The Acer Guy Forum » Problem corner
8920G 2nd hard disk not available after restart
(16 posts)-
Posted by: Starnamer
MemberI bought an 8920G in August 2009 with a Western Digital 320Gb WD3200BEVT. About a month later I added a Fujitsu 320Gb MJA2320BH as a 2nd disk. This works fine when booted from powered off, but if I restart windows, the 2nd drive gets flagged as hidden with a message that the drive reported a problem (Code 43).
I've run diagnostics on the Fuji which found not problem and also tried swapping the drive so the Fuji was primary and the WD secondary; I've also tried putting a 2nd Fuji in (the supplier kindly provided a 2nd drive to test). In each case the problem is with the 2nd HDD, whether it's a Fuji or a WD drive. I've also tried Vista Home Premium and Ultimate and Windows 7 Ultimate and the problem with the 2nd HDD disappearing on a restart persists.
The BIOS is currently 1.13. The is a 1.14 and the history notes that there was as issue with the 2nd HDD but the 'solution' was deleted at version 1.13.
I've reported this the Acer support but the refused to look at the problem as (a) the 2nd drive wasn't bought from Acer and (b) it's recognised in the BIOS and they claim that their responsibility ends there.
On the basis of the above argument, of course, they can refuse to look at almost any problem what involves any external device and could even claim tha a faulty optical drive wasn't a problem as long as "it's recognised by the BIOS"!
As you may gather, I am not pleased with Acer support and regret buying an Acer PC, which is a shame as it's otherwise a good machine, but my experience is that the support is abysmal!
Has anyone had any success getting a 2nd HDD to work under all circumstances (including a restart) in an 8920G? The supplier has offered a full refund so I am thinking of buying a 2nd WD3200BEVT, but have yet to get a commitment from Acer that they would provide support if the problem occurred with 2 identical drives unless they were both bought from Acer; in fact, I have not had a reply that they would provide support even if I *did* buy the drive from Acer! Another example of how bad the support is!
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by: Starnamer
Member@TechieDiva: Partitioning has nothing to do with it.
As I described, I have actually tried 3 drives as 2nd hard disk. In each case, they work fine if booted from power off, but if I execute a Windows restart (either Vista or Win7), the 2nd drive gets stopped by the OS and marked hidden; unhiding it and looking at the properties shows that it supposedly reported a problem and was stopped (code 43).
Any of the drives work fine as primary drive and the 2 Fujitsu drive have both passed extended diagnostic (over 2 hours of testing). I've also run the system for several days bot with a Fuji as 2nd drive and with the WD and a Fuji swapped and never encountered an error.
I beleive the error is in the firmware which initialises the 2nd HDD on a restart, but can't convince Acer to look at the problem, which is why I was interested whether anyone else had run 2 drives in an 8920G without errors on restart.
I might try upgrading the BIOS to 1.14, but I'm not optimistic. Of course, I have read a couple of messages that there is a 1.15 BIOS not yet generally available which might fix the Cinedash/Win7 volume control problem...
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by: Starnamer
Member@Shashi: A 2nd drive works fine if booted from powered off state; it's only on a restart whe it get 'hidden', hence my belief that it's a firmware issue. Since it happens to 2 manufactruer's drives, I don't think it's a drive problem, but rather the PC firmware.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by: TechieDiva
Moderatorto be more specific, I have configured this model with 2 drives (stand alone) using bios version 1.14 and it did not exhibit your symptoms.
1.15 is the latest bios, but that just fixed an issue with the express card slot.
i will let you draw your own conclusions.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by: Starnamer
MemberI've currently got BIOS 1.13. I asked support if upgrading might help but they ignored the question and instead focussed on the fact that the 2nd drive wasn't bought from Acer.
I was hoping 1.15 might address the Cinedash/Win7 volume control problem, but perhaps a new release of Launch Manager is needed for that.
I may try an upgrade and see if it fixes the problem, but otherwise it looks like a connection problem.
(Although, if it's a connection problem, why it only shows up on a restart and not on a cold boot totally escapes me and I've been working with computers since 1974!)
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by: Shashi
MemberAnother active member named Ferry has had the same problem as you with the second HDD. In his case, I think the 8920G configuration came with 2 x 320 GB HDDs. Below is his post on the 8920G review page.
***********************
Ferry wrote, on August 13th, 2008:Hi, anyone got a problem with second HDD?
I just bought my 8920 2 days ago, as always I tested it without installing other softwares before use it as my primary notebook.
Btw I found that second HDD (whis is Western Digital) is randomly detected. Sometimes after booting (turned on or just restarted) I can’t see the second HDD in explorer as well as device manager.
I sent it back to acer center yesterday for futher check and possibly getting replacement, but looks like they don’t want to replace it even though it only 1 day purchase…**************************
Following his later posts, he got a replacement from Acer and the cause remains inconclusive. However, from his later posts, it appears he upgraded his bios much later after the replacement was working.
What do we make of this?
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by: Starnamer
MemberThanks Shashi. At least I know I'm not the only one to have this problem.
The downside, of course, is that I'm using a 3rd party drive so Acer aren't keen to look at it. Actually, from Ferry's comments, it sounds as though Acer weren't keen to look at his problem and it was an Acer supplied disk!
Also, it appears that Acer took a month to send a replacement...
===============
Ferry wrote, on October 16th, 2008:You are lucky Nikos. Mine was 1 month for unit replacement due to HDD problem.
When I told to Morris that mine will arrive tomorrow I was wrong – it arrived 3 weeks later…
===============I'm not sure I can be bothered to wait a month for the laptop to be returned when the problem only occurs on a Windows restart (and occasionally not even then.
I think the BIOS upgrade seems a worthwhile option though.
Thanks for pointing me at the review.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by: erig007
Memberhmm let's say?
MBR problem?
Firmware problem?
OS-HDD conflict?
bad driver installed after reboot?
problem with AHCI enabled?
bad drive?
have you tried to install windows with only one drive inside? with W7 and Vista?
have you tried to minimize power requirement (unplug everything, decrease screen brightness, set maximum processor state to..etc)?Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by: Starnamer
MemberMBR? Unlikely as I booted an Unbuntu Live CD to zero the 2nd disk (dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb) before using Windows to initialize it.
Firmware? Maybe. I upgraded from 1.13 to 1.14 to see if ik makes any difference. There's nothing in the notes but.... This was actually the question I originally asked support, but they simply focussed on the fact the 2nd disk wasn't bought from Acer and ignored this. They still haven't replied.
OS-HDD conflict? As mentioned, if booted from powered off, the system (either Vista or W7 or Unbuntu) never has a problem recognizing and using the drive and passing all the diagnostic tests (run under Windows)
Bad driver? I've tried both Vista and W7 and, as I said, it works OK if booted from cold. If it was a driver problem I'd expect it to flag it every time or produce an error during operation.
AHCI? Bad drive? As above, from 'cold' the 2 Fuji drives are recognised and pass their tests.
If I only have one drive installed, then there's no 2nd drive so obviously the problem (2nd drive not being recognised) is rather academic). I haven't tried playing with power requirements. Not sure where to start with that.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by: Ferry
MemberHi All, I'm here :D
My case was solved with the replacement. Yes it took 1 month, very bad after sales service but thanks God the replacement is very good, it has been over a year and no problem.From my experience, I guess the problem is with the Main Board, it could be the software or the hardware. The software I mean is BIOS. If BIOS upgrade cannot solve it, it could be the device is not yet supported by the Main Board (you can wait for later BIOS) or it could be bad Main Board (if it also happens when you plug another device, in this case another type 2nd HDD). In my case the Main Board was bad, therefore need to be sent back to manufacturer.
In your case Starnamer, I suggest to try with other HDD product to test whether the same issue happens. If it's and you still have it under warranty, bring it to the Acer and SHOW it to them. Acer is very fair, they will address the issue and when they think they need to replace the Main Board, they will. But make sure you have your data backed up first because software and data are not subject of warranty and you must also ready to wait for them to address it to higher level for spare-part replacement.
Hope this help :)
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted by: Starnamer
MemberThanks for the info Ferry.
I tried a BIOS upgrsde (1.13 to 1.14) and initially all seemed OK. Tried 3 restarts without problem. Of course, on the 4th restart after running for a couple of hours, the 2nd HDD wasn't recognised.
It was marked as hidden in Device Manager, so I unhid it and tried disabling and re-enabling it (which I recall worked once, about 2 months ago). This time I got a popup which said:
--------------------
Hardware Id Missing
Windows cannot identify the device plugged into the Intel(R) ICH8M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller
For assistance, contact the hardware manufacturer.
--------------------
Of course, a shutdown (power off) and restart brought it back again.Anyway, it looks as though Acer may accept the PC for repair. I now need to consider if the hassle of losing the PC for up to a month (with no guarantee the prblem will be fixed) is worth it, since the workaround of always shutting down rather than restarting is a fsairly minor inconvenience in normal use.
Posted 2 years ago #
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