DSASERVICE prevents "safe removal" of external drives

[sba9231]

I'm running Intel® Driver & Support Assistant version 23.4.39.9, and I'm affected by a problem that has been reported here for several years by a number of users: the DSAService service (C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Driver and Support Assistant\DSAService.exe) keeps open handles on any external drive (disk, flash drive) that is connected after the service has started (i.e., at boot). This makes it impossible to eject ("safely remove") those drives without first stopping the service (which requires admin rights, making it essentially impossible for non-admin users to use external drives!!!).

Please fix this non-lasting issue ASAP.

[Alberto_R_Intel]

sba9231, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.

We are sorry to hear about this issue and we will be more than glad to assist you with this matter. 

In reference to this scenario, just to confirm, did you try to uninstall the Intel® DSA tool using the uninstaller:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000089221/software/software-applications.html

And then reinstall the application again:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html

If you did so and the issue remains after that, then, we will do further research on this matter to try to find a possible solution for this situation.

For us to be able to do that, please attach the SSU report so we can verify further details about the components in your platform, check all the options in the report including the one that says "3rd party software logs":

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057926/memory-and-storage.html

Additionally, please provide the logs requested in the following link:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000056654/software/software-applications.html

Any questions, please let me know.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[sba9231]

I have performed that removal + reinstall on one machine. I'll need to perform extensive testing with various types of external USB devices (USB thumb flash drives, SATA HDDs via USB adapters, SD cards via multi-slot reader....) to check if the problem is solved, first on that one machine then on all other machines.

I'll get back here with my results.

[Alberto_R_Intel]

sba9231, Thank you very much for letting us know those details.

Perfect, no problem at all, take your time to do the tests and once you get the chance, please let us know the results.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hello sba9231, I just wanted to check if you were able to perform additional testing and if you need further assistance on this matter?

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[sba9231]

Sure, could not find the time to perform those tests before today, sorry for the delay.

Here are the results:

1. with USB thumb drives, SD cards in an internal card reader, and a GPS tracker with a USB interface, "safely remove" works as expected, whether the device was connected before the system boot or after

2. with a Samsung T7 Shield USB-C SSD, or with a SATA 2.5" HDD connected via a UGREEN SATA-to-USB3 adapter, "safely remove" works only if the device is connected after the system boot. If the device is connected before system boot, DSASERVICE holds a handle to the device that prevents "safe removal."

[Alberto_R_Intel]

sba9231, No problem at all, thank you very much for sharing those results.

We are sorry to hear the issue between Intel® DSA and external drives remains after trying the troubleshooting step suggested previously.

We will now do further research on this matter to try to find a possible solution. As soon as I get any updates, I will post all the details on this thread.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[sba9231]

No problemo.

Just curious: are you able to repro the issue?

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hello sba9231, I just received an update on this matter.

After reviewing the case, we would like to inform you that as per our Intel® DSA developers, we have had two or three reports of this issue escalated to us over the last 4-5 years and we have never been able to reproduce the error. We suspect that it might be related to IRMFUU as Intel® DSA doesn't open any external drives, but IRMFUU does. 

So, in this case, what we recommend as the next step to try, will be to get in contact directly with the manufacturer of the SSD/HDD for further technical assistance on this matter:

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/

Or, if by any chance you are working with an Intel® HDD/SSD as well, then please get in contact with Solidigm directly for additional support on this topic:

https://community.solidigm.com/

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[sba9231]

Hi Alberto,

I'm not sure what IRMFUU is (an Optane-related firmware updater?) but I'm pretty sure it's not present on my systems.

And given that the issue repro'es with two completely different external drives, I would doubt that it's device-related.

I'll try and think of a way to determine what the differences are between those two drives and the other USB storage devices that could explain that DSA attaches to them when they are present during boot / service startup.

Best regards,

Stéphane BARIZIEN

<personal information removed>

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hi sba9231, Thank you very much for your response.

In that case, I will double-check those details and provide a response as soon as possible.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[n_scott_pearson]

Albert,
This is definitely reproducable. I reproduced it by having a USB flash drive inserted while booting. I was unable to eject the card. Now, it didn't happen consistently, so there is an unknown condition that also plays a role here.
...S

[Alberto_R_Intel]

Hello sba9231, I just received an update on this matter.

After double-checking the case, we confirm that, from our side, there are no more troubleshooting steps that we can try or possible solutions for this scenario.

At this point, what we suggest, will be to get in contact directly with the manufacturer with the drive, or if it is an Intel® driver with Solidigm support for further assistance on this subject.

We apologize for any inconvenicne.

Regards,

Albert R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Pocari]

The same problem arises for me.
The device is a Surfacce Laptop 3 upgraded to Windows 11. This problem has occurred since Windows 10 before the upgrade.

When attaching an external SSD directly to the USB-A port on the Surfacce Laptop, the "secure removal" does not complete and the process is shown as not complete. Additionally, I have tried with a USB flash drive and the same problem occurs, whether it is installed before or after the PC boots up.

I checked the Windows event viewer and found that DSASERVICE was the cause of the problem.

I apologize for the unnatural English due to machine translation.