intel optane memory degrading

[marlandjones]

First of all, let's establish a baseline.  I am not a techie.  I have a working knowledge but as I looked at all of the topics in the forum about Optane memory, I have to admit I am intimidated.  

The Issue:
I received a notice that my optane memory is starting to degrade.  I have a an H10 with a 1TB SSD on a HP Spectre i7-10750H.  From what i understand, I need to disable the Optane memory.  I opened the Intel Optane Memory and Storage Manager and all i get is an endless spiral and "preparing system".  I downloaded the Intel driver utility and updated all of my intel drivers and no change.  I downloaded and reinstalled the Memory and Storage Manager and same result.  

I am attaching my SSU file.

What am i doing wrong?

What do i need to do? (and if you can save a lost soul, please keep it simple)

What are the implications?

personal note: 

seems pretty crappy that this happens after less than a year.  

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, marlandjones.

Good day,

Thank you for posting on the Intel community Support forums.

I'm currently reviewing your thread regarding your Optane H10, I will be glad to assist you.

There are some details I would like to check from the H10, we can use the Intel Memory and Storage Tool to diagnose the drive and generate a SMART report:

- Download: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19543/intel-memory-and-storage-tool-gui.html

- The installation and user guides can be found on the same page

Here you have more detailed instructions with screenshots:

- Instructions for the GUI version: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000055927/memory-and-storage.html

- In short, once it is installed, click the SSD/Storage > Features > Drive Details > Export

Please attach/upload the report to this thread the same as you did you the SSU, and thank you for uploading that file as well.

I will follow up on September 2nd, but you can let me know if additional time is required.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[marlandjones]

hello Bruce,

thank you so much for responding.  here is the report as requested.  i also added the report from the optane drive.

again, thank you so much for your help.

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, marlandjones.

Thank you for the reports.

The SMART information you shared from the Optane does not show any critical warnings, it looks fine, and the one from the storage/SSD only shows basic system information, possibly due to this section being accelerated by Intel Optane.

Is it possible for you to generate the report one more time after disabling the Optane acceleration?

Here you have some detailed instructions on how to do this:

- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000024626/memory-and-storage.html

Additionally, if the Optane H10 came preinstalled with the computer from the factory, have you tried to open a ticket in parallel with HP regarding this error?

I will follow up on September 3rd in case additional time is required.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[marlandjones]

i am all backed up and ready to go, however....
while the GUI memory storage tool says everything is ok, the Optane memory tool which  came pre-installed says otherwise and I received a windows notification.  I have included pics of all 3.

[marlandjones]

hi @BrusC_Intel ,
1.  Disabling Optane Acceleration. 

 i followed the link you posted for directions on how to disable acceleration, however i was unable to disable because:

     a.  my Intel Optane Memory Application gets stuck in a cycle as described by @klowe,  and....

     b.  there is no option to disable in the GUI version of the memory and storage tool (see pic in previous reply)

2.  I opened a ticket with HP on the same day I opened the Intel ticket, but HP is not responsive.

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, marlandjones.

For these cases what we have to do is make sure there no problems with the disk, for that we need the reports you have provided.

One of your reports was not generated correctly, so it is recommended to disable the Optane acceleration using the Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management, and then check using Intel Memory and Storage one more time.

It may be possible to fix this error by cleaning/erasing the Optane, but this has to be done when the acceleration is disabled, and after that we can enable it again.

I would like to also offer you the option to contact us via live support, either chat or phone, so we can assist you via remote session if you can contact us: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/contact-support.html#@18

I will follow up on September 3rd just in case.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[klowe]

BrusC and marlandjones,

I am having the same issue as marlandjones.  My degradation notification first occurred in the last 2 days.  I also have an Intel H10 device running on an HP Spectre i7-10750H, however I have the 512GB model H10 instead of the 1TB model.  Like marlandjones, I am unable to use the Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management software to disable Optane acceleration and generate reports.

In the interest of providing more data to help you spot patterns, I've attached reports from my system's Intel Memory and Storage Tool, with Optane acceleration enabled (since I can't disable it).  I've also attached a screenshot showing the page where I am supposed to be able to disable the Optane acceleration, but I'm never presented with a button to do so.  Yesterday, I let the program sit on that page all day while I was at work, and it never changed away from the spinning wheel with no progress bar.

I did notice that the degradation notification occurred on my first boot after installing several Intel and Realtek driver updates from Windows Update.  The final file I've attached is a screenshot of my Update History showing the names of every driver update I've installed in the last few days.

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, marlandjones and klowe.

There is another option to disable Optane Memory in the system BIOS, you may have to look for an option to "Deconcatenate", "Reset to non-Optane" or similar. I can't provide you with detailed instructions for this as it will be different depending on your system, so it may be better to check with the manufacturer.

Before that, I would like to know if you can install our latest Intel RST driver and restart the system, then try to disable Optane acceleration again, remember to check the box to include the Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management, even if you already have it:

- Intel RST driver: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19512/intel-rapid-storage-technology-driver-installation-software-with-intel-optane-memory-10th-and-11th-gen-platforms.html

Let me know if you encounter any more problems.

I hope to hear form you soon; I will follow up on September 6th just in case.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[klowe · Accepted solution]

I'm not trying to hijack this post, but I completed the troubleshooting steps already.

I succeeded in installing the Intel RST driver that you linked, rebooted the PC, and was then still unable do disable Optane acceleration in Windows.  I rebooted to BIOS and was able to disable acceleration in those menus.  I'm attaching Intel Memory and Storage Tool reports that I generated 1) after updating the drivers and rebooting, and 2) after disabling Optane acceleration from BIOS.

I did notice that after disabling Optane acceleration, the Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management tool is no longer showing a SMART event.  I am also now able to re-Enable Intel Optane Memory from the GUI.  Screenshots are attached.

I have not yet attempted to Enable Intel Optane Memory.

For @marlandjones , these are the steps I performed to turn off Optane acceleration in BIOS:
1)  Shut down Windows from the Start Menu

2)  Power up the laptop by pressing the power button

3)  Immediately start repeatedly pressing the F10 key on the keyboard.  This should take you into BIOS

4)  Navigate through the BIOS to Configuration Tab -> UEFI HII Configuration -> Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology -> Intel Optane, XXX.XGB.  Verify that "Disable mode:" is "Safe".

5)  Select >Disable.

6)  Leave "Preserve user data" in the [Enabled] state.  Highlight [No] after the item labelled "Are you sure you want to disable?" and press the <Enter> key on your keyboard.  Change the selection to [Yes] and press the <Enter> key.

7)  Move the cursor down to >Disable and press the <Enter> key.  There's a warning that the process might take a while and you shouldn't turn off your computer while it's occurring.  It seemed to disable in less than 1 second on my computer.

  Return to the top level menu of BIOS and navigate to Exit-> Save Changes and Exit.  Confirm this by selecting "Yes".

9)  Your computer should reboot and return to windows.  My laptop screen displayed some strange colors momentarily immediately after exiting BIOS, but it returned to Windows just fine.

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, klowe.

Thank you very much for the information and for sharing those detailed instructions on how to disable Optane from BIOS with Marlandjones.

The reports look good, and there are no critical warnings or alerts, you should be able to activate the Optane acceleration now.

Additionally, you can clean the Optane portion using Windows Diskpart before enabling acceleration, but your system should be good to go:

- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000059414/memory-and-storage.html

Marlandjones, please let me know if you encountered any problems, I hope to hear from you soon.

I will follow up on September 8th just in case.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[klowe]

BrusC,

Thank you for your assistance.  I cleaned the Optane drive, re-enabled Optane acceleration, rebooted, and now Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management is reporting that my drives are healthy and "Your storage system is functioning normally".  When presented with the choice between Performance mode and Responsiveness mode, I chose Performance (because it was the default and the only benefit I could tell to Responsiveness was "Pinning", which is not available for my 27GB-sized Optane drive).  I also now have access to the "Disable" button in the Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management tool.

Just in case you're curious, I saved another set of log files from the Intel Memory and Storage Tool.  They are attached if you want them.

@marlandjones , best of luck!!

Thank you again,

klowe

[marlandjones]

@klowe  @BrusC_Intel 
thanks to the awesome instructions from @klowe about disabling Optane in the BIOS successfully completed that part of the operation.  Three quick questions:

1. @klowe what do you mean by "cleaned" the optane drive?
2.  @BrusC_Intel what are the repurcussions of NOT re-enabling the Optane storage?

3.  i was given the option to erase all data on the optane memory module.  How do i know what that data entails and where do I find it?

[klowe]

Marlandjones,

1.  I cleaned the Optane portion of the drive using Diskpart, as suggested in the previous post by BrusC_Intel, using the following instructions:

 https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000059414/memory-and-storage.html

In step (4) of those instructions, I selected the disk that showed up as having a Size of 27 GB.  If I remember correctly, that was disk 0 (i.e., I typed "select disk 0" with no quotes).  You want to make sure you get this right, by selecting the 27 GB disk, because if you run step 5 ("clean all") with the wrong disk selected, then you'll wipe Windows and everything off of your laptop.

Note that (from the way I read BrusC_Intel's post) the entire cleaning process is probably optional.

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, Marlandjones.

I'm sorry for the delayed response, this was due to the holiday.

Regarding your questions, I see klowe already answered the first one and he is right, cleaning the Optane using Diskpart is optional before enabling the acceleration again, but it is recommended in case there are problems enabling acceleration again.

For the other two:

What are the repercussions of NOT re-enabling the Optane storage?

R\ There isn't an exact problem with this, it is just not the intended usage, and you may also experience a downgrade in performance since the "Optane portion" of the H10 will not be helping the "storage portion".

3. I was given the option to erase all data on the Optane memory module. How do I know what that data entails and where do I find it?

R\ This is referred in the tool as "metadata", it could be considered leftover information from a previous Optane configuration, there is no actual method to know what it is, this is the reason why the Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management just offers the option to "clear metadata".

I'm really glad to hear that Klowe's system is working fine again, so please let me know if you managed to do the same.

I will follow up on September 9th just in case.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, Marlandjones.

This message is just a quick follow up on your thread as I mentioned in my previous post.

I understand this may take some time, so I will keep the thread open and follow up again on September 14th, and you can also let me know if additional time is required.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, Marlandjones.

I wanted to follow up on your thread to check if assistance is still required.

The last time you had some questions regarding the metadata and the possibility of leaving Optane disabled, so I just wanted to confirm if your system was working fine.

The thread will be closed right now since there has been no confirmation, but please do not hesitate and open a new thread, or contact us via any of the other available support methods (phone, chat or web-ticket) so we can continue assisting you if needed: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/contact-support.html

If you require any type of assistance from Intel in the future, you can always contact us back.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician