Turning on Lenovo BIOS Hard Drive Password can cause Windows 8.1 DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE BSOD
Wouldn't it be nice to have everything on my SSD encrypted, without the overhead of encryption software like Microsoft Bitlocker, Symantec Encryption Desktop, or TrueCrypt?
Turning on hard drive password protection on my Lenovo W520 seemed like a good idea. It worked pretty well with my Samsung 840 EVO Pro 1TB mSATA (MZ-M5E1T0BW) SSD. That is, until I try to resume Windows 8.1 from suspend. Yep, that's the cause of the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) pictured below.
What's the fix? I don't have one yet, meanwhile, here's some workarounds:
- disable the hard drive password in the BIOS
- don't use suspend, even if the battery gets critically low
I do hope a proper fix comes along. If you have found a resolution, please drop a comment below. Thank you!
See also at TinkerTry
- Preallocating storage is a good idea for VMs with encrypted virtual drives, thin provisioning is not
See also
-
ThinkPad BIOS Password Design for UEFI by Mikio Hagiwara, Lenovo BIOS Development
- Here's Lenovo's Q&A about Full Disk Encryption (FDE).
Full Disk Encryption Hard Disk Drive Frequently Asked Questions
www.lenovo.com/support/fde
May 02 2015 Update #1
I have resolved my own problem. Here's the story.
My W520 has a SATA2 mSATA slot under the keyboard. I wanted to be at SATA3 (6Gbps) speeds, so I went with an mSATA to SATA adapter by Syba Model ZTC-EN007, installing it in the main Drive 0 bay. My ill-fated idea was to get my SATA3 speeds, test, then upgrade my firmware to address a speed issue. Turns out my mSATA MZ-MTE1T0BW doesn't yet have a firmware fix.
Back to that adapter, pictured at right. It ships with a jumper that isn't explained in the manual, beyond the cryptic "CN3 - ON-Device Sleep" phrase. I moved the jumper from the factory default of only covering one pin, and re-installed it so it electrically connects the two pins, as pictured below. This fixed the issue. Resume from suspend now works, no BSOD, end of this story. Hope sharing this tale helps somebody else!
May 03 2015 Update
I should mention that like most corporate users, my critical data must always be encrypted, and in my case, that's an encrypted VM. How timely that some of the subtleties about encryption and how SSDs are handled for warranty are discussed at this spot in this week's:
Security Now!: SN 505: Your Questions, Steve's Answers 211
