ST16000NE000 drive lagging if and only if mapped under VMD for Intel RST

[alexnoe]

I've got the following setup:

- Windows 10 22H2, fresh installation
- Asus mainboard with Z690 chipset, tried the two most recent firmware versions (the most recent one causes blue screens, the second most recent one works, but both show the problem described below)
- Intel Core i9-13900K
- M.2 SSD (not the issue here)
- SATA SSD (not the issue here, same problem happens when I disconnect this one)
- 2x Seagate ST16000NE000 HDD (16 TB, CMR), supposed to run as Raid 1, but the problem below happens even when I connect only one drive without Raid configuration, i.e. I'm not speaking about a single drive in a degrated Raid 1, but about a real single drive
- for testing purposes: an older WD Black Series 2 TB disk
- Intel RST drivers 19.5.1.1040

When I configure the BIOS not to map SATA drives under VMD, everything works normally. However, I want to have a Raid 1, so I need to map SATA drives under VMD.

When I configure the BIOS to map SATA drives under VMD, the ST16000NE000 becomes very laggy, both for writing and reading. It reads or writes at >200MB/s for a couple of seconds, then gets stuck for some time, then continues to operate normally etc. Some time, in this context, means more than 10 seconds, sometimes even a minute. While the drive is stuck, I cannot open it in Windows Explorer. The HDD LED of the PC housing is on in this state.

I tried with a different SATA cable, with no change, so I changed the cable back. When I disable mapping SATA drives under VMD, the ST16000NE000 works normally again.

When I use the older WD drive instead, there is no problem at all. It works both with and without mapping under VMD.

When copying entire partitions, such as using Paragon Partition Manager, the ST16000NE000 drive operates normally, even when mapped under VMD. Normally means: it took about 3h to copy a partition containing 1 TB of data to the WD drive mentioned above. The WD drive can do about 120 MB/s at most, so 3h was to be expected.

What can I do to get it work properly?

[Jean_Intel]

Hello alexnoe,

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities. I am sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues when using the drive in VMD mode. 

I will proceed to check the issue internally and post back soon with more details. 

Best regards, 

Jean O.  

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello alexnoe,

Thanks for waiting for a response.

After reviewing your matter, we noticed that you are using the latest Intel® RST as per your motherboard's OEM website. This issue is related to the BIOS configurations and the drive performance. You should contact your ASUS for further recommendations regarding their BIOS settings, as well as contact Seagate support for support regarding their driver performance.

Best regards, 

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[alexnoe]

Hello Jean_Intel,

thanks for your advice. I will try asking Asus next.

best regards,

Alex

[alexnoe]

I just wanted to report back and let you know: you were right. Asus has recently released a new firmware for my mainboard. With this new firmware, the problem is fixed.