W520 BSOD iastor.sys with STOP 0x1D

Hi All,

I am trying to resolve random BSOD on my W520 (usually happen about once a week or so).

After enabling driver verifier, it booted with BSOD pointing to iastor.sys and STOP on 0x1D, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

I already installed the latest Intel RST drivers, but it didn't help.

What could be a problem?

Thanks!

 

Intel Rapid Storage Technology Console with Device Driver for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), Vista (32-bit, 64-bit) and XP (32-bit, 64-bit) - ThinkPad W510, W520, W530, W701 and W701ds <- Do you already have this Intel RST driver installed?

 

I have updated Intel Rapid storage AHCI driver via ThinkVantage system update. it shows version 11.2.0.1006 - the same as in your link.


Any suggestions?

 

Have you run the PC Doctor diagnostics on your machine? I've seen a bad drive trigger iastor.sys to BSOD the system.

 

No, not the PC Doctor, but I have run the Intel SSD Toolbox full scan, mem86 and SFC scan.

Do you mean that one - PC doctor?

 

Do you already have the latest firmware for your SSD? What model is it?

 

Intel SSD 320 160GB. Firmware 4PC1LE04.

 

For whatever it's worth, I just got the EXACT same problem with the exact same error message on my W520 with Intel 520 SSD.

I enabled driver verifier and it would crash every single time on startup with the same error message you indicated above.

Here's a link to a thread I posted on another forum and their advice on my situation:

Repeated BSOD's - about once a day

I think I have resolved it by uninstalling the latest Lenovo RST driver; it booted fine to the previous version. I went one step further by uninstalling THAT as well, and I'm now running on the standard MS AHCI driver.

No crashes for about 3-4 days now, and even benchmarks don't show any worse performance than when IRST was installed.

I don't know for sure, but my crashes started around 4-5 days ago, and it appears that Lenovo's latest IRST was pushed at the start of July.

Hope this helps!

 

Thank you! I will try this and get back with the results. How have you rolled back to Generic MS driver? I cannot find the RST in Device Manager...

 

I rolled back to the MS driver by going to Device Manager, under 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' and uninstalling the Intel storage controllers there. I also checked the 'Delete drivers' checkbox. After uninstalling the 1006 drivers, it rolled back to the previous one after a reboot (can't remember what version).

I uninstalled that one as well and after another reboot, it was running the MS driver. Hope this is of help!

 

Thank you! After removing IRST driver, it is not listed under 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' anymore, though DriverView still shows iastor.sys in the list of loaded drivers..... strange. I had to remove also the 2nd Intel driver under 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers'. Now there are only 'Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller' and 4 ATA Channels listed - No Intel whatsoever.

I have run performance tests - before and after. It is interesting:

Before (with latest IRST):


After removing Intel RST:


After rolling ALL back to MS generic:


What puzzles me is that (a) the performance on generic MS drivers is higher and (b) iastor.sys is still loaded

 

Hi,

I have no experience using AS-SSD to bench my systems (I use ATTO), but those figures look pretty close to me.

Regardless, a stable system is certainly more important to me than a slightly higher-benching system, so the choice would be clear to me!

Have you run Windows with Driver Verifier on, and IRST uninstalled? According to what I've read, if you can run Windows without a BSOD for something like 36 hours, you should already have successfully isolated and solved the problem.

 

Please see my edited post - the performance on generic MS drivers is higher than with Intel IRST.

Update !!!

I have run driver verifier with iastor.sys selected - no BSOD on boot! I cannot understand why iastor.sys is still in the list of loaded drivers. How can I get rid of it completely?

 

Hi,

I'm really not quite sure about that. What I do know is that with IRST installed (and visible in Device Manager), my system would bsod every single time on the swirling Windows logo, with Driver Verifier enabled.

After switching to running the MS AHCI driver, it would boot every single time to desktop (still with DV enabled) with no problems.

I just downloaded DriverView and you're right, I do see iastor.sys in the list of drivers. I'm not sure how that works, sorry I can't be of more help. I would still suggest that you try running DV (Verifier) now though, because uninstalling IRST from Device Manager definitely made a difference for me.

 

I can only surmise that iastor.sys is loaded, but somehow not actually used (with the MS driver used instead). As you've already noticed it solves the 100% bluescreen problem on boot, without an appreciable decrease in performance.

What I would do is to keep DV enabled and use your PC normally for a day, and see if you get any further bluescreens before calling the problem solved.

 

Confirmed - no BSOD with driver verifier enabled - selecting only iastor.sys. Before, I always had BSOD with DV on boot, though the system has been relatively stable, no BSOD for a week or so with DV disabled.

Anyway, I hope we resolved our problems - thank you for the tip!

Let's wait for a new IRST release from Intel.

 

The symptoms you encountered sound remarkably similar to mine before I gave up and decided to find a fix. I think it's some incompatibility between IRST and SSDs (even though these SSDs were made by Intel themselves!).

Do post back if you get any other bluescreens, it's only been a couple days since I uninstalled IRST and I am crossing my fingers that no other issues crop up.

 

BTW, you may want to tune your SSD settings in the Intel SSD Toolbox. After generic driver installation all my settings were gone.

I am running more performance tests - all confirm that it is better under the original MS driver. The access time and 4k read/write has improved by about 70-80%, almost twice.

Perhaps other guys would also want to roll IRST back to compare benchmarks.

 

Hi,

I just ran the SSD Toolbox and things seemed to remain the same. Prefetch/Superfetch still disabled, etc.

I'm not sure what IRST contributes, it's just strange to me that an Intel driver would cause a BSOD with an Intel drive. I just hope things stay stable from here with the MS driver.

 

I have some updates. Today I have had another BSOD, though the PC has benn running flawlessly for about 7 days.
The error: BUGCODE_USB_DRIVER 0xfe
This time I checked events - before each crash it shows:

File System Filter 'cmdGuard' (6.1, ‎2012‎-‎03‎-‎11T16:47:16.000000000Z) has successfully loaded and registered with Filter Manager.

The next event is always:

The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

I am just wondering if you also have Comodo firewall installed.

 

Hi,

No, I do not have Comodo firewall instead, I use MSE instead.

According to Windows the last unexpected shutdown was the 5th of July, which was before I rolled back the driver, so similarly to your PC mine hasn't been shutting down either.

 

Anyway, I have removed Comodo firewall and enabled a simple the Win 7 default one + Firewall Control (free edition). Let's see how it goes.

Now I think that Comodo cold be one of the most likely suspects for BSOD:

1. All BSOD critical events followed Comodo 'cmdGuard' directly.
2. All BSOD happened while browsing the Internet.