FreeAgent Products

[sebago]

I just recently bought a new Freeagent 1TB with model number: ST310005FDD2E1-RK. It performs well, but I reckon it has some problems with its sleep function.

O key: 

 

-> When I shut down the computer, it shuts it self down. Cool feature, My old Iomega had an on/off switch).

-> While booting my computer, the BIOS halts for an unacceptable period of time. When the computer finally  proceeds to windows, a little bubble in tray says that "An USB device has malfunctioned . .somethingsomething" and the USB-hub tree shows the Freeagent has an "unknown device". 

-> Shutting down the external, and starting it up fixes the problem.

I can not possible think it is supposed to be like this. I see a lot of threads about what to do when windows do not recognise the device, so obviously I made a very grave error choosing this product instead of an new Iomega

It seems like this guy: http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=freeagent&thread.id=5485 has the same problem only that his BIOS won't accept booting the computer at all. 

Does anyone have something on this issue. 

Daniel

[CFilkins]

Ditto...I'm seeing similar issues with a pair of 750's.  

Chris

[cman548]

You adjusted your BIOS boot order to remove boot from USB device right?  Just put the C drive/hard drive first in the order.

[CFilkins]

A possible solution, as provided by Seagate email support...

Turn off legacy USB in your bios options.  Once I did that, the computer booted much more quickly (the bios no longer tried to recognize the drives on boot), and Vista has recognized them reliably afterwards (at least over the past 24 hours of testing power on/off and sleep).

Chris

[sebago]

Yes,I have removed it completly from boot order too. It does not make it pass post any faster. It is still a problem.

[mccwee]

Tried to turn off legacy USB in bios options and indeed it work. But my keyboard (USB) is only workable upon full boot.

THus, I have another problem that not able to enter Bios setup anymore unless I use PS2 keyboard.

[CFilkins]

Yeah, unfortunately, that's a side effect of turning off legacy support.

My system did give me an issue today.  The computer was sleeping, and it was used on and off during the day.  This evening when I went to use it after waking it from sleep, I noticed that neither of my FreeAgents were listed   I even restarted the computer, and no luck.

I had to pull power from both drives, and when I powered them back up, they both appeared just fine.  It appears that there might be an issue with the drives occasionally not picking up the wake up command from the computer (both drives are set to never sleep, based on the Freeagent tools).

Grr...is it just that the firmware in these things are not compliant with modern system bios?

[sebago]

The problem persists.  My computer; DELL XPS M1710 with bios revision A06 does not have "legacy support". So this could not be any solution. The only functions I can adjus, when it comes to USB in BIOS is 

"compatible" or "hi-speed" mode, though this is really a faulty setting, because the built-in usb controllers works as USB2 on "compatible" and USB1.1 on "hi-speed". (At least for the mass storage devices).Nonetheless, it does not seem to have any effect on the problem with the freeagent drive. 

I need to specify, since this differs from the problem of CFilkins.

1. On wake, the Freeagent turns itself on. 

2.  Last on POST, BIOS hangs with a blinking space for a _long time.

3.1 If I have not unplugged the device while entering windows - the drive is not listed in device manager AT ALL

3.2 If I have unplugged it during hang up, and then rebooting the computer. Then plug it in, while in windows I get the "unrecognized"-drive thing.

3.3 If the Freeagent was never on, and I unplug it before waking the computer, and  plug it in post-boot. It will function like expected.

In reference to my 3.1 and 3.2 situation, when it is woke by the POST it does not work. And this is experienced in two ways.

When it turns itself on by plugging the adapter-cable. It works.(3.3)

Message Edited by sebago on 03-23-2009 09:14 AM

[sebago · Accepted solution]

Dear Mr. X
Thank you for contacting Dell hardware support.

I've discussed your issue with my technical mentor and we came to fact there is problem of older chipset than XPS1330 qhich is not capable to configure devices such a external HDDs with different power managment as other devices (mice, keyboards etc.)

Even though I endeavored to solve this case for you, I cant offer any other solution to you. Nevertheless I hope that you are satisfied with my personal support.

To solve your query as soon as possible we would like to ask you to answer to this E-Mail within next 2 days. After this time period you will receive from us a reminder message ([*email*] in sender field) which serve us as an assurance, that you obtained this E-Mail.

Have a nice day,

Kind regards,

*name* 

[Edited: Removed personal information per the community rules and regulations.]

Message Edited by BradC on 03-30-2009 12:30 PM