S3520 get constantly "surprise removed"

[Roman_Shein]

I "inherited" a 1.2TB DC S3520. The drive report itself as being healthy. Yet it keeps to appear/disappear from the system at random.

I tried so far:

• Update firmware to latest
• Tried 4 different HBA
• Tried z77 HBA in AHCI and RAID mode
• Secure erase (erased successfully, though it wasn't easy; the drive was locked)
• Switched off "Line Power Management"

This last LPM intervention helped. Now it doesn't disappear while computer is on. Yet the thing is missing (both BIOS and Windows) on wake up after standby. Sometime even power off do not help. The drive reappear eventually. And surely my electric bill will increase slightly due to LPM hack.

The rig has 5 sata ssd. This S3520 is one of youngest probably. Other 4 work just fine, including older S4600.

I strongly suspect DevSleep. There was a well-known problem with older Intel 520, which didn't handle DevSleep properly. At one stage Intel had to create a tool to disable DevSleep on SSD side (not in OS).

Unfortunately it seems there is no option to switch off DevSleep in newer drives.

Is there any troubleshooting step that I missed?

What are my options? To ask for RMA? The drive is certainly not usable in current state.

[Santiago_A_Inte]

Hi  Roman Shein,

Thank you for contacting Intel® SSD support group with your request for assistance with Intel® SSD DC S3520 Series (1.2TB, 2.5in SATA 6Gb/s, 3D1, MLC).

Since we don’t have sufficient details about your system, we are requiring with your cooperation to provide us with some information about it. To do this, Intel® has available, the Intel® System Support Utility for Windows*; you’ll be able to download it on the following link: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25293/Intel-System-Support-Utility-for-Windows-

·        Please download the software.

·        When finished downloading it, open it and follow instructions

·        Please attach the SSU Log text file obtained on your next your reply.

To help you further with your request, It will be very helpful to receive from you, a screenshot of the “Disk Management” of windows, showing all your HDDs and partitions.

Please let us know if you might need additional support with your drive.

We will be looking forward to your reply.

Best regards,

Santiago A.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[Roman_Shein]

Here is the log.

The drive is not here, because I taking it to other place for testing.

The disk management will give you nothing, because I use storage spaces. They abstract file system from the block storage completely.

[Santiago_A_Inte]

Hi  Roman Shein,

Thank you for your reply.

We will be glad to help you with your request however it’s impossible to perform an attempt to diagnose your drive, if we don’t have the drive attached to the system, while the Intel® System Support Utility is running. SSU log file must include Storage data.

In order for us to understand your needs better, please make sure to reply with a copy of the S.M.A.R.T.S logs extracted from the Intel® SSD DC S3520 Series.

Since your drive is a Data Center unit, Intel®’s Data Center Tool (DCT) can be used to read out the S.M.A.R.T.S. attributes; to download this tool, please follow this link: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28594?v=t

Also, it’s absolutely necessary to help you further with your request, the screenshot of the “Disk Management” of windows, showing all your installed HDDs and partitions.

Please let us know if you might need additional support with your drive.

We will be looking forward to your reply.

Best regards,

Santiago A.

Intel® Customer Support Technician

Under Contract to Intel Corporation

[Roman_Shein]

Sorry, but refusal to provide any advice, while insisting to get unneeded data, looks like robot/AI behaviour. I don't think robot can help me. "it’s absolutely necessary" doesn't sound like a valid reason to spend my time for what I personally consider to be a waste of time.

For others who are humans, I have a relevant info:

I've decide to check if driver can make a difference. My Z77 chipset has stalled with Intel v12 (or 13) drivers or generic Microsoft drivers in AHCI mode. I switched to RAID, installed v. 14.8. It worked! I had no issues since then!

I do not need RAID functionality, but impair performance, so I want to test AHCI mode now. I managed to install v14.8 by extracting the driver from the RST installer. So far so good, I'll post an update.

In so far, RAID mode with a relatively recent drivers (which is an unsupported setup) is a solution to S3520 disappearance issue. AHCI mode with a newer unsupported driver is an untested area as of yet.