Tag Archives: SSD

fixed : black screen and no BIOS Boot Menu on MSI NightBlade X2B gaming-PC

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Question :
I have a MSI NightBlade X2B gaming-PC that I need to reinstall Windows on, the internal HD has been reformatted externally, but when I try to startup the PC, the HDMI-connected monitor gives only a black screen with and error message saying something like “no HDMI signal detected”… I need to get into the BIOS Boot Menu to fix this, but how do I do that If I cannot see anything on screen ?

What can I do to fix this ?

Answer :
The MSI NightBlade X2B gaming PC not only has an internal HD (usually 1TB), but also a 500GB SSD that is hard to access manually. And Windows has usually been installed on that SSD, not on the HD.
If the PC starts up porperly (lights and sound of running fans), then the fix to getting into the BIOS Boot Menu is to reset the CMOS Battery. To do that, you need to do this :
– diconnect al cables from the PC (Power, HDMI, USB, etc.)
– open the PC housing (slide open the red protectors on the back and unscrew the screws)
– take off the side panel
– if you are in an environment with high static electricity you need to unplug the internal cables from the graphics card, the HD and the power (but usually you’ll be okay if you are in a clean and smooth environment, especially if continuously connect yourself with al metal wire to a grounded large metal object or a radiator)
– unscrew the graphics card, which is the bottom mother/daughter-board (first unscrew the L-shaped black plate on the backside, then tilt out the graphics card starting at the back)
– behind the graphics card, on bottom left of the motherboard, you will find the red&black (or red&white) cable that connects the CMOS Battery to the motherboard
– gently unplug the white connector that has written “BAT 1” under it
– then leave tthe PC like this for about 8 hours (so a working day or a night), this will drain the motherboard and all internal electronics so they will automatically reset to factory settings (except for the HD and the SSD, so you will have to wipe or reformat those later)
– after this cool-down period, reconnect the small white connector and reassemble the PC (starting with the graphics card)
– then, reconnect a USB-mouse, a keyboard (seems like a PS/2 keyboard works better at this stage, but a USB keyboard should also work), a UTP/Ethernet-cable (if you have wired Ethernet available this will work easier then WiFi at this stage) and the HDMI-cable to your monitor
– then, startup the PC using the Power Button and immediately start pressing the F11 key on your keyboard repeatingly (the F11 key is the ususal key to press for MSI motherboards, but you might need to press the F1, F2 or F12 key)
– the PC should now start up in BIOS Mode, but if it does not, shut down the PC and restart it using the Power Button and immediately press the CTRL + ALT + DEL key-combo on your keyboard, which should get you into BIOS Mode

Then proceed as usual for reinstalling Windows 10 (or 11) and don’t forget to format the HD to NTFS and wipe unwanted and/or unneeded old user data to free up space on the SSD (it’s easiest to do so after installing Windows).

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : update Seagate Momentus XT firmware from TD27 to SD28

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Question :

To keep my aging MacBook Pro up-to-date and up-to-speed, I’ve replaced the internal harddisk with a Seagate Momentus XT hybrid-harddisk. I’ve found on the internet that Seagate’s SD28 is the latest firmware for the Momentus XT, and since Seagate claims it’s an essential upgrade, I would like to install in also. I’ve followed the instructions from Seagate, but when I run the firmware update, it refuses with a “Specific model not found”-error and quits…

In “About This Mac”, I’ve found that my version of the Momentus XT is the ST95005620AS and the current firmware is TD27. I’ve searched the internet and can only find info on firmware versions SD24, SD25, SD26 and SD28, but not on SD27 (or TD27, what’s the difference anyway ?)…

Is there any way to upgrade my Momentus XT to the SD28 firmware ?

Answer :

Yes !

First a little background info :

The Momentus XT hybrid-harddisks have not only been released by Seagate, they have also been issued by Toshiba as OEM-harddisks. Where it gets confusing is that the Toshiba issued ones still have “Seagate”-branded info stickers on them… The main thing Toshiba seems to have done is install a Toshiba-version of the firmware named TD27… (TD seems to mean Toshiba Drive, as opposed to SD for Seagate Drive…)

Seagate itself has skipped version SD27 of the firmware for unknown reasons, but Toshiba has (only ?) issued their version of exactly that skipped firmware revision : TD27…

More info can be found here :

Momentus-XT-Secret-Code-Names-Model

So much for the confusion…

Now let’s get to the solution…

Here’s how to upgrade your Momentus XT from TD27 to SD28 firmware on a Mac :

[ NOTE : doing firmware updates is potentially very risky for your hardware, software and data !! not following the instructions to the letter is even more risky !! every thing you do is at your own risk !! ]

– download the SD28 firmware upgrade (in .ISO format) from Seagate :

 Momentus XT firmware upgrade SD28

– after the download, find the “MomentusXT-ALL-SD28.iso” disk image and mount it on your Mac

– burn the (Windows/DOS) files that are on the disk image onto a CD-r

– eject the freshly burned CD-r and label it “Seagate Momentus XT firmware upgrade SD28”

– now back-up the entire current contents of your Mac’s harddrive (= your internal Momentus XT) ; the easiest way to do this is to choose “Back Up Now” from the Time Machine menu (assuming you have Time Machine back-up installed)

– now print this manual for reference during the actual firmware upgrade

– when the back-up is finished, re-insert the CD-r (with the SD28 firmware installer), disconnect all cables (USB, Ethernet, DisplayPort, Thunderbolt, FireWire, etc.) from your Mac, only to leave the power-cord in (that’s essential !) and reboot your Mac while pressing the [ALT]-key

– once you see the Apple logo with the spinning gear, you can release the [ALT]-key

– now you will see about three tiles of possible startup-drives to choose from, select the CD-rom (that will probable be titled “Seagate” of “Windows”) and click [ENTER]

– now your screen will go entirely black and then display Windows/DOS-like white texts (if you do not see white text appearing and you are on a MacBook, open your MacBook and look on the MacBook’s own screen ; this would mean you did not follow the instructions to unplug your second screen… as mentioned before : doing firmware upgrades is potentially very risky and completely at your own risk !! do yourself a favor and follow the instructions to the letter to minimize your risk !! )

– just follow the on-screen instructions (press [ENTER] when suggested, and press the [D]-key to select the firmware upgrade)

– everything will seem to go fine, until you get this text :

“Error: Specific model not found. Various expected   ************************   Turn off the power now.”

– if you see that, don’t power down your Mac, but press the [CTRL] + [C] keys on your keyboard instead, and you will get this text :

“Control-Break pressed. Terminate batch file ‘C:\FLASH-M.BAT’ (Yes/No/All) ?”

– then, press the [CTRL] + [C] key-combo again, and you will get this text :

“(Seagate boot) C:\>”

– that’s your command-prompt (just like in DOS or in OSX’s Terminal-app), now type [exactly as shown here, but without the quotes] the following command :

“FDL497A -m ANAK -f ANSD28.LOD -i Seagate -s -x -b -v -a 20”

– then press the [ENTER] key, and the firmware upgrade process will start

– during the upgrade process, a text like this will display :

“Model SEAGATE ST95005620AS SN xxxxxxxx FW TD27 on Generic PCI ATA Bus 0 Device 0

Model SEAGATE ST95005620AS SN xxxxxxxx FW SD28”

– after about 1 minute, the word “SUCCESS” will be displayed in big blue letters, followed by “(Seagate boot) C:\>” in regular white letters

– now, the firmware upgrade is complete and you can reboot your Mac

– when your Mac has restarted in OSX, eject the CD-r and have a look in “About This Mac”, there you will find that the firmware of your internal harddisk is now SD28

…that’s it

Enjoy !

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info : Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive – is it a good upgrade to your Mac ?

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Question :

I’m thinking about upgrading the internal HD of my MacBook Pro. At this moment I have a 2.5″ 250GB HD 5400rpm SATA-1.5GBps, and I would like something that’s preferably both faster and bigger. Is the 500GB Seagate Momentus XT hybrid drive my best choice ?

Answer :

The jury’s still out on that one…

Expericences with the Seagate Momentus XT vary, though most bad experiences are from people that have firmware versions older than v24 (the current version is v28).

Let me start out by saying that, when your older MacBook Pro is at least a ‘late 2008’ model (which has a 2.5″ SATA II / SATA-300GBps transfer rate) your options are pretty much these :

1- a regular 2.5″ 500GB 5400rpm SATA II harddisk, will go for about €65 (so about €0,13 per GB)

– This is probably your best choice if low noise level and low(est) price are your main reasons to buy. And it will be slightly speedier than your old one, because this SATA-interface is twice as fast

2- a regular 2.5″ 500GB 7200rpm SATA II harddisk, will cost you about €75 (so about €0,15 per GB)

– This is probably your best choice if you primarily want a low price and secondarily the highest speed. Even though these could be a little noisier than 5400rpm drives, the 7500rpm drives are more interesting if have a more intensive usage, like doing a lot of video editing for instance.

3- a hybrid 2.5″ 500GB 7200rpm + 4GB SSD (Flash-memory) SATA-3GBps like the Seagate Momentus XT will cost you €100 (so about €0,20 per GB)

– This is probably your best choice if you primarily want high speed and secondarily the lowest price. The noise level is about the same as a regular HD, and the speed is notably faster (but still no way near SSD-speeds)

4- a 2.5″ 256GB Solid State Drive (a.k.a. SSD ; Flash-memory only) SATA-6GBps like the Crucial M4 will cost you about €210 (so about  €0,82 per GB)

– These ‘drives’ are way faster than any hard disk, and also completely silent, but they’re completely overpriced compared to regular hard disks, so this is only a good solution if you have money to burn… (mind you, this one doesn’t gain any storage capacity compared to your old HD, and the 6GBps SATA-speed has to be geared down to 3GBps since the ‘late 2008’ MacBook Pros don’t support this latest SATA-speed)

To have an indication of the speed increase I herewith include my test scores, based upon benchmarking results from two different benchmarking program.

The benchmarking softwares I’ve used are iBench and NovaBench. They can be downloaded for FREE here :

http://ibench.sourceforge.net/

http://novabench.com/

(NovaBench can also be downloaded from the Mac App store)

the benchmarking-scores I’ve measured are :

the original version : MacBook Pro 15″ ‘late 2008’ with 4GB RAM and 250GB @4500rpm ; iBench score = 3.31 ; NovaBench score = 346

the same, only with doubled RAM-memory, MacBook Pro 15″ ‘late 2008’ with 8GB RAM and 250GB @4500rpm ; iBench score = 3.37 ; NovaBench score  = 389

the same, but both with doubled RAM and doubled HD-capacity (using a Seagate Momentus XT) ; iBench score = 3.38 ; NovaBench score = 402

so… the Momentus XT is a really good step forward from the old internal hard drive, but it’s speed increase is not dramatic.

NOTE : if you need to upgrade the firmware on a Seagate Momentus XT disk from MacOSX, look here :

https://macmanusnl.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/upgrading-the-…t-hybrid-drive/Â