Intel Rapid Start Technology (IRST / IRSTRT) on Samsung Notebooks

Can anyone help me? It seems like IRST doesn't work unless I start the manager. The service is running but under regedit, the timer is set to 0.

 

(i) Are you running with full administrator rights? (ii) Can you access RapidStartConfig in the notification area?

John

 

I returned my PC and it turned out to be a hardware issues, so I bought a new one and are just finished doing a fresh Win 7 install. Now rapid start works
I did manually install everything, also creating the sleep partition manually. I tried installing everything first with Easy Software manager, but it just says "Model or operating system not supported".
Would be interesting to know why.

 

Hey.

I have a Samsung 9-series (NP900X4C-A01SE) laptop that i bought some few days ago.

The first thing i did after i got it was to delete everything on the SSD drive and then install Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) from scratch. And i did that.

Now i did realize that i had lost the 'Intel Rapid Start Technology' functionality. So i had to do this to be able to get it to work again.

1. Do the things explained here: Re: Intel Rapid Start Technology - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

2. Remove the Intel Rapid Start Technology software completely from the laptop (If you have it installed).

3. Remove the Easy Settings software completely to if you have that installed.

4. Reboot the laptop.

5. Now install the 'Intel Rapid Start v1.0.0.1015 software. I did it by clicking the 'Inst.exe' file.

6. Reboot the laptop.

7. Now install the Easy Settings v1.1.1.4 software.

8. Now reboot the laptop again.

9. Go to 'Start' menu, then go ro run. Then write in Regedit and press enter.

10. Then Navigate to HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Intel\irstrt\Parameters, and change the values for "InvisibleMode" and "HideMessagePrompts" both to zero (0).

11. Reboot.

12. After reboot, there should be an icon that looks like a blue power button in the bottom right task tray. When you open, there will be an error message, but after you change one of the the timer settings to anything and press "save", you'll get a notification saying "Status: Intel Rapid Start Technology Turned On", and that's when you know it's working.

And after this, it's working for me

 

I just finished a clean install, and have everything working except for the Rapid Start.
So, I am following the second half of your instructions for a new Windows install, and ignoring the first set of instructions, correct?

OK, so on a new installation of Windows on an X3B, per your #4. you are saying to use 1.0.0.1007, not 1.0.0.1015, and not one followed by the other?
Do I need to remove the Easy Settings Utility before I start?

 

You might want to first try the steps in the post just above yours. It is possible that Samsung have fixed a few bugs since I started this thread a few months ago.

John

 

Thanks.
Mainly wondered about the 2 versions of Rapid Start, and if both had to be applied.
Since you had last edited your first post of the thread in May, and since 1.0.0.1015
came out in April, I figured that there had not been any changes since then from Samsung.

Guess I will just image what I have on this S9 so far, and then try trial and error with the
Rapid Start.

Tom:

Confused about your Step #1.
This is a Dell thread, and 80%+ of it refers to Dell BIOS/Firmware revisions,
and also enabling IRST in Dell Bios/Firmware, none of which is applicable to
the Series 9. In fact, I did not see anything in that 4 page Dell thread that
would be applicable to us here. Please clarify.

 

Nothing I have done will create the 4+ GB hibernate partition.

 

I think maybe he meant manually creating an iFFS partition before all of this. I'm just starting to mess with this, but to the people that have gotten this working, did you manually create the partition or did you let the software do it for you?

 

I have not read any reference to anyone here creating the partition manually.

 

How many primary partitions do you have? Is there more than 4GB spare space on C:? The scripts to make space for and create the hibernation partition look like:

"select disk 0
select volume C
shrink desired = 4396 noerr"

"select disk 0
create partition PRIMARY size = 4396 noerr
set ID = 84 override"

Or does the partition already exist in Disk Management?

John

 

No, there is no 4GB partition showing in Disk Management.
That is the total problem.

I have just one primary 119GB partition, and the 100MB Windows 7 one.
I have over 100GB free on the primary.

I deleted the recovery partition, and all other partitions before doing a fresh install
of Win 7 Ultimate, and also did a secure erase.

I keep checking Disk Management after I try anything, and after reboots for the 4GB
partition, and it just never gets created.


Should I try to create it manually?
If that did succeed in creating the 4GB hibernate partition,
what would I do next?

If it would be running Rapid Start utility, which version?

 

My current understanding is that Easy Settings will create the partition. Did you try switching on the Intel Rapid Start Technology (bottom of General page in Easy Settings)? If that has no effect try installing Intel Rapid Start Technology and then enabling it. if that doesn't work try uninstalling / reinstalling Easy Settings and IRST.

And if that doesn't work, try manually creating the partition using Diskpart and the commands given above.

John

 

Will keep trying.

 

I finally got mine working. I had to install it using the Easy Software Manager. For some reason the IRST wouldn't install from the download off the Samsung driver page. I did not manually create the partition. It was created for me. This was from a clean windows install BTW.

 

Do you have an X3B like me, or an X3C.

 

Sorry, X3C.

 

I am getting somewhere now.

I had Disk Defragmenter turned off since this is an SSD,
and you can not shrink a volume with Disk Defragmenter turned off.
I had forgotten that, but then remembered it from the past.

Now, I have the hibernate partition created, and Rapid Start installed. :thumbsup:

I had installed Rapid Start 1.0.0.1007, then tried to remove it, and then
I installed 1.0.0.1015.

Now, in the Add/Remove Programs, the version of Rapid Start listed is 1.0.0.1021
but in ESM it shows Rapid Start version 1.0.0.1007. Is that a problem, or am I ok?
Kind of funny that it does not list 1.0.0.1015 in either place.

I wanted to know this before I start trying to fool with the registry and the timers.

 

I wasn't aware of the disk defragmenter issue but leave Windows to figure out that it shouldn't defrag an SSD. Windows 7 is meant to be SSD aware (perhaps a WEI score >5.9 flips a switch somewhere) and tells it to use TRIM but not other defragging.

I wouldn't worrry about conflicting version numbers. My ESM thinks that I don't have IRST installed on my X3B but 1.0.0.1021 is listed under Add / Remove Programs. Is your Blue IRST button and the timer working?

John

 

It is now finally working, yes.
Thanks!

For your #5, it only worked when I clicked SETUP.EXE.
Clicking INST.EXE never worked for me.

After correcting having Disk Defragmenter turned off, which was my big error,
I tried your method clocking INST.EXE in #5 several times, and the Samsung installation "please wait wheel icon"
flashed for a bit before and after the reboot for Rapid Start 1.0.0.1015.

Only when I clicked SETUP.EXE did I get the Intel (not Samsung) Rapid Start screen which properly installed the utility.

Other than that, your method worked like a champ!
Thanks!

 

I've installed and de-installed and rebooted and rebooted and rebooted for many hours now, reading every post and following the instructions in this thread, but still cannot get IRST to work.

I have always had the hibernation partition - from the base install. When I did a clean OS install, I left all the partitions as-is. I tried deleting the hibernation partition, but DiskManager only gives me "Help" for an option when I right-click it (and it's no help!).

The option to turn on IRST is in Easy Settings and it is turned on. I never get any registry entries under HKLM/... ... /IRST - no "parameter" key.

Occasionally (not very often!), I see the "Intel Rapid Start Technology Manager" program in the Start menu, but nothing happens when I run it - it never shows up in Task Manager. I've never seen the blue icon in the system tray.

This is WAY too much work. Considering it takes about 10 seconds to shut down and about the same to start up, I guess I'll have to live without it! I'm going to bed!

bert

 

I share your frustration. You would need to delete the hibernation partition using diskpart or partition manager software. It would be worth trying this and then expanding C into the empty space. Perhaps also uninstall Easy Settings before removing the partition then reinstall afterwards.

John

 

I deleted the hibernation partition with Acronis Disk Director. When I rebooted, a dialog indicated that the hibernation partition would be created (at this point both EasySettings and IRST were installed).
But still no luck.

I uninstalled both EasySettings and IRST and deleted the hibernation partition. When I rebooted, here's what I had (see attachment below): (Drive D is a external DVD)

I ran the inst.exe from the downloaded IRST - a dialog appears indicating it will take a few minutes. It shows up in Task Manager as "running", but nothing happens. I wait 6 or 7 minutes - still nothing. I end the task. I now run the install from ESM - it takes 8 seconds or so and indicates it's installed. I close ESM and reboot. A dialog appears indicating an install will take a few minutes. It goes away in about 5 seconds. But IRST is NOT installed. I go back into ESM and IRST is still available to be installed.

I install IRST from ESM again and reboot again. IRST is still not installed (not in list of what can be un-installed in "Programs & Features".

Now I install IRST and EasySettings together from ESM (IRST took it's usual 8 seconds and EasySettings took a LONG time to install).

Reboot again.
A dialog indicating an "Install may take a few minutes" appears for 8 seconds.

In EasySettings - IRST is turned on, but there's no hibernation partition. So I turn IRST off and reboot. I then turn IRST back on and get a dialog about the hibernation partition being created - I let it be created and reboot (for the last time!).

I now have a hibernation partition but IRST is not installed.

IRST apparently won't install on my computer, although at times yesterday, I had seen it installed, but it wouldn't run.

bert


P.S. I read the README.TXT that comes with IRST and it indicated that the setup program had to be run as administrator - I hadn't been doing that. I had been using ESM and the download I got from the Samsung web site to install IRST. The download was on a DVD. I tried running from the DVD as admin, but no luck - nothing ran. I decided to copy the Intel driver folder to the SSD and run it from there. Once I did that, and ran setup.exe as administrator, I actually got an install program with prompts. Somehow, it wouldn't run from the DVD.

After running this, IRST was installed.

But, Even though the "Intel Rapid Start Technology Manager" app is in my Start Menu, running it does nothing - it doesn't even show up in Task Manager.

 

One thought: You can only have a maximum of 4 primary partitions on one HDD. If the recovery partition is also counted as a primary partition then the system won't want to recreate your hibernation partition.

John

 

It's creating the hibernation partition OK - it's just that the management software isn't running and nothing shows up in the registry or system tray.

Just for laughs, how can I test if the system is hibernating - maybe its working without me knowing it!

bert

 

This is my verision: P900X4C-A03US. I assumed IRST was working correctly until I read this thread. I have no blue icon in the notification area, and I believe my laptop only goes to sleep and never hibernates, since it's always up and running in about a second of lifting the lid? Is this correct, if the computer actually hibernated it would need about ten seconds to start? The first night I had the computer I closed the lid and when to bed, and the next morning the battery dropped about 6%.

So, I have been considering deleting the recovery partition. Is the first stage to my plan of attack to disable IRST in easy settings and then delete the hibernation and recovery partitions? Or is there a way for me to delete just the recovery partition and get the IRST to work separately? I am a bit confused how to exactly know if IRST is working properly, or how to even check driver versions and such.

Edit: I can not find this registry key: HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Intel\irstrt\Parameters

 

If it is hibernating then it takes around 10 seconds to wake up. Another clue is if you have timer entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Intel\irstrt\Parameters.

Your evidence indicates that Samsung still haven't got IRST working properly in the notebooks they are shipping. I would start by re-installing the IRST driver. After that, work through this thread.

John

 

The registry key ends at "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Intel\irstrt\" - no "Parameters" key, so I guess it's not working.

At this point, I will just uninstall IRST, delete the hibernation partition, and let Windows create it's own hibernation file with the space used by the hibernation partition.

Thanks for your help, but I'm not sure if IRST is worth this much work!

bert

 

Messing with this IRST thing late Friday night after a few drinks with friends is maybe not the best time to fiddle, but what's done is done. After following the reinstillation, editing the registry, and rebooting several times there was no blue icon in the notification area. I searched 'Intel' from the start menu and found the IRST program. It prompted me to run it. Immediately I was given an error message, but clicking through opened the little console. I set it to 30 minutes. The rest of the points were already ticked at on. After rebooting the computer the icon did show up in the notification area. Clicking on it did not bring up an error message, so i'm going to unplug this laptop, close the lid, and see where I'm at tomorrow or in a few hours as it were.

 

I always have the icon in the notification area but after about 3 reboots I find that clicking on the icon brings up that error message and I have to reset the timer. It's something I try to remember to check after rebooting.

John

 

Hibernation success! The laptop took about ten seconds to wake, and the battery dropped from 80% to 79%. I'll check the error message over the next few reboots. Now that I have IRST working, if I want to delete the recovery partition, do I have to disable IRST and delete the hibernation partition as well and go through this whole mess again?

 

Yes, that passed the test. Now you've succeeded once then you know that you can succeed again. If you delete the recovery partition then you can either directly put a data partition into the same space, which is easiest because you don't need to touch the IRST partition, or you disable IRST delete its partition, expand C: to fill all the space, then re-enable IRST / recreate its partition. There is a third possibility that I don't think anyone has tried: Use Disk Management software to move the hibernation partition to the end of the drive then expand C into the remaining space. I went for the first option.

John

 

I may wait until Windows 8 is released, before I mess with it.

 

I don't think my IRST is auto starting. How do I change the properties to run as administrator?

 

First check if RapidStartConfig.exe is running as a process in Task Manager. If it is, then you need to make it visible. If it's not running, see this guidance for Run As Administrator.

John

 

It doesn't seem to be sticking. I'll keep messing with it.

 

Hey.

I'm just gonna ask this to make sure that the IRST thing is working.

What do i have to check or do to be 110% sure that my IRST is working on my Samsung NP900X4C?

And what should the timer in the IRST settings be at to be most effective?

My current timer is set to 30 minutes. But what will happen if i set it to 0 minutes for example?

And how many seconds should it normally take from when i open my laptop until i'm in Windows again if the IRST is working like it should?

After i have let the laptop been closed over the night and when i then opens the laptop, then it takes about 6-8 seconds before it's in Windows 7 again. Is that normal if that's the IRST?

 

Resume from sleep takes a couple of seconds. Resume from hibernation is nearer 10 seconds.

The other test is to disconnect the PSU overnight and put the computer to sleep. If the battery has drained by ~1% then hibernation is working. If the drain is ~8% then it's been stuck in sleep.

John

 

Update on my IRST settings. Once I reboot the computer, I have to re-run the IRST, and it is placed back into the notification area. Though a bit annoying, it's not a hard thing to remember to do. I guess that's where i'm at now.

 

That's similar to my situation, except I only have to restart every second or third reboot.

John

 

Intel Rapid Start is not showing in my notifications tray. I did a bit of investigation and found that IRS was not running in Task Manager. I tried to start (as Admin) RapidStartConfig.exe but I get a message saying 'Your system does not appear to have Intel Rapid Start Technology enabled'

It is enabled in EasySettings and the driver ( 1.0.0.1015) appears to be installed (according to Easy Sofware Manager). Control Pane shows it as installed with version no 1.0.0.1021

Any ideas? Should i try re-installing the driver and if so, where is best to get it from?

I think possibly the cause of my problems is that I deleted the Hibernation partition (along with the recovery partition to free space) but forgot to disable IRST first. I then disabled it and re-enabled it and the partition was re-created.

Thanks in advance.
N

 

Still stuck here ... any ideas anyone ?

 

I would start by reinstalling the latest IRST driver package and Easy Settings.

John

 

Can I add an idea here.... Also have (maybe had...) the same problem as you: IRST fails to load randomly. Then you have to uninstall, install again, etc... I think I solved my problem with that. All I did was delay the IRST startin task manager for 5 minutes (enough time to system load completely), and until now, the IRST icon shows up in taskbar without a problem, and IRST is working well.
My theory is that IRST needs some specific component to be loaded in windows, in order to run (don't ask me which), and maybe it's starting BEFORE that component is loaded, so, it fails to start. I delayed IRST by 5 minutes, already rebooted my machine several times, uninstalled old AV, installed new, cleanups, updates, etc, and so far, so good.

Hope this well help you.

 

Hi

Just bought a new NP900X3C Series 9 13.3" with Sandisk U100 SSD and I am trying to install Truecrypt on it. After every install I get a blue screen (BSOD) and have to roll back to last restore point. This is before encrypting the disk, just the installation is enough to give BAD_POOL error. Researching this it could well be related to IRST.

Has anyone successfully installed Truecrypt on this one? Did it work with IRST enabled or did you have to disable it first?

Samsam

 

Interesting thought. I've now set my IRST process to Automatic (delayed start) and wait to see if my problem of IRST sometimes not working properly after a reboot is fixed.

It wouldn't surprise me if IRST is causing a problem. On resume it by-passes both BIOS and Windows passwords.

John

 

I have a series 5, recent, with IRST and truecrypt, and works without anyproblem. Are you trying to encrypt an entire drive...? That maybe the problem... I have a single file encrypted, 500 Mb that sync with dropbox, and haven't had any problems.
But if you have a problem by simply installing it, there must but something else messing with it, probably the iSSD. Have you already updated everything? BIOS, drivers, Windows, etc...?

 

Yes, entire drive, and all the drivers are current.

I am considering wiping the ssd and reinstalling only Windows partition and regular hibernate support. I would like to be sure though that it works, before otherwise restoring the Samsung/IRST setup would be quite a hassle...

I would never carry my laptop around without full disk encryption, possibility of data and identity theft would be too great. I am disappointed to find the default setup not even asking a Windows password on resume from sleep!

Samsam

 

The part of asking pass from resume/sleep is easy to fix.

If your windows is working fine, there's no need to format and install again. And by the way: you are going to encrypt the ENTIRE system (Windows) drive, and use Hibernation? I may be wrong, but I think that's impossible... Hibernation reads the hiberfil.sys file when waking-up, and it must be on the windows partition, but that file is encrypted (with truecrypt), and there's no OS running to decrypt it. There are several software aroung that manage the indentiy personal files issue if you're laptop is stolen. If I where you, I would make an encrypted file to use with Truecrypt, with enough size for your files, and search for a solution for the internet browser (auto erasing history, secure file deletion, etc...). I don't think encrypting the entire drive is a solution. There may be other problems besides the hibernation problem... You can always also setup BIOS passwords (HDD, user...).

EDIT: after searching a bit, truecrypt seems to support hibernation in Windows systems. Thats new to me... But also seems to have some flaws, and not working at 100%.

 

Finally got this working!! I had tried all suggestions and was actually just going to live without IRST but then I started having other problems (RAM usage going up to 7GB after startup with practically nothing running - think it was either due to new driver for bluetooth or the touchpad).

Anyway, I basically started from scratch by re-cloning from the SSD that came with the laptop on to my new 256GB SSD. I switched off IRST in Easy Settings (which may have been the missing step last time that cause the problems), wiped the Hibernation and Recovery Partitions, re-booted and switched it back on. I made the registry changes , rebooted. Then I kicked off RapidstartConfig.exe and the icon appeared in the tray.


Only problem I have now is that I have to manually start RapidStartConfig.exe or it won't hibernate automatically. In the posts above (John, Mata), do you mean delaying RapidStartConfig.exe or the irstrtsv.exe (i.e. the service) ?