I have purchased a used T520 from ebay....so far I am extremely pleased.

 

I have installed an msata SSD as well as an extra HDD through Ultrabay, I made a clean install of Win 7 Pro x64 and there is nothing missing for me.

 

I am only getting a frustrating error that I have not been able to resolve:

 

Soon after I boot into windows, sometimes sooner sometimes later, and as I am actively using the computer, the system hangs for about 1 - 3 minutes and then in the event viewer it displays an error:

 

The device, \Device\Ide\iaStor0, did not respond within the timeout period.

the error refers to the HDD on the primary SATA port (not the one provided through Ultrabay).

 

A) Initially I thought it might be the preinstalled HDD (seagate 7200.4 500GB)  which only supports SATAII and might not support some advanced power management feature.

But I checked the feature through HDD Sentinel and both drives (the 2nd one is a WDC WD5000LPVX-75V0TT0 drive) support the same power management features.

 

B) Then I tried swapping the place of the two drives, putting the WD drive on the primary SATA port, but I am still getting the error and the system hang.

 

C) Then I thought it was a driver issue, but when I booth via the preinstalled HDD with preloaded software (have not yet erased the OS on it), I am not getting this error, although the driver version is the same (11.2.0.1006), and I am not getting an error then.

 

D) Then I read that some people are having problems with the Lenovo Active Protection System driver (for HDD shock sensoring) and that some resolved the problem by changing the sensor sensitivity.

I tried both

- disabling APS

- changing the sensitivity

- uninstalling the driver

but none of the above options worked

 

 

....so now I am left with two options I can think of.

1) the Primary SATA Port is faulty in part, but to be honest I have no other problem besides this

2) I will be getting the error as long as the the OS is NOT booting from the Primary SATA port, i.e. it has to boot through the Primary Port so as not to give errors....why? I have no idea...just guessing.

 

I have read on the web that some people are getting this error  only when using an SSD on the primary SATA port, but this does not apply here.

I have also read an old Lenovo announcement about this error, but in that case it was followed by a system hang, which does in my case.

 

I did not get the issue with the SATA 2 Port (Ultrabay) with either HDD.

 

Most often I will only get the iastor, event 9 error once in every session, but every now and then it will happen more than once in one session.

 

What Is your take?

What do you propose i check?

Good day.

 

When I search on iastor, I come up with a ton of references to Intel Matrix Storage Manager, and then some discussion about it being superseded by Intel Rapid Storage Technology.

 

So a couple ?s...

Is the IMSM driver somehow installed on your machine? (I don't see it as supported on the T520)

What version of the IRST driver, if any, do you have installed?

If installed, how does that compare to the most current IRST version in the T520 driver listing?

 

Full listing: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t520

IRST driver: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/products/laptops-and-netbooks/thinkpad-t-series-laptops/thinkpad-t520/downloads/DS014898

 

Regards.

Thank you for your reply.

- I dont have Intel Matrix Drivers installed
- I have Intel Rapid Storage driver installed, latest version 11.2.0.1006
- I only try to install drivers via the Lenovo System Update software, I don't install drivers etc separately.

 

PS I have edited the first post to update it with another option I had looked into, but did not give any positive results (changing the Active Protection System driver)

The latest version of Rapid Storage you can use is 12.9.4.1000; try that one.

Should I be installing drivers not tested by Lenovo?

I usually install drivers via Lenovo System Update

Also the driver update would not solve the "puzzle" as to why when I boot through the HDD - now I have also tested through the Secondary SATA port (Ultrabay) - I never get this error, even though the OS uses the same driver.

Will test it though and see.

First results are good.

i installed the latest Rapid Storage AHCI drivers from this link and I have not had any freezes with iastor, event id 9 yet.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23538/AHCI-Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Driver-for-Intel-NUC

Of course it has happened many times till now that the error might take long after booting to occur, so I am not calling this a solution yet.

If it does not show any error after some prolonged use and some reboots, I will let you know.

Since there seem to be no troubles, though, Lenovo could offer this driver instead of the older one via System Update.

After testing rigorously, I would call the use the Intel Rapid Storage drivers 12.9.0.1001 (latest version for AHCI) a success.
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23538/AHCI-Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Driver-for-Intel-NUC

I no longer get those errors and freezes.

For some reason, the older driver version causes problems in my clean install, but worked great with the pre-installed configuration. (same win7 x64 pro version)
...go figure...

Thank you @ColonelONeill for your suggestion.