I/O hangs using ImgBurn 2.5.8.0 and SATA ODD

[NJDave]

I've been having problems trying to communicate with a SATA ODD on a brand new Dell Vostro desktop. The drive has been replaced (twice) so I rather suspect a driver problem, but since I've only experienced the problem with third-party software like ImgBurn -- Windows' native disc-reading/writing utilities (e.g. from File Explorer, both "USB flash drive" and "CD/DVD player" modes) work fine in my testing -- Dell says it's not their problem. I have NOT experienced problems with the same drive (or similar) in a USB enclosure. It feels like I've done nothing with the system the past two months but test, with different versions of Windows installed (10, 11) and different levels of patching (just-installed vs. current patching with Windows Update / Dell SupportAssist) and I'm tired of the whole thing, but since the problem is most repeatable with ImgBurn, and ImgBurn's interface allows some low-level tweaks, and the community here knows more about ODDs than Dell's customer service techs, I wanted to ask what I can try.

The problem: Intermittently, usually while changing modes (read vs. write) or cycling the drive tray, ImgBurn will hang, saying "Device Not Ready" or sometimes "Terminating Autoinsert Thread...". Other system functions start hanging as well: the Disk Management window in Computer Management app is blank; re-scanning devices in Device Manager hangs; sometimes File Explorer hangs too. System shutdown also hangs and the system must be shut down hard.

As for logs, I have little to offer at present. As I mentioned, I've done a ton of testing but I regret I wasn't really looking at ImgBurn's logs through all that. Most recently, with Windows 10 21H1 (the default config on the system) it's been hanging without much of anything in the log. EDIT: Here's where I originally referred you to an attached image that showed the log window after a hang, except the image didn't actually get posted. The log read as follows:

10:52:01 ImgBurn Version 2.5.8.0 started!
10:52:01 Microsoft Windows 8 Professional x64 Edition (6.2, Build 9200)
10:52:01 Total Physical Memory: 8,115,268 KiB - Available: 6,038,876 KiB
10:52:01 Initializing SPTI...
10:52:01 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...
10:52:16 -> Drive 1 - Info: HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GU90N A1C6-55 (D:) (SATA)
10:52:16 Found 1 DVD±RW/RAM!

...and that was it. The top window displayed "Device Not Ready (Medium Not Present - Tray Open)" though there WAS blank media in the CLOSED tray.

Note that it reports it's running on Windows 8! I'm guessing that's normal? The family tree is reported as:

ACPI x64-based PC
Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System
PCI Express Root Complex
Intel(R) 500 Series Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller (VEN_8086&DEV_43D2 - Intel - iaStorAC - v18.31.2.1034)
CD-ROM Drive (ATA HL-DT-ST DVD+/-RW GU90N) (Bus Number 0, Target Id 3, LUN 0)

By the way, Dell's recommended disc-writer utility CyberLink Power2Go hangs as well, at least in configs I've tried. When writing an ISO image to DVD, it reaches 99% completion and never completes, while the disc audibly spins down. Still, Dell calls it third-party, so no effort to fix it.

I figured I'd let the community suggest a course of action and I'd follow up. WIndows 11 is where I'd like to end up, but if you're more comfortable on Windows 10, I can stay on this. I'm hoping for some suggestions to gather more info.  Thanks for any tips!

Edited January 27, 2022 by NJDave

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Couple of things to try here..

From what I can tell, there's an updated version of your AHCI driver available. I've seen 18.36.4.1022 mentioned around when Googling. Perhaps give that a go?

Failing that, try going back to the Windows AHCI driver, which calls itself 'Standard SATA AHCI Controller'. To do that, locate your AHCI controller in Device Manager, right click it and select 'Update Driver'. Select 'Browse my computer for drivers' and then select 'Let me pick...'. You should then see the standard driver listed in the options. Select it and click Next etc. 

I'm running the standard driver without any issues... but I'm on a 300 series board, not a 500.

 

[NJDave]

9 hours ago, LIGHTNING UK! said:

Couple of things to try here..

Many thanks for your suggestions! They're MUCH more helpful than any I've received previously (ahem, from Dell).

I wasn't sure where to find the latest AHCI driver, but (for my system anyway) it's part of the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver. (Aside: system currently has the RAID functionality disabled in the BIOS, though it originally shipped with it enabled. I was thinking of enabling it for some of the testing, though that may not be necessary now; read on.)

Dell's latest customized AHCI driver is (based on Intel's) 18.31.2.1034. I installed Intel's latest generic RST driver for the platform, 18.6.1.1016, which includes AHCI driver rev 18.36.1.1016. After I installed the new driver (and checked it with Device Manager) ImgBurn still hung. The Windows AHCI driver, however, worked great.

I wound up reinstalling Windows 10, this time 21H2, in order to test Power2Go (long story, it may not have been absolutely necessary). This time, while both ImgBurn and Power2Go hung with AHCI 18.31.2.1034, both worked fine with the new Intel driver. I'm not entirely sure why my results were different, though I've seen a similar nebulous driver issue while troubleshooting a prior Intel Graphics problem on the same system. Meanwhile the Windows AHCI driver worked as well, for both products.

I'm prepared to think either/both the latest Intel driver and the Windows driver will solve the problem. I'm now installing Windows 11 to test, and hopefully stick with it. I'll post an update when I have more. Thanks again!

[dbminter]

I love Dell for their prefabricated tower PC's, but their tech support totally sucks.

[NJDave]

OK... on Windows 11, as on Windows 10, Dell's current AHCI driver is 18.31.2.1034, as part of Intel RST 18.1.2.1034. After the expected hangs with that driver, I updated to 18.36.1.1016, and experienced hangs with both ImgBurn and Power2Go. (So apparently NOT having them on Windows 10 — that one time — was an anomaly.) Windows AHCI driver works fine. I'm not sure what I gain from having the RST driver on a non-RAID system (optimized performance, supposedly?) but I don't believe there's a NEED for it if I don't want RAID. The completist in me is itching to install Windows again with RAID turned on, just to see what happens... but really, I don't want RAID on my system. Any comments?

Thanks again!

[NJDave]

2 minutes ago, dbminter said:

I love Dell for their prefabricated tower PC's, but their tech support totally sucks.

I guess I could say they're doing their best given the reality of trying to support so many users trying to do so many disparate things... on a shoestring budget... but at a gut level, I'd have to agree. On top of that they're so stingy with information it makes me want to pull my hair out.

[dbminter]

7 minutes ago, NJDave said:

I guess I could say they're doing their best given the reality of trying to support so many users trying to do so many disparate things... on a shoestring budget... but at a gut level, I'd have to agree. On top of that they're so stingy with information it makes me want to pull my hair out.

 

I gave up on their tech support nearly 2 years ago.  After times spent with their tech support, about 2 years ago, I had a relatively new XPS 8930.  After only 18 months, it developed an issue where if an external HDD was connected, precisely 45 minutes later, Windows would lock up and refuse to start on restart of PC of every time.  Repeated restores of images before the HDD's were connected worked fine, but regardless of the manufacturer, model, or size of the USB HDD, the lock ups occurred.  Even if the HDD's were disconnected on restart of Windows, Windows stubbornly refused to start.  Dell eventually wanted me to send it the entire PC to check it.  Wasn't cost effective to send it in because it was out of warranty and in order to properly test it, I'd also have to send in one of my external USB HDD's for them to connect and test with.  I probably wouldn't get that HDD back, so I just bought a new 8930.

 

And their preinstalled Dell suites are almost always full of bugs, so I uninstall them whenever I get a new Dell PC.  Particularly SupportAssist.

[NJDave]

50 minutes ago, dbminter said:

... I probably wouldn't get that HDD back, so I just bought a new 8930.

You must really like their towers. This is my first; I guess the jury's still out at present, but at this point I doubt I'd buy another. I want to get some use out of it before the warranty's up. It's mainly been a testbed since I got it.

[dbminter]

Dell towers are really easy to work inside of.  They're easy to crack open the case, easy to swap components in and out, and enough working room inside of them for someone with large hands like myself.  I'm 6 foot 6 and a half so my hands are larger than most people buying PC's.

 

For all intents and purposes, I should be building my own rigs to take into account all of this and still get what I want.  But, I've never actually done that before, so I stick with prefabricated PC's.

 

I actually tried out a Dell on LUK's recommendation 11 years ago.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Glad to read that the standard Microsoft ahci driver seems to be working ok for you.

I used to swear by the RST drivers when I was running my Z68 motherboard (driver v10 back then I think), but then heard about lots of issues when v11 came out and it doesn't appear to have gotten any better.

I'm sure the drivers are fine for hdd/ssd etc, but something obviously isn't right when it comes to optical drives.

I still only ever really buy Dell for where I work - mainly their Optiplex SFF business machines. Whilst they're in warranty, their support is great and things get fixed quickly (hardware wise). I wouldn't call them for software issues like this - but then it's my job to resolve these things and if I can't do it (with or without the aid of Google), I very much doubt a 1st line Dell tech can either.

[NJDave]

11 hours ago, LIGHTNING UK! said:

Glad to read that the standard Microsoft ahci driver seems to be working ok for you.

So far so good. I'm going to let Dell know as well. Thanks again for your help!