Freeze with "iaStor" and "disk" errors in event log on E6400

Today I got freeze with my Latitude E6400 in Windows XP when connecting an E-SATA drive while at the same time having a CD in the DVD unit. When I looked in the system event log I noticed I had got an error about "iaStor" and a warning about "disk".

Error message
Source: iaStor
Event: 9
Description: "The device \Device\Ide\iaStor0 did not respond within timeout period"

Warning
Source: Disk
Event: 51
Description: "An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk0\D during a paging operation"

I think the problems are related to the Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers. I had a lot of these errors when I tried version 8.6 of the drivers but with the version of Intel Matrix Storage Manager I have now, 8.2.2, I have not seen this problem before. Now I am afraid that the 8.2.2 drivers are not so stable as they seemed to be.

I have upgraded to BIOS version A09 and I have the latest 1.02 firmware for my Panasonic DVD drive. I use IRRT SATA mode.

Are there more people with these kinds of errors and warnings in the event log? If so, what version of Intel Matrix Storage Manager are you running and what SATA mode do you use (IRRT or AHCI)?

Örjan

 

Am I the only one with these errors and warnings?

Örjan

 

I have none of these messages in my system event log, but (i) I'm using AHCI and (ii) I probably didn't have any disc in the optical drive when I've connected a HDD to the eSATA port. I can try the latter scenario sometime, but not today.

John

 

Thank you for checking this.
I haven't been able to reproduce the error so it could just have been a coincidence that it happened when I connected the E-SATA drive.

If the problem is that the Windows GUI will freeze once in a while when connecting E-SATA drives it is not a big deal. But if the errors are symptoms of read/write errors on the hard drive and/or DVD drive it is more severe. The problem is that I don't know how serious it is. Can I safely install Windows XP, Office etc using the DVD drive? Or should I borrow a USB DVD drive for installation?

I really hate problems that happens every now and then and are not possible to reproduce.

Örjan

 

I found this page about SATA inter-operability while looking for something else. I didn't previously know such a thing existed.

Which models of HDD (internal / external) and ODD do you have?

John

 

Internal HDD: Hitachi 7K320 160GB
External HDD: Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500 GB
ODD: Panasonic UJ862A with 1.02 firmware

Thank you for the SATA inter-operability link. My internal HDD and ODD are listed but it seems as Western Digital is not participating in the program.

Örjan

 

I have reinstalled my E6400 with the disk controller in IDE/ATA mode instead of SATA AHCI/IRRT. So far it is 100% stable, no errors in event log, no freezes, it just works! Well, except for the E-SATA port that doesn't work at all since it is not supported in IDE/ATA mode. This is an obvious drawback but I prefer a 100% stable system to an non-stable system with an E-SATA port. I will try out my laptop a couple of days with IDE/ATA mode and if it continues to be stable I will get an ExpressCard E-SATA card I will use when I need the higher transfer rate.

I don't think I will loose any performance in Windows XP by running in IDE/ATA mode instead of native SATA AHCI/IRRT mode. I performed a small test with both IDE/ATA mode and SATA IRRT mode:

1. Copy my old Dell Windows XP SP2 CD to the HD.
2. Before rebooting, copy the XP files on the HD to a new folder on the HD.
3. Reboot and copy the XP files on the HD to a new folder on the HD again.

The CD copy and the file copy before rebooting took almost exactly the same time with IDE/ATA and IRRT. But the file copying after reboot took more than 50% longer time with IRRT, 1 min 36 sec compared to just 58 seconds in IDE/ATA mode. This is of course not a full benchmark but at least it doesn't indicate that I will loose a lot of performance by running in IDE/ATA mode.

In IDE/ATA mode so far have I tested copying a lot of files (XP CD), burning a data CD, playing a DVD movie, installing programs from CD and I haven't noticed any problems. Except for maybe one thing: When I played a DVD in PowerDVD and started Windows Media Player the movie stopped for a few seconds. But I guess this was because Media Player tried to start playing the movie also before giving up.

I will let you know if I get any problems in IDE/ATA mode.

Örjan

 

Hi,

I have a M4400 with the Hitachi 160GB HDD. Since installing the intel matrix storage manager. 8.70.1007 I get iaStor0 event ID 9 error whenever I do a large file transfer. When I reinstall 8.22.1001 drivers, they go away. I run IRRT but with only the hitachi hard disks and have bios A12.