| Forum Home | ||||
| Press F1 | ||||
| Thread ID: 97423 | 2009-02-15 03:23:00 | Seagate firmware | Koenig Tiger (14621) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 748131 | 2009-02-15 03:23:00 | Yes I'm a newbie so hope I do this okay.Want some advice from you guys.. Got a HP pc I bought Oct 2008 running vista home premium on seagate ST3500620AS 500GB which as you may know have been having prob's freezing etc..It's running firmware HP24 but I see on HP's site that they have issued a new firmware i.e HP26.My question is should I upgrade the firmware when I'm not having any problems?My friend says I should but I'm reluctant since I have never done a firmware upgrade on an HDD.PC=Model Name a6540a Product Number KT484AA-ABG Appreciate any advice etc |
Koenig Tiger (14621) | ||
| 748132 | 2009-02-15 03:39:00 | I usually go with the if it ain't broke but then I would listen to Wainuitech or PCtek on this one as they do this stuff on a daily basis as there jobs | gary67 (56) | ||
| 748133 | 2009-02-15 05:04:00 | General rule with firmware is if it aint broke dont fix it - sometimes a firmware upgrade if it turns to custard - can actually make thing worse. BUT sometimes things do need upgrading, Eg: seagates Balls up with certain Drives. Batch Number 7200.11 Just be careful what you upgrade as per This article (www.channelregister.co.uk) - the firmware fix for the 1TB drives is actually causing the 500GB TO FAIL. In the post you say you are having problems freezing - but this can be caused by many things. First I would make sure its not a software problem. To check if its system/programs etc - click on the start orb, type in the search event, Event Viewer will display in the results - click it to open, On the left / Windows logs, expand them out, Look at System then Application Logs - if there are any errors at the time of the freezes, expand them and post back what they say. Also - what Antivirus & Antispyware / Security programs are you running ??? Edit: how do you know the actual Model number of the Drive ?? - to make sure - go here (www.seagate.com) - download the tool ( center of teh page linked) and run it, that will tell you the drive - as you can see - only certain drives are affected. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 748134 | 2009-02-15 07:20:00 | I'm not having problems as I said but my friend did with the exact same pc that he bought after I bought mine.As I understand it was a bad batch and mine should not be included from the dates etc. I'm running norton 360 which came with the pc. After having read F1 for sometime I'll gladly listen to you guys rather than my friend anyway. Thanks for the advice as it confirms what I thought from the beginning i.e leave it alone if not faulty or showing the issues concerned. |
Koenig Tiger (14621) | ||
| 748135 | 2009-02-15 07:38:00 | Norton 360 can sometimes cause " strange" problems - have a look through the event Viewer as I posted earlier - if its software there will be error messages. Post back any that look repetitive. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 748136 | 2009-02-15 07:41:00 | re Edit: My pc came with software " HP Advisor " which has a diagnostic tool which indentifies everything right down to it's model,p/n and serial etc.I have also verified the model number correctness by looking in the device manager.I also run the famed twosome i.e spy-bot and ad-aware..which I always install on all my pc's.After reading the article I'm more confused and so will not do anything..How can the 1TB update affect the 500GB drives anyway? The HP advisor tool says: ST3500620AS ATA Device Model Number ST3500620AS Serial Number 9QM45CL3 Firmware Revision HP24 Total Capacity 465.76 GB Buffer Size 16.00 MB Temperature 30 C Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\disk.sys Driver Version 6.0.6001.18000, 6-21-2006 Can you tell if mine is indeed not affected by this as I'm confused and would like to know.Really appreciate your help with this. |
Koenig Tiger (14621) | ||
| 748137 | 2009-02-15 07:55:00 | If your computer is freezing often then you might want to update. h20000.www2.hp.com BTW that utility will check if your drive is affected....which it probably is |
Blam (54) | ||
| 748138 | 2009-02-15 08:16:00 | If you run any firmware update make sure you have a backup of ALL data - if it screws the drive - and I have had one go belly up on a customers machine - you run the risk of losing All the data that the drive contains. If your computer is freezing often then you might want to update. not always - :groan: I've seen hundreds of PC's that freeze up and theres nothing wrong with the drive. Software can / will do the same thing. Check the event log that will tell you. How can the 1TB update affect the 500GB drives anyway The firmware upgrade possibly could - your drive may or may not require the update - but to blatantly assume the drive has problems simply because Seagate had a few problems is one eyed considering there are ways to check what is causing it. I have installed around a dozen of the so called affected drives Before it got discovered ( batch numbers) - 1 got screwed when the update went in, the others have all run perfectly. |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 748139 | 2009-02-15 08:24:00 | WT-I did some research and it seems that freezing on this particular model means faulty firmware. Just an assumption. Then again, I just reread one of his post and he said he had norton installed...... Blam |
Blam (54) | ||
| 748140 | 2009-02-15 08:35:00 | :lol: Thats only one side of it - currently I have 4 PC's in the workshop all freezing in one way or another - the drives / PC's range between 1 - 3 years old. So cant be firmware issues. Upgrading the firmware is fine, usually works - just a warning it can and its documented by Seagate, and I have had one do this - screws the drive, resulting in lose of all data. As mentioned before copy all data just in case - better safe than sorry. Cant go crying to HP / Seagate if something goes wrong in a firmware upgrade - its up to the owner to have backups. norton installed Thats why I suggested looking at the event logs - that will tell you if any software has been giving problems. Another thing you can check is start, type in Reliability, open the Reliability and Performance monitor, under Monitoring tools, expand Reliability monitor and any faults will be in red with a white X double click it and it will tell you exactly whats happening.( both hardware and software) |
wainuitech (129) | ||
| 1 2 | |||||