Z170 Pro4 Hard Drive Powering Off

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   As of installing a Z170 Pro4 last week, my data drive (not my OS drive) will audibly power off at random times. Windows has no problem accessing it in this state, and as soon as I do something that requires it, I can hear it power back on, so it's acting like a power saving feature. Problem is, this happens when it clearly shouldn't, when I'm watching a video for instance, which interrupts that task. It also happens outside of Windows, so it's not a Windows setting.

Any ideas? I do see a SATA Aggressive Link Power Management setting in the BIOS, but it's disabled, so either I am missing a setting or it's always enabled regardless of what you set it to. I am on the latest BIOS. It's also possible my drive is faulty, but I don't want to assume that and buy a new one when the problem started precisely after installing the board.

Edited by PiERiT - 16 Nov 2015 at 12:32pm

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PiERiT Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 13 Nov 2015 Status: Offline Points: 15	Post Options Post Reply Quote PiERiT Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Z170 Pro4 Hard Drive Powering Off Posted: 16 Nov 2015 at 12:26pm
	As of installing a Z170 Pro4 last week, my data drive (not my OS drive) will audibly power off at random times. Windows has no problem accessing it in this state, and as soon as I do something that requires it, I can hear it power back on, so it's acting like a power saving feature. Problem is, this happens when it clearly shouldn't, when I'm watching a video for instance, which interrupts that task. It also happens outside of Windows, so it's not a Windows setting. Any ideas? I do see a SATA Aggressive Link Power Management setting in the BIOS, but it's disabled, so either I am missing a setting or it's always enabled regardless of what you set it to. I am on the latest BIOS. It's also possible my drive is faulty, but I don't want to assume that and buy a new one when the problem started precisely after installing the board. Edited by PiERiT - 16 Nov 2015 at 12:32pm

parsec Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 04 May 2015 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 4996	Post Options Post Reply Quote parsec Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 16 Nov 2015 at 2:19pm
	When you say the drive will power down outside of Windows, what does that mean? Such as when you are in the UEFI/BIOS UI for a while, you can hear the drive power down? What is the full model name/number of the HDD that has this issue? We have never seen another complaint about this happening on your board, or any other ASRock board as far as I know. I have an ASRock Z170 board, and I've never had your problem. The SATA Aggressive Link Power Management option is by default Disabled in all ASRock boards for a long time now. The drive and the host (mother board and OS) both must support link power management or it cannot work. For a test you can set the length of time before a drive shuts off in your Windows Power Plan to Never with the Hard disk setting in Advanced Options. You could also try setting SATA Aggressive Link Power Management to Enabled for a test to see if the drive behaves differently. Since you say the drive seems to shut off randomly make me think it is the drive itself, since LPM shutdown is based on a length of time. Do you have the Intel IRST driver and Windows software package installed? If so, that also has at least one option under Performance that may affect the drive. Link Power Management is enabled by default (may be a Windows option) that you can disable with the IRST Windows software.


PiERiT Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 13 Nov 2015 Status: Offline Points: 15	Post Options Post Reply Quote PiERiT Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 17 Nov 2015 at 12:37am
	Thank you for the reply. I appreciate it. Yes, if I boot into the BIOS and wait 2-3 minutes, I can hear the drive power down. If I leave the BIOS and go into Windows, I hear it turn back on, and then 2-3 minutes after that it will turn off if I do not access it. It does really seem like a power saving thing, because it's always accessible and it comes back on as soon as I do something that requires it. My only real problem with it is that it happens at inopportune times. It's a 2TB Toshiba drive. I do not know the exact model unfortunately, but can get that later today. LPM and the setting in the power plan have always been disabled. I did find and disable the Intel RST setting as well, and rebooted, and it still happened. I even went as far as setting the drive as hot plug/external, after reading that that would flat out disable it, and same thing. I tried every combination possible as well. If you have more I can try I'd be glad to, otherwise I might just grab a cheap small drive and test that out. Edited by PiERiT - 17 Nov 2015 at 12:38am

PiERiT Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 13 Nov 2015 Status: Offline Points: 15	Post Options Post Reply Quote PiERiT Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19 Nov 2015 at 12:41pm
	I bought a brand new 1TB drive, Western Digital this time instead of Toshiba, and the same thing happens, so I'm nearly certain it's a problem with my board or the BIOS revision, or possibly Intel RST. Edited by PiERiT - 19 Nov 2015 at 12:58pm

razaron Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14 Jun 2016 Status: Offline Points: 1	Post Options Post Reply Quote razaron Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 14 Jun 2016 at 5:28pm
	Sorry for the necro. I'm in a similar, possibly the same, situation as PiERiT. I'm on windows 10. My non OS HDD's go to sleep too easily. I already have the windows power management setting set to never let the HDD sleep. Was any solution found for this? I'm getting the same problem. What's really annoying is that some games only use the hdd on specific actions (conversations in skyrim), so the hdd goes to sleep every few minutes and has to wake up again.