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1343 Discussions

Win 10 app won't enable Optane

WM000
Beginner
1,615 Views

I bought a 16 GB Optane module (one of the 1st gen ones that's a couple of years old - from Amazon) and installed it on my Lenovo Legion Y530. All good; I installed Intel RST v17 driver from the website and it's working as expected. With the EOL upcoming on Intel RST, I thought I'd switch to the "Intel Optane Memory Storage and Management" MS Store App. I installed the app without uninstalling RST first. Oops. So I disabled Optane, rebooted, uninstalled RST and now Intel Optane Memory Storage and Management can't enable Optane memory, which is weird because when I had both RST and the IOMSM installed, the app showed it was running and I could even configure the cache situation from the app! So it seems that the IOMSM app needed Intel RST to be able to operate. But I couldn't uninstall Intel RST because Optane was still enabled, but in the process of disabling Optane the IOMSM app becomes unable to re-enable Optane afterwards. Even running Diskpart and clearing the partition on the Optane drive didn't work.

 

My BIOS doesn't have the CSM mode switch which others have used to coax IOMSM into seeing the Optane memory, so I don't think I'll be able to use that method.

 

Intel RST v17 is working fine and is listed in the BIOS when I look at the storage section, but it would be cool if I could get on the app bandwagon.

 

Also - the drive lists as 13GB but it's supposed to be a 16GB capacity - is that just part of how this works? Overprovisioning or something?

 

Thanks in advance.

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1 Solution
LeonWaksman
Super User
1,390 Views
  1. You are right. There is a problem with the new application, downloaded from Microsoft Store. You did everything correct. I tried to install this application and I got the same problem. Couldn't enable Optane acceleration and got error 0xA0070020. However, in the end I have the solution. It shouldn't be like that and Microsoft should correct it. Now you may follow my steps:
  2. Uninstall the old Optane or RST Drivers and Optane Pinning Explorer Extension. Do this from Apps and Features in Windows settings.
  3. Reboot your Computer.
  4. Open the Device Manager, Storage Controllers section.
  5. Right click on Intel Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller and then click on Update.
  6. Click on "Let me pick from a list of available drivers from my computer" See the attached image.
  7. Put cursor on Intel Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller and click Next to update the driver.
  8. Download from Microsoft Store the Intel Optane Memory Storage and Management and enable Optane Acceleration.

 

Leon

 

RST_DriverUpdate_1.png

 

RST_DriverUpdate_2.png

OptaneEnabled.png

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3 Replies
LeonWaksman
Super User
1,391 Views
  1. You are right. There is a problem with the new application, downloaded from Microsoft Store. You did everything correct. I tried to install this application and I got the same problem. Couldn't enable Optane acceleration and got error 0xA0070020. However, in the end I have the solution. It shouldn't be like that and Microsoft should correct it. Now you may follow my steps:
  2. Uninstall the old Optane or RST Drivers and Optane Pinning Explorer Extension. Do this from Apps and Features in Windows settings.
  3. Reboot your Computer.
  4. Open the Device Manager, Storage Controllers section.
  5. Right click on Intel Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller and then click on Update.
  6. Click on "Let me pick from a list of available drivers from my computer" See the attached image.
  7. Put cursor on Intel Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller and click Next to update the driver.
  8. Download from Microsoft Store the Intel Optane Memory Storage and Management and enable Optane Acceleration.

 

Leon

 

RST_DriverUpdate_1.png

 

RST_DriverUpdate_2.png

OptaneEnabled.png

WM000
Beginner
1,391 Views

Thanks - my computer had the V16 and V17 drivers installed, and they both showed up as options for drivers to use. I had to use the V16 drivers for IOMSM to enable Optane - once it was working I was able to then switch to the V17 drivers.

 

I do note that IOMSM doesn't seem to work quite as well on the acceleration front, with boots taking a bit longer using the app vs good old Intel RST. But at least I'm not rolling into obsolescence!

 

PS: my old Win 7 Alienware laptop came with a 32GB SSD that was used with Intel RST ...but would that have required building a RAID 0 array? I see that IOMSM still allows RAID 0 array building but I assume that is deprecated.

 

Cheers!

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LeonWaksman
Super User
1,390 Views

Hi @WM000​ 

  1. I didn't bench-marked my computer (NUC7i7DNHE) with the previous Intel Optane Driver. Now, the Power On time is about 25 seconds and the Shut down about 12 seconds. To me it doesn't fill like decrease in performance.
  2. I have to add other observation. With the old driver (downloaded from Intel), I could enable Optane Memory acceleration while the SATA mode in Bios was set to AHCI. During enablement, the mode was changed automatically to Intel Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller. However, in order to enable acceleration using the new IOMSM, I was forced set manually the SATA mode to Intel Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller and only then the enablement was possible.
  3. I'm glad that the new driver is working for you.

 

Leon

 

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