Two TouchSmart PCs in different locations die on same day with same error??? ( BIOHD-2 )

[monoman]

I've got an iq500 (see my previous reply) and although it's a bit fiddly just be patient and methodical and you will find you can remove the HD. You should have the instructions on changing the HD in a glossy A4 size booklet titled Getting Started which was supplied with  thePC.

With all the trouble with Seagate HD's why can't HP have arranged a recovery system for failed units by now? They just seem to wait until they are contacted by a user then just replace it. Seagate can do it for non OEM drives so why can't HP do the decent thing. They could also contact registered users as there must be many who have not found this forum and are like yourself completely unaware until it's too late.

[doon]

hi there,

first try running the firmware update. in some cases, it will run even if the drive is not showing up in BIOS.

did you have a lot of data on there? if so, there is a way to bring the drive back, but it is not for the weak of heart. I was able to get all of my data back using this alternate method (my drive did not respond to the firware fix).

again: start with the firmware fix. download it, burn it to a disc, start up your pc, go to the boot selection screen (from the blue HP screen), boot from the CD and run the update.

let me know how it goes...

[vrcooper]

hate to ask, but what is the exact link to the firmware I need to download/burn and try (with crossed fingers?)?

Thanks

[RasterBlaster]

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericSoftwareDownloadIndex?cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&softwareitem=pv-6...

[vrcooper]

Just got off the phonewith touchsmart hp support - WONDERFUL - when I asked about the issue with seagate hd - they immediately said they were problems, they were not making them anymore, and they recommended just picking up my computer (fedex), and putting new hd in for me, (samsung I think they said), and returning by fedex (4-6 day turnaround). I feel much better. They suggested BestBuy, but BestBuy told me they would just ship it to hp service center also.

SOOOO they said this should solve the problem - they did not really recommend the download/trying to boot with firmware fix for seagate - they just recommended getting it replaced. I will let you know how it turns out.

I am trying to be patient.

[doon]

great to hear!

did you have data you don't want to lose on the HD? if so, you could still try the firmware update (nothing to lose). Get your data off, send the PC in and wait for the new one to come back.

I did the same once i got the data off my drive.

good luck!

[OscarTB]

Hi Doon,

Something to add to the strange Seagate Barracuda behavior.

I have a IQ504 with ST3320820AS (Barracuda 7200.10 320 Gb).

Also had a freeze and then the PC would not recognise the Disk.

The disk was also not spinning up.

After booting a couple times and looking in the bios, the first physical thing I did was testing the disk in a different machine, it worked!

I made a full fresh back-up (although I had been lucky, because it happened 2 hours after incremental back-up)

Put a different HD in the TouchSmart, it didn't work (or even spin).

So went to a "computer" friend and hooked up the Seagate in the IQ504 to a separate power supply, it worked!

Now the strange bit, the power for the HD is routed over the motherboard. After pulling the power for the DVD off (also routed over the motherboard) the Seagate came to life! Putting it back made the seagate go down again ...

We updated the IQ504 Bios and then we tried again.

First go, no luck, second and thereafter were fine.

We are still not sure if we fixed it by renewing the bios (same version) ... but for now, it works.

Hope this will help other Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 owners, like your post helps the 7200.11.

[edit]

nope, it did not, had a freeze again just now! and after that it wouldn't start with the HD not recognised.

back to square one ....

now I'm typing again, after leaving the PC for a couple of hours, it recognised the drive again.

If anybody knows why this happens, please let me know!!

(The HP support hasn't responded yet, they say in the email that they will in a day, but that didn't happen.

Hope they can fix it. If they do, I'll update this forum also)

Message Edited by OscarTB on 08-26-2009 06:06 AM

Message Edited by OscarTB on 08-26-2009 11:05 AM

[OscarTB]

Finaly got my email from HP. They told me to apply the firmware update to the seagate.

Which I tried, but as it's not a model mentioned in the firmware update, the software doesn't apply the firmaware update.

Return the email with my results and still waiting for an update. 

I also had a chat online with the US HP support, they suspect it's either the motherboard/bios power handling or the external power adaptor.

At this point they pointed me to a callcenter line in the Netherlands, no more quick fix options ...

The lady at the HP callcenter told me she couldn't help me at all, it was to technical(!?) I should try the HP email support.

And she told me the PC was more than one year old (it's exactly one year and a week), so she told me to forget any HP warranty ... very positive approach!

I'm losing hope here ... looks like I'll end up adding an extra external HDD power supply to the TouchSmart ...

[OscarTB]

HP is not helping me out. One year warranty is one year, not a couple of days extra.

Also, as I bought the HP in the US (NL didn't sell them a year ago) I can't use the "PC should function properly for at least three years" law, that is common in Europe.

The also stopped the diagnostics, it's something to do with the power supply to your hard disk ... That's where my analysis brought me already.

Anyway, I bought a 20 euro external usb/sata hook-up from Eminent and used the power supply to power the seagate. The extra power cable sticks out through the back of the TouchSmart. Not elegant, but it works ....

Every time I see the extra power supply, it will remind me not to buy .. products anymore.

If you want extra details, just reply.

Question: can I leave the HDD power on, or should I switch it off when I shut-down the PC?

Message Edited by OscarTB on 09-03-2009 04:13 AM

[vondie]

Hello, new to this forum and hope this thread is still being watched. 

I have an IQ816 that I purchased as a rectified unit from newegg.com 4 months ago.  When I received the system, I checked it out and everything ran, but I wasn't happy with the Vista / QAM tuner experience so I decided to wait for the Windows 7 upgrade before I actually installed it in my kitchen and use it daily.  Two weeks ago, I blew away the OS and installed Windows 7 from scratch.  Very much improved experience I might add.  Anyway, after using the system for a few days, I began to experience the problem listed here.  It would occur after the system was on for some period of time and when trying to exit from sleep mode.  Realizing I'm out of the 90 day warranty, I started doing some diagnostics on my own.  I first ran the BIOS diag and it would display the BIOHD-2 error.  I could let the system sit for a day and try again and it would boot properly.  The system has a Seagate ST3750630AS drive with firmware HP24.  Following the instructions I found here, I created a boot CD with the newer firmware HP26 and installed it two days ago.  After that, things appeared to work properly, but last night, the read error returned.  If I run the BIOS diagnostics, the BIOHD-2 error is the result.  Just to be sure the firmware upgrade worked, I booted the system with the firmware update CD and it echoed that the drive was up to date with HP26. 

Has there been any further developments on this issue?  Any other ideas?