I am not sure that the BIOS 2.85 permanently remedies the situation. We have 56 of these units deployed, which initially we had flashed to BIOS 2.90A. After few random units started to fail, and after reading this thread, we decided to flash all our units to the 2.85 version.
Unfortunately, after a couple of weeks we are starting to see some of our units failing again, though for the record (and at least for now), not the same computers that initially failed with the BIOS version 2.90A.
We called HP about this issue, and they suggested for us to update to the 2.90A version, but we pointed out to them that that was the original BIOS version that our systems were failing. Their answer: Call back......
We suspect that it is an overheating issue. Our computer are on 24/7. We are a library system, and these units are designated as Children's computers with age appropriate games/puzzles and restricted internet access (only to few selected educational sites). We run a custom made (graphics) screensaver when the unit is not used for a period of time. We wonder if this puts too much stress on the built-in Intel graphics portions of the chipset on these computers (especially overnight).
We have noticed that on the system BIOS under "Power/Thermal" that the "Fan Idle Mode" is set by default to the minimum setting. We've been wondering if "upping" this setting will prevent the unit from starting to overheat to the point of automatic shutoff. At this point we are probably going to try this on a few units, but the randomness of the problem may prevent us from seeing concrete and reproducible results.
Any suggestion/ideas from you will be welcome. Also, if you have already tried to increase the Fan Idle speed setting in the BIOS and saw some positive results, we would love to hear from you.
Thank You