Issue
After an updated release of Intel’s Matrix Storage Manager [v.8.9.0.1023] and chipset drivers for Windows, you experience unexpected system timeouts, lockups, pausing, or freezing. The following event is recorded in the System event log:
Log Name: System
Source: iaStor
EventID: 9
Level: Error
The device, \Device\Ide\iaStor0, did not respond within the timeout period.
Cause
The issue is the result of Aggressive Link State Power Management (ALPM) on the PCI-Express bus negotiating a lower power state for the link between the controller and disk when there is no activity. When ALPM works, disk requests are queued, the serial link revived, and the queued requests are sent to the relevant disk; this requires a disk that supports ALPM.
Resolution
Modify the advanced settings of your active power management scheme in Windows to turn PCI Express Link State Power Management off.
Commentary
Searching for a solution yielded a number of possibilities.
Setting the value of:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaSTOR\Parameters\PortN\LPMDSTATE 0
as discussed by Derek Seamandid not resolve my issue.
Renaming
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaSTOR\Parameters
to
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\iaSTOR\Parameters.dist
as suggested by Paul’s Computer Service was also ineffective. At the time I was running the latest set of drivers for my platform. Caveat emptor: the solution I outlined in this article worked for me.