Intel Rapid Storage Technology: overtaxes system

Hogtowner · 14 Feb 2011

I am hoping someone has solved this themselves, or knows how to research the problem further than I. My next recourse is to re-install the system without IRST.

The system works well, in general, but every once in a while, the RAID driver from IRST (IaStor.sys) becomes very resource hungry, taking at a minimum 25% of the CPU with peaks that go much higher. While this load would normally be tolerable, if it happens during streaming a video, or playing a game, it causes momentary freeze-ups where the mouse and keyboard are unresponsive, and video drops several seconds worth of frames.

IaStor runs normally in the background with fractional CPU load, so I am thinking the overload comes during some error checking. I have checked the process through Process Explorer, and there are level 0 and level 1 priority threads occurring.

I should also note that this problem has become worse with time.

Any suggestions for a next move that do not require a re-install?

brady · 14 Feb 2011

Intel management software is best left uninstalled.

NoN · 14 Feb 2011

Well you can uninstall all Intel Rapid Storage Technology vX.X.X.XXXX from the Program & Features", then delete the two registry key (see screenshot)...

Go in C:\Windows\system32\drivers\......then delete the driver iastor.sys left.

Reboot your machine and install after 10mn enter session the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (not need to be the latest). Reboot on demand.

Go in "services.msc", scroll till you find the IRST and set it to automatic, instead of automatic (delayed), this will make it start faster.

Hope this help!

Hogtowner · 15 Feb 2011

I may have solved the problem after reading quite a few reports from other IRST users. Seems IRST cannot tolerate RAID 1 arrays with disks that spin down to save power. A simple adjustment in the power options may have cured this, time will tell.

I should add that it was the installation of UPS monitoring software that changed the setting in the first place. That software was almost instantly uninstalled, thinking it was what degraded my performance.

Thanks for your input though NoN. I may well come back to it if the problem resurfaces.

NoN · 16 Feb 2011

Hogtowner said:

I may have solved the problem after reading quite a few reports from other IRST users. Seems IRST cannot tolerate RAID 1 arrays with disks that spin down to save power. A simple adjustment in the power options may have cured this, time will tell.

I should add that it was the installation of UPS monitoring software that changed the setting in the first place. That software was almost instantly uninstalled, thinking it was what degraded my performance.

Thanks for your input though NoN. I may well come back to it if the problem resurfaces.

Interresting to know that a UPS monitoring Software can totally uninstall IRST..UPS brought his own different Power management.

Hogtowner · 17 Feb 2011

I am afraid you mistook me, NoN. What I meant to say was that the UPS software set the disks to sleep after 30 minutes of idling. This, in turn, made IRST unstable, apparently triggering errors or merely apparent errors.

I uninstalled the UPS software, because installing it was the last thing I did before the system degraded. I had not investigate the cause of the degradation, just reacted in a last-in/first-out manner.

The system continued to slow down erratically, so I investigated enough to discover that it was the IRST driver IaStor.exe that was hogging the system. Once I searched 5 or 6 different forums, I saw a comment about IRST and disk sleeping. I reset the power options so that the disks would never sleep and that solved the problem. IRST and its driver work flawlessly now, or at least as well as they ever did.

I hope that's clear. The UPS software did not uninstall IRST, just really screwed it up. More honestly, I screwed it up when I chose a greener power plan in the UPS software than I previously had set.

I would definitely consider this a bug in the IRST driver, and will in the fullness of time report it to Intel.

NoN said:

Hogtowner said:

I may have solved the problem after reading quite a few reports from other IRST users. Seems IRST cannot tolerate RAID 1 arrays with disks that spin down to save power. A simple adjustment in the power options may have cured this, time will tell.

I should add that it was the installation of UPS monitoring software that changed the setting in the first place. That software was almost instantly uninstalled, thinking it was what degraded my performance.

Thanks for your input though NoN. I may well come back to it if the problem resurfaces.

Interresting to know that a UPS monitoring Software can totally uninstall IRST..UPS brought his own different Power management.

NoN · 17 Feb 2011

Hogtowner said:

I am afraid you mistook me, NoN. What I meant to say was that the UPS software set the disks to sleep after 30 minutes of idling. This, in turn, made IRST unstable, apparently triggering errors or merely apparent errors.

I uninstalled the UPS software, because installing it was the last thing I did before the system degraded. I had not investigate the cause of the degradation, just reacted in a last-in/first-out manner.

The system continued to slow down erratically, so I investigated enough to discover that it was the IRST driver IaStor.exe that was hogging the system. Once I searched 5 or 6 different forums, I saw a comment about IRST and disk sleeping. I reset the power options so that the disks would never sleep and that solved the problem. IRST and its driver work flawlessly now, or at least as well as they ever did.

I hope that's clear. The UPS software did not uninstall IRST, just really screwed it up. More honestly, I screwed it up when I chose a greener power plan in the UPS software than I previously had set.

I would definitely consider this a bug in the IRST driver, and will in the fullness of time report it to Intel.

NoN said:

Hogtowner said:

I may have solved the problem after reading quite a few reports from other IRST users. Seems IRST cannot tolerate RAID 1 arrays with disks that spin down to save power. A simple adjustment in the power options may have cured this, time will tell.

I should add that it was the installation of UPS monitoring software that changed the setting in the first place. That software was almost instantly uninstalled, thinking it was what degraded my performance.

Thanks for your input though NoN. I may well come back to it if the problem resurfaces.

Interresting to know that a UPS monitoring Software can totally uninstall IRST..UPS brought his own different Power management.

Thanks for the highlight! I appreciate to know it.

I was thinking about a week buying UPS for myself...so, i'm warned now!:)

Tepid · 17 Feb 2011

brady said:

Intel management software is best left uninstalled.

Since the OP's issue appears to be resolved.

Care to elaborate on that statement?
I mean, saying something like that with no explanation at all means we can only speculate as to the motive.

sygnus21 · 17 Feb 2011

Tepid said:

brady said:

Intel management software is best left uninstalled.

Since the OP's issue appears to be resolved.

Care to elaborate on that statement?
I mean, saying something like that with no explanation at all means we can only speculate as to the motive.

I was just about to post the same question till I saw yours. So yeah, add me to the mix of those needing clarification. Something other than "Intel management software is best left uninstalled" would be enlightening

@ hogtowner - What UPS software was it out of curiousity? APC PowerChute

Thanks.

NoN · 17 Feb 2011

@hogtowner,

By the way, my settings combined with IRST are by default in Control Panel=>Power Plan "turn off hard drive", at about 15mn, "Balanced" (recommended) wired powered.

When i reset Power Plan, it still says 15mn and my laptop came set like that.

In "services.msc" i've got a service call "Power", started & automatic settle on.

IRST drivers might react as native Microsoft one, but have the plus to warn on system failures and have a control Panel.

All this are combined together and have to be tuning i guess.

Might you enable "Hybrid Mode" & enable "Disk Cache", now you have a backup battery UPS to handle power surge.

PS: If i may use UPS for myself, it will be only to pull off battery when i'm a desk.