Rapid Storage Technology
Intel® RST, RAID
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Issue/bug between Intel RST in RAID mode and an optical drive

idata
Employee
5,644 Views

Guys,

I wonder if you would be interested in investigating an issue I had between Intel RST in RAID mode and an optical drive.

I eventually made it worked but in such a odd way that I still want to investigate it further and go to the bottom of this issue so Intel can fix what's really looks like a bug in RST.

So here is the thing.

I have an ASRock Q170m vPro mobo:

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Q170M%20vPro/ ASRock > Q170M vPro

built around 'SkyLake' Q170 chipset.

I have a 4 x 500 MB SSD in RAID 0 using the legacy INTEL RAID rom option (not UEFI) because it is < 2 TB

I have WIndows 10 Pro x64 recently re-installed from scratch with latest RST driver from Intel download (I provided the driver during installation à la 'F6'): Version: 15.2.0.1020 (Latest) Date: 10/20/2016

So far so good.

In order to enjoy Blu Ray 3D I had NO choice but to buy an optical drive, and I got a PANASONIC/MATSHITA BD-MLT UJ265.

Although the drive was perfectly recognized by the BIOS and then Windows 10, as soon as I insert a data media, and click on it in Windows Explorer, the drive disappears and Windows is telling me that it has been unplugged.

I tried many times, and each time the drive vanishes with no recovery option than reboot.

Googling on internet, I found this on Microsoft

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware/windows-10-driver-for-matshita-bd-mlt-uj265-usb/ed5408f9-59d8-41da-8617-dd6a569ce097 Windows 10 Driver for MATSHITA BD-MLT UJ265 USB Device - Microsoft Community

the last comment on page 2 says:

"Had the same issue with my custom build htpc. I'VE SOLVED THIS BY ENABLING HOT PLUG FUNCTIONNALITY FOR THE SATA-PORT WHERE where the dvd-rom was attached to. Afterwards the device was working properly :).

In my case, there weren't any UpperFilter or LowerFilter values set.

Cheers,Tom"

And I confirm it is also working perfectly for me right now.

So on one hand:

a configuration that does NOT work when Hot Plug is NOT enabled on the specific SATA Port used by the optical drive)

and on the other hand:

a configuration that DOES WORK (when Hot Plug IS ENABLED on the specific SATA Port used by the optical drive)

because other threads on internet confirmed that this situation only occurs when an Optical Drive is used with Intel RST RAID mode, would it be possible for Intel to investigate what is the differences and consequences (in the code, configuration, behavior, ...) that could explain this situation ?

because honestly I found odd to be forced to set an internal optical drive as 'hot plug' capable to make it fully work under windows.

What do you think ?

Please advise and Happy/Healthy New Year to all of you.

Hassan

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20 Replies
idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Hi,

 

I do not see the connection between Intel® Rapid Storage 15.2 and the problem with BluRay issues

 

Please provide information about how to replicate this issue. A step by step or a youtube video would be great to let me know if this is related to the Intel® Rapid Storage program.

 

 

Allan.
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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Hi Allan,

Thanks very much for the follow up on this one.

I would like to comment on "the connection between Intel® Rapid Storage 15.2 and the problem with BluRay issues"

I agree there should not be no connection.

I just explained my story to give a bit of a context on why I wanted to add an optical drive in my system in the first place.

I hope you would agree that the only reason to have optical drive in a PC nowadays is for reading Blu Ray content, and especially Blu Ray 3D.

Everything else can actually be found on internet.

And to give the full story, at first I wanted an external USB slot in drive, because this is what I like, but all the product matching that description were simply NOT available in France.

So looked up for an internal drive, and that specific model UJ-265 from PANASONIC/MASHITA was the only one I could buy quickly in France.

And when I faced the issue, because it was that specific model, the same model mentioned in that specific Microsoft forum, I quickly found a workaround.

So all I am saying is that everything that happened was pure coincidence, but if it can help tracking down a bug and fix it for greater good, then it will be a nice story to tell.

Now I will respond To Terry regarding the technical details, but I confirm Terry got the story right.

Best Regards.

Hassan

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TGluf
Novice
1,431 Views

So I would like to start by clarifying so I know I understand this properly.

You have a RAID set up in raid 0 etc etc etc. You also have Intel rapid storage technology enabled.

You had issues with the optical drive and did google searching and found out that when people have a RAID set up, and ALSO have Intel rapid storage technology enabled that they were running into this same issue. They said the fix was to enable hot plug on the optical drive. Which you are in fact confirming worked for you as well.

I would take a guess and say that this is most likely caused by optical drive hardware or the bios, is there anywhere in the bios to specify the CD drive and does that area recognize that there is an optical drive there

Have you made any attempt to update the bios?

I would try to update the bios and see if it possibly resolves the issue otherwise than you have brought a brilliant bug up to intel. I am most positive that this bug is a bug or rapid storage technology and this should be addressed to help users in the

 

Intel Allan,

To replicate the issue create a raid config, then enable intel rapid storage, then connect an optical drive. When you put discs into it it will tell you that the device was disconnected.

This is most likely intel rapid storage trying to be fast about storage areas and since the optical drive is on the sata and there's a raid enabled it's stumbling over it's own feet.

Good luck!

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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Hi Terry,

I confirm you got that story right.

I also confirm that I have indeed updated my mobo with the latest BIOS that was released just last month (december 2016, 1 year cycle).

And I confirm that this BIOS from AMI does NOT offer a CDROM/DVDROM option in their mass storage configuration menu, only HDD & SDD.

I was really surprised too.

I was thinking about opening an incident with ASRock, when I noticed that people also mentioned the issue was gone after reinstalling their Windows (8 in their case) completely.

And then I told myself that the issue was probably not caused by the BIOS, nor by WIndows, but by something between Windows and the optical drive that is NOT installed with Windows OOTB => the Intel RST driver !

And here I am and I could not be more pleased by reading that I may have found by pure coincidence a "brillant bug" :-)

And if confirmed, then I am always happy to help :-)

Standing by for feedback.

Thanks for your assistance and efforts.

Best regards.

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TGluf
Novice
1,431 Views

I am curious if you ever tried to disable intel rapid storage and disable the hotplug and see if the optical drive works to confirm that intel rapid storage isn't the problem?

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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Hey Terry,

to be honest, I don't know how to disable RST and even if I CAN disable RST as my RAID volume is actually my boot partition for Windows.

But I could give a try if you send me instructions.

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TGluf
Novice
1,431 Views

there should be an option in your bios. To get into your bios you should have to hit either the Del, F2 or F12, possibly a different key during start up. Once you're in the bios I'm not sure exactly where it will be located but one of the options will specifically say Intel rapid storage.

Disabling this MAY cause you to blue screen when booting up windows, if so just go back into your bios and enable the setting again and you'll be fine.

Let us know what you find.

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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

aie...

I confirm that I know exactly where to disable 'RAID' in the BIOS, but doing so, my RAID 0 Volume will be 'gone' and I will NOT be able to boot my 'main' Windows.

I though you were referring to a way to switch from RAID Intel RST driver to a Microsoft RAID driver of some sort.

However, it happen have another Windows installed on an external USB hard drive (thanks to WinToUSB) on which I can boot (very slowly) while my RAID 0 Volume is 'disengaged' and see what is happening.

I'll keep you posted tomorrow, as now it is almost midnight in France.

Best regards.

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TGluf
Novice
1,431 Views

do not disable raid,

I have noticed on many computers that intel rapid storage is a seperate function which can be enabled or disabled on its own. This is what I'm referring to

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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Disabling Raid would be through BIOS settings.

 

If you change from RAID mode to something else, this will cause boot issues and reinstallation would be necessary. Since Hassan_a.k.a_Optimizer currently runs on RAID 0

 

 

Allan.
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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Don't worry guys, I have this under control.

I will keep RAID enabled, and I will boot on my external drive (Windows 10) and I will try different actions depending on what SATA driver is actually loaded in that 'external' Windows (what I mean by 'actually loaded' is that I never payed attention on the drivers loaded by that 'external' windows because I am using that Windows to update firmware of the SSD(s) in a non RAID mode because that is the only way to update firmrware as they are NOT intel SSD(s), sorry...) I hope that last sentence was clear, otherwise just forget about it it was only rhetorical.

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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Hi Guys,

so I did some testing.

First of all I would like to confirm that on my 'external usb drive' Windows 10, the loaded driver is :

Intel(R) Desktop/Workstation/Server Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller

version 13.2.0.1022 date 2/19/2015

FYI, the RAID volume is hidden in Windows by some kind of policy, but I confirm the Disk Management utility is showing the RAID volume as 'offline'. I guess Windows 10 is sensing this is another Winows 10 bootable partition and it is just hidding it to prevent tampering with it.

Having said that, I confirm the same issue happens when I disable 'hot plug' for the optical drive.

Again, when 'hot plug' is OFF, the optical drive is showing up at first in Windows, but vanished as soon as I try to access a disc in it.

when 'hot plug' is ON, the optical drive seems to perform normally, although I don't know if it performs optimally.

Now if order to fully agree on what I am seeing, here are some pictures of my BIOS setup

and inside Windows 10, before inserting and accessing the disk:

and after:

so this is 2 instances of Windows 10, with 2 different version of Intel RAID driver, demonstrating similar behavior with Optical drive versus 'hot plug'.

What do you think ?

Best Regards.

Hassan

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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

I have noticed the RAID driver version and you are currently running version 13.2 and Windows®10.

 

Please bear in mind the first version with Windows®10 support would be 14.5.

 

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26361/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-RAID-Driver?product=55005 (Intel® RST) RAID Driver version 15.2

 

 

Allan.
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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Hi Allan,

the picture and my latest e-mail are describing the test I did with my 'external/usb' Windows setup, and I was just pointing out that this version is installed OOTB with version 13.2.

so if 13.2 is not supported with Windows 10, don't blame me, blame Microsoft :-)

Now in my first e-mail, I described my real production windows as follow

"I have WIndows 10 Pro x64 recently re-installed from scratch with latest RST driver from Intel download (I provided the driver during installation à la 'F6'): Version: 15.2.0.1020 (Latest) Date: 10/20/2016"

Hope it clarifies everything.

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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Hi Terry, Allan,

sorry to bother you on Friday, but I was wondering if you had any update on this one ?

is everything clear for you ?

did you try to reproduce it ?

and if so, is it a really a bug on your side ? or is it the BIOS vendor's fault because it does NOT supply the correct information for the optical drive which is misleading your driver ?

please advise.

and if not today have a great week end

Best regards.

Hassan

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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Hi Terry, Allan,

Are you still there ? any news on this issue ?

Please advise.

Best Regards.

Hassan

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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

I was never able to replicate this issue.

 

I have tried several Intel® NUCs with external DVD drives, Windows® 10 and the latest Intel® Rapid Storage 15.2.

 

If this is a bug on the Intel® driver, I would expect to see this issue on every computer but I did not have it.

 

 

Allan.
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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

Hi Allan,

I am confused.

you wrote "with external DVD drives", but my config is using internal optical drive connected to a internal SATA port.

Am I missing something ?

Please advise.

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idata
Employee
1,431 Views

I recommend contacting your computer manufacturer or motherboard maker for information about this issue. I was not able to replicate it and perhaps the motherboard maker may have information that can help solve this problem.

 

 

Allan.

 

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idata
Employee
1,320 Views

Hi Allan,

as my first sentence in this thread was "I wonder if you would be interested in investigating an issue I had between Intel RST in RAID mode and an optical drive.", then I take your closing remark as a "NO, I am not interested".

Fair enough.

I will forward this issue to both the motherboard manufacturer and Microsoft, and if they are interested in solving it, my intuition is that they will probably send it back to Intel trough the right channel.

Have a good week end.

Hassan

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