HP ELITEDESK 800G4 TWR

[Dave2288]

 I WAS GUIDED TOWARDS THE ELITEDESK800G4TWR AS THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MORE ROBUST THAN MACHINES PREVIOUSLY PURCHASED FROM HP. ARCHITECTURE MORE SUITED TO BUSINESS USE WHATEVER THAT MEANS. I HAVE HAD ENDLESS PROBLEMS OF THE MACHINE CRASHING OUT AND SPENT HOURS ON PHONE WAITING FOR AND THEN SPEAKING WITH HP SUPPORT TO BE TOLD THAT IT WAS A MICROSOFT ISSUE AND NEEDED TO SPEAK WITH THEM. I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS TO BE THE CASE BUT HP WERE NOT PROGRESSING MATTERS. I DID THEN SPEND TIME GETTING THROUGH TO AND SPEAKING WITH MICROSOFT WHO BASICALLY CONFIRMED THAT IT WAS NOT SOFTWARE BUT ACTUALLY HARD DISK ERROR CODES AND HARD DISK WAS CORRUPTED OR ATLEAST SECTORS WERE CORRUPTED. I WENT BACK TO HP AND THEY AGAIN GAVE RUN AROUND. I ONLY WANTED A RELIABLE MACHINE AS I USED IT FOR REMOTE ACCESS TO OUR SYSTEM. OBVIOUSLY SINCE IT KEPT CRASHING THIS WAS NOT POSSIBLE. I SAID I WANTED A REFUND OR SWAP MACHINE FOR NEW ONE AS IT WAS UNDER WARRANTY AND TO BE HONEST LOST ALL FAITH IN SYSTEM. HAS ANYBODY HAD SAME SIMILAR ISSUES WITH THIS DEVICE AND IF SO WAS THERE A REMEMDY. I AM AT POINT OF SCAPPING THIS AND GOING FOR NONE HP PRODUCT.

[DGroves]

i did "IT" for many years, and most user complaints were NOT hardware related, but user related or a software related issue

if i had a nickel for every user who thinks a "bios" update will fix/cure (insert issue here) i'd be a rich person

unfortunately troubleshooting a intermittent or subtle problem can , take lots of time and be quite frustrating

all i can recommend is that you try these steps in order

restore the factory OS image (use HP Cloud Recovery to DL a restore image if available) a check shows that it is available

download the recovery client from the page linked below

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/caps-softpaq/CloudRecovery/crsupportedplatform.html

install all current MS updates (if a optional 2004 update is offered decline it for now)

now  determine the maker of your Hard Drive, (open case and look , or open device mgr/hard drive)

download their drive diagnostic application and run

download memtest86 v5 for UEFI based systems and run it it takes a day to do a full memory check of 8gb ram

https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

download and run "OCCT" which tests the video card

https://www.ocbase.com/

if all tests pass then it's highly unlikely your issues are hardware related, knowing that you can now  configure the OS preferences/settings documenting each change/tweak, when done  read the link below

https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/windows-reliability-monitor/#:~:text=Another%20good%20way%20to%20qui...

if the OS is stable, you can now apply applications one at a time and check the OS stability after each app install

the above steps are time consuming i know..........but are the only way to rule out things in a manner that allows you to narrow down what is the actual cause of your crashes

[Dave2288]

Many thanks for very detailed response. As you suggested likely very time consuming and quite technical. I have certain capabilities but am self employed and to be honest bought hardware and software from HP same time to avoid conflicts and being passed from pillar to post HP Microsoft etc. My angle was HP provided service which didn’t work and as contract thought was entitled to either have money back or replacement. HP remote accessed machines several times and found nothing wrong with software set up and all crash error codes were hard disk /location errors. Microsoft did same checking and typically blamed hardware corruptions. Basically hardware blames software and software blames hardware - in the middle is somebody who wants and has paid for a working machine. If had wanted to get into computer tech and resolving issues over many hours where I was then not working to earn money I would have chosen different career. I felt let down by the company. I fully appreciate there is a satisfaction to resolving issues which as younger guy had to as didn’t have resources to buy top end equipment but having seen lengths I already went to trying resolve and obviously from your knowledge the list of things required to assess from scratch issues arising I am going to have one last attempt at HP and then likely raise formal complaint and buy different machine - not HP. Chickens way out but time is crucial as self employed guy especially in today’s covid environment. Again many thanks for the detailed response. Just wish HP had a similar resolution conscious team to hand. 

[DGroves]

and you might very well find yourself at the same place with the new system if as i suspect it's a interaction between software that has been installed or something configured

unless you can show HP the system crashing on a factory restore of the OS, the HP is most likely correct that it's not a hardware issue and MS, is actually quite good at determining OS issues via the system log files

again not what you really want to hear, but most likely true

good luck on the new computer,