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Optane reporting SMART errors - CrystalDiskInfo shows no SMART errors
A week or so ago my wife's laptop - a Dell Inspiron 17 - 3793 - started displaying Optane popups reporting SMART errors. I downloaded CrystalDiskInfo, ran it, and it showed no SMART errors. I read somewhere on the web that this could be errors in the Optane cache rather than in the drive itself. Unfortunately, I know nothing about Optane so don't know how serious this is, but it sounds bad.
I got into Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management function, and selected "Intel Optane Memory". It tells me "Your sysetem is not Optane Memory ready" and "There are no valid disk pairs in your system". Whether or not there is any Optane memory, Optane code must be running since it's reporting an error. Should I just disable it and see what happens? I can uninstall Optane Management?
BTW #1, I usually don't have access to this laptop so it will take me a while to act upon any suggestions I get here.
BTW #2, the laptop is running with very old BIOS. I have tried updating it, but the last 10 BIOS upgrades have caused failures in the wireless adapter. (I reported this to Dell last January and they said it would be fixed in a future BIOS upgrade, but there have been 5 upgrades since then with no fix. Hence, the laptop is back on a very old version of BIOS.) The old BIOS could be involved in the Optane/SMART error but that wouldn't explain when the Optane/SMART error just started last week.
Saltgrass
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August 15th, 2022 13:00
All I can tell you is Optane memory is meant to take the place of the small SSD which. at one time, was used to speed up operations on HDDs. I am not sure if it is appropriate to run a drive utility on that type of device.
It is run using a RAID configuration and the Intel utility should be what is used to set that up.
I don't have such a system, so I cannot be more specific.
Errors may just start perhaps due to of some type of update.
Pokeefe0001
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August 15th, 2022 21:00
Since the laptop is not using Optane I'd like to get rid of it rather than ignore the popups. I gather that the Optane driver has replaced Intel's RST drivers so I guess I need to keep that, but is it safe to uninstall the Optane Management stuff and/or disable it in BIOS?
Pokeefe0001
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August 16th, 2022 09:00
Thank you. I'll try that the next time I have access to the laptop - probably later today.
Saltgrass
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August 16th, 2022 09:00
Not having a system I can check limits what I can suggest for your situation. But I seem to remember the SATA drivers had an option to not install the Optane Memory drivers.
Maybe you could repair or reinstall those drivers and see if such an option is available.
ejn63
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August 16th, 2022 10:00
Before you make any changes, there are two possible configurations:
A spinning hard drive plus an optane cache drive (based on your description, this is not what you have) or
An Optane-boosted QLC SSD (aka H10 drive).
If you have the second one, you cannot disable Optane -- if that part of the drive is malfunctioning, the entire SSD will need to be replaced (it's not a separate cache drive, it's built into the Intel SSD).
What do the Dell diagnostics show (F12 at powerup)?
Pokeefe0001
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August 16th, 2022 11:00
I don't have access to the laptop at the moment so I can't run the Dell diagnostics, but, as I said earlier in the thread, Optane Memory and Storage Management function reports "Your system is not Optane Memory ready" and "There are no valid disk pairs in your system". The drive is a Samsung PM991a.
ejn63
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August 16th, 2022 14:00
That's an NVMe drive - and since there's only one NVMe slot in the system, there cannot also be an optane drive.
Pokeefe0001
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August 16th, 2022 14:00
OK. So I'm back to my original problem: Optane (and I assume I mean the Optane management stuff or maybe the Optane driver) is reporting SMART errors that appear in the drive's SMART data (according to the CrystalDiskInfo product. The Windows Event log says the source is "RST Middleware".
If these are bogus errors, how to I get rid of the popup and the events? Some web hits recommend disabling Optane notifications in Windows settings, but that doesn't seem like a very satisfying solution.