from folks having the same issue.
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?board.id=TouchSmartPC&thread.id=287
I was wondering if anyone else here in this community is having the same problem? This could be a recall issue.
thanks,
doon
- doon
January 20, 2009 11:56 AM
There's a lot of news at the moment about particular Seagate Baracuda 1TB drives failing at an alarming rate and Seagate have finally admitted the problem (along with free data recovery for users that have suffered)
I don't know if these are the same drives as in the touchsmart or not (I bought the 500gb model so I can't check), but it may be worth investigating and maybe speaking to seagate.
Link with more information is here:
http://i.gizmodo.com/5134240/seagate-reverses-course-offers-free-data-recover...
January 20, 2009 10:51 PM
No way. You are right! I did some looking around and found the same:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/19/seagate-offers-fix-free-data-recovery-for-..
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16246
here is the info on the Seagate page:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931
thanks for the tip!
doon
- doon
January 27, 2009 9:28 AM
Interesting discussion and really relevant to the issues experienced with my HP Touchsmart. I have an exactly the same issue as Doon, after abour 4 months of using the Touchsmart. The HDD that died was Hitachi - I lost all my data.It has been recently replaced with Seagate ST35000630AS which died...on the second day of replacing the drive. Now I have another Seagate drive (the same model) but I have already had issues with freezing and cumputer shutting down...I believe the issue might be related to overheating - the design of the Touchmart does not allow for effective ventilation of the system...Any ideas?
Cheers
Chris
January 27, 2009 1:38 PM
that has been my thought, too. the fact that this has happened with a Hitachi drive bums me out. i was really hoping that this was an issue with a particular drive type (and possibly just the firmware on that drive).
there are some tools out which measure PC temperature (cpu, hard drive, etc.) which might help us determine what's wrong.
how can issues be escalated to HP?
- doon
January 27, 2009 7:06 PM
Has anyone actually had to apply the Seagate update to their drive? Mine is an ST3500620AS and the Seagate tools tell me to check with the OEM. The FW revision I have is HP24. Does anyone know if this one is OK?
January 27, 2009 7:32 PM
Be careful about the update. The affected drives ahve SEAGATE firmware SD15. Our drives apparently have a custom HP firmware. In this case I would advise you not to update the firmware unless HP specifically tells you to otherwise you risk data loss.
David
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/xz550rj/HPMagicGiveaway.jpg
Woohoo! I won my Touchsmart!
January 27, 2009 7:41 PM
That's what I was thinking which is why I asked. While I can imagine there are TouchSmart PC's out there with drives requiring the update, it would depend on when they were manufactured. I assume that more recent units don't require it.
January 27, 2009 7:48 PM
Folks,
More news, but good news this time.
It seems that HP is now aware of this issue and is working on a firmware upgrade for the drive.
Unfortunately, there is no ETA for when this fix will be done. The CSR I chatted with today said that it is at least 7 days out.
Seagate released their fix last week, so maybe the HP one will follow soon.
I also have the HP24 firmware version.
cheers,
doon
- doon
View unverified member's comment - posted by Krish
February 5, 2009 7:08 PM
Krish,
Check with HP support. The drive is recoverable as long as you don't dig into it or do anything other than what HP or seagate recomend.
Seagate has a bootable disk download (that you will have to create on a different computer) that will boot your affected computer and upgrade your bad firmware.
Seagate is also apparently offering to assist with Data recovery if necessary.
If you have anything on the drive that is valuble to you I STRONGLY encourage you to get in touch with HP support and/or Seagate.
David
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/xz550rj/HPMagicGiveaway.jpg
Woohoo! I won my Touchsmart!
February 6, 2009 12:59 AM
Krish,
it doesn't sound like you have the original OEM drive (has an HPxx firmware code). If this is the case, you can go to Seagate and download their drive detecting program and use their website to check your drive (based on model or serial number). once you're sure, you can download the firmware update, flash the drive and you're done. I had bought a back-up Seagate drive with the same firmware version as you have (SD15) and flashed it to SD1A. All is well with that drive...
good luck!
doon
- doon
February 9, 2009 7:36 AM
Doon said: any progress with your drive?
Me? No <Knocks on wooden desk>
David
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l299/xz550rj/HPMagicGiveaway.jpg
Woohoo! I won my Touchsmart!
February 13, 2009 9:32 AM
updated: February 13, 2009 9:33 AM
Upset with whole thing. My HP touch smart also died in 3 months after the firmware ion the seagate drive failed. It failed so bad that the firmware update will not work and the hard drive light stays on all the time. OK fine I call HP and have them send me a new drive in the mean time I buy myself another drive while waiting for them to ship me the new one. Office MAX had nothing in the way of hard drives and Wall-Mart only had one drive in there whole store a seagate 500 GB (I was wanting to get a 1 TB but the stores are to dumb to carry such things where I live.) When I got home I found out that the drive I got from Wall-Mart is also under the affected list of bad firmware so I guess Im going to update the firmware on the brand new hard drive first thing before I even use it. I hope it don't fail me or I'm going file a complaint. Why is the world so stupid ?????
February 13, 2009 10:11 AM
Hey there Magic,
you and I are in the same boat. Take a look at these sysmptoms:
http://www.abcdatarecovery.co.uk/7200-11/
there is a solution, it just looks a bit complicated. i am going to attempt this myself over the weekend:
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807
will keep folks posted if you're interested...
cheers!
- doon
February 13, 2009 4:55 PM
updated: February 13, 2009 4:56 PM
Well it working so far I did the firmware update to the brand new seagate hard drive because it s/n and m/n was in the affected list, then I Installed HP Recovery Vista Package so far so good but I getting a little paranoid.
This new seagate drive I bought which is the same m/n as the old drive that failed in my HP Touchsmart is a little more noisy than the other one.
Both drive have the same model number the constructed design of the drive should be identical but this drive make louder poping noises when it seeks reads or writes.
I hope this one don't fail me maby im just getting very paranoid . Thx seagate for changing my computer experience.
:) I) I+ :)
February 18, 2009 1:46 AM
Just wanted to let all of you know that this was harder than expected.
1) The newly posted firmware fix may not work for you right away, but...
2) there is a solution!
I just unbricked my drive and recovered ALL OF MY DATA!
Here is the solution I posted:
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg/board/message?message.uid=34409#U34409
Hope this helps!
- doon
July 29, 2009 11:25 AM
updated: July 29, 2009 11:27 AM
Hi Doon,
I bought a HP Touchsmart IQ504 over 3 months ago, and now when I turn it on, I got an error message "Primary Master disk error"
Please advice
STEVEN
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