Hi robj7010,

Welcome to the Community,

As suggested in this post below,it could be Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver related issue.

en.community.dell.com/.../19720322.aspx

If your system model is  Inspiron N7010 use this link to download and update the driver: lt.dell.com/.../lt.aspx

Let me know if this fixes the issue.

Thank You

to DELL-Babita S

Dell Inspiron 17r Model N7010

Dell Service Tag : Service tag removed per privacy policy>

Hi robj7010,

Did you try updating the driver as suggested in my previous reply?

Roshan,

As soon as I finish some study papers I will take a full backup and then install the new driver that you have recommended. This will probably occur mid next week.

Let me know if updating driver fixes the issue.

Hi robj7010,

Did you try updating the driver?

Downloaded the driver R263958 to the desktop as per the directions. In the Run window I typed C:\Dell\Drivers\R263958 and clicked OK. This command merely opened the"Dell\Drivers\R263958" folder. I assume that I now have to double click on the Setup.exe file. This I did, and clicked "Next" when asked. I have rebooted my laptop and am now waiting to see if the problem re-occurs. How can I verify that the R263958 driver has loaded correctly and is being used?

Hi robj7010,

Try to access Device Manager,expand Storage Controller.

If you find Intel Rapid Storage listed,right click on it,select Properties,select Drivers.It should give you the driver version.

Roshan L,

Open Device Manager. Could only locate IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers which expanded out to Intel(R) 5 Series 6 Port SATA AHCI Controller. Right click on this and opened Properties. Click on Driver Tab. Driver Provider: Intel, Driver Date: 3/03/2010, Driver Version: 9.6.1.1014. Click on Driver Details button. Driver files: C:\Windows\system32\DRIVERS\iaStor.sys. Is this correct?

The laptop is still experiencing occassional "The device, \Device\Ide\iaStor0, did not respond within the timeout period." in the Eventvwr Windows System Logs.

robj7010

Version 9.6.1.1014. is the updated IRST driver available for your system model on Dell support website.

Try installing this latest IRST driver version12.6.0.1033  directly from Intel Website : lt.dell.com/.../lt.aspx

Note: Download and install File name:f6flpy-x64.zip.It may or may not work on your system but before trying to download and update,I would suggest you to create a System Restore point to be on the safer side.For help with creating restore point refer to this link: lt.dell.com/.../lt.aspx

Have downloaded f6flpy-x64.zip. Is there any particular directory the .zip file or the contents should be in?

Unzipped file and it contains six data files. How to install?

robj7010

Roshan L,

Have you received my earlier reply?

Hi  robj7010,

Sorry was out of office and could not get back on time.

Not sure why the .exe file is not showing after extracting the f6flpy-x64.zip.file.

Try downloading and installing the file File name:SetupRST.exe directly from that link.  

Roshan,

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. Tried the driver ver 12.6, but it made no difference. Laptop will still hang intermittently for about 90 seconds when scrolling a web browser (Explorer, Firefox or Chrome) and when typing in Word or Excel files. All diagnostics (Dell PC, chkdsk) run without error. This is probably because the disk drive never spins down during these tests. The timeout seems to occur when the disk drive is not spinning and needs to wake up to retrive or write something to disk. It's during this spooling up time that a timeout is flagged. There are numerous web forums that are reporting this problem and each has a different approach to fixing the problem. Some answers suggest turning off Link State Power Management (tried that), others go so far as to modify the Registry. I must admit that the instructions supplied for Registry edits are a bit vague,

Is there any other possible solutions to this problem (since new) that you could supply?

RobJ

Hi RobJ,

Sorry could not get back to you earlier. I was out of office.

Are you still getting this error  " \Device\Ide\iaStor0 timeouts"? If there is an issue with the HDD, ideally the hardware diagnostics would give an error. Since hardware diagnostic passed without any error, you may try reinstalling Windows. This will help to eliminate Windows and registry issues(if any).

Let me know if you need help with reinstalling Windows.

Thank You