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Dell Studio XPS 9100 Intel I10CHR AHCI controller causes trouble with sleep mode when using latest Intel RST drivers.
I think that this is an interesting little issue that I am about to describe. Hopefully my experience can benefit others in the dell community and maybe others can offer other suggestions.
I have a Dell Studio XPS9100 machine now running Windows 8. I have had it for almost 2 years now. It's a pretty decent box. Super fast etc, etc. I recently decided to do some upgrades... Specifically move my OS to an SSD and obtain a 4TB internal drive.
The first problem I had to solve was to get the OS to recognize the full 4TB drive capacity. After puttering around the internet I found that the problem was my "ancient" 2010 I10CHR AHCI controller driver. (I actually found the answer here on the dell community forum!) I downloaded version 11.7.0.1013 from Intel's web site and just like magic, I could recognize the full capacity of my hard drive. Joy to World!
Unfortunately, not long after this glorious experience, I discovered that my machine would not wake up out of Sleep mode. At first, I thought that it was an issue with the Samsung 840 SSD drive that I'd installed but further diligent investigation narrowed the issue down to the I10CHR AHCI driver. My original driver version installed from the factory was 9.6.0.1014. However, that's the one that wouldn't allow my full drive capacity to be recognized.
So at this point, I decided to simply tell the Power Management framework to never let my machine sleep. I figure that I can always shut down my computer if I won't be using it for extended periods of time. With the OS on an SSD drive, restart is very fast.
I suspect that if I get a new internal SATA card (maybe one of the SATA 6 ones) and then abandon the SATA controller on the motherboard then my problems should go away. The new SATA card would come with its own driver software anyway. Worst case, I'd still have to de-install the Intel drivers but that should be fine. SATA cards are pretty cheap anyway.
If anyone else has had a similar experience and have other options that don't involve buying a new SATA card then I am all ears.
Ian
osprey4
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June 29th, 2013 13:00
Ian,
I'm actually surprised 9.6 didn't work with that 4TB hard drive. Of course, there are other versions in between 9.6 and 11.7 you could try.
mcfari
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June 29th, 2013 17:00
I tried at least one other 11.x version but there is another 9.6 version that I have not tried. I might do so later tonight. It's 9.6.4.1002. I would be very surprised that a 2010 driver would be able to deal with a 4TB drive though.
plaxmol
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June 30th, 2013 17:00
See my reply at the end of this thread:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/disk-drives/f/3534/t/19462893.aspx
I don't know what your experience will be if you include SSD, but I have a 4TB drive working on the same model XPS and drive controller with sleep behaving correctly (so far).
plaxmol
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July 2nd, 2013 20:00
Did you check page 2 of the other thread?
I came up with a bit of a hack to get the XPS 9100 to use Intel's current 12.5.0.1066 drivers. The drivers can't be installed normally, but the two sys files can be copied manually and Windows will boot with them. I have had my 9100 sleep and wake several dozen times now with the two sys files in place and it has performed properly every time.
The only question mark would be if you're using SSD. I don't have an SSD in my system. Not sure if it would make any difference.
mcfari
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July 2nd, 2013 20:00
Hi plaxmol. thanks for replying. I am confused though. I read your reply at the end of the other thread and it sounds like you are agreeing with my experiences. However, on this thread you are indicating that you are fine?
mcfari
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July 3rd, 2013 14:00
Hi plaxmol. Now I understand. I had actually ignored the 12.5.0.1066 drivers on the Intel site because the ReadMe file didn't list out support for the I10CHR controller. I suspect that the SSD drive itself has nothing to do with the issue so I am not worried about that. I am using Windows 8 64 bit and not Windows 7 64 bit but somehow I doubt that this will make a difference either.
I will try your technique to see what happens. Based on your experiences, it would appear that Intell did something to fix the sleep issue in the 12.5.x drivers.
By the way, I had also been considering simply using a new SATA card and plugging my internal 4TB driver into that! However, I am very curious now as to whether your technique will work. I will definitely try it out tonight and then reply back to the post. Stay tuned!
mcfari
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July 4th, 2013 06:00
Well, plaxmol, I tried your suggestion and it sort of worked. I put my computer in sleep mode and at first it seemed like it was going to work. The power light started to flash and when I hit the keyboard or mouse, the computer woke up. However, that was where the good times stopped. Although the computer display would come back on, it would either get frozen on the lock screen or it would return to the desktop and freeze. I could still shutdown the computer and come back to exactly where I left off but I didn't consider that a true success story.
Now, it certainly is true that you have a Win 7 system and I have a win 8 and maybe you are right about my SSD drive being a potential difference. It's not clear.
What is clear is that even though I purchased my studio XPS 9100 in mid 2011 and I wouldn't have thought that 2 years would have been a long time from a driver support perspective, it would appear that it was a lifetime. Proper Intel RST support has moved on beyond the I10CHR driver.
I am going to try out my new SATA 6 card with internal ports and restore the original driver. It's clear to me that the sleep mode function is very finely tuned into the driver controller software and once we get past the 9.x series, barfage ensues.
mcfari
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July 4th, 2013 10:00
I installed my SATA III 6GBps card today. There were some quirks with that setup to be sure but ultimately I ended up with a card that allowed me to divorce my SSD and my other internal hard drive away from the motherboard SATA controllers. For good measure I went back to an earlier version of the I10CHR controller drivers (just in case I ever needed to link up an internal drive back to the motherboard) and now my sleep functions are back on track.
This has certainly been a very odd episode.
By the way, while I was using the higher level RST drivers shutdown wouldn't quite work either. You'd select the Shutdown function and the computer would say that it was shutting down but the power light wouldn't go off. You had to push it to complete the process.
Crazy, crazy stuff.
plaxmol, Thank you for your suggestions. It came close to solving my issues. Very close.
Ian
plaxmol
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July 4th, 2013 14:00
Thanks for the update. What you're describing is very similar to what I saw before the "upgrade". I did have one crash this morning, so even for me, I think the new drivers only make it less likely. Perhaps I'll have issues once a week now instead of everyday.
I completely agree that the controller is not so old that it should already be unsupported. I don't like the idea that technology, no matter how new or how expensive, should be treated as disposable. These were not low end PCs.
I'll probably end up adding a controller like you did.