Vostro 5890: Intel AHCI driver I/O to optical drives hangs

This isn't really a question, more a report on an issue people are likely to face.

The AHCI driver included in the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) driver has apparent issues communicating with SATA-attached optical drives, at least on Vostro 5890 and likely other platforms that use its chipset. I haven't seen the problem using the limited utilities provided in Windows 10 or 11, but utilities such as Power2Go for Dell (aka CyberLink Power2Go 11, part of Media Suite Essentials for Dell) and the freeware ImgBurn exhibit the problem. The application hangs, and other operations to SATA devices start to hang as well: the Disk Management utility displays a blank screen, scanning for new hardware in Device Manager hangs, sometimes File Explorer hangs, and system shutdown hangs, necessitating a hard shutdown. USB-attached optical devices are not affected. Dell's position has been that since third party software is required to trigger the errors, it's the third party software vendors' problem to solve. (I would note that Power2Go is arguably part of my system purchase. It used to be part of CyberLink Media Suite that was preloaded on Dell systems, and this version can only be installed on Dell / Alienware hardware.)

Dell's current rev of Intel HST (18.1.2.1034, A02, AHCI driver 18.31.2.1034) and Intel's current generic version (18.6.1.1016, AHCI driver 18.36.1.1016) both exhibit the problem. My workaround has been to substitute Microsoft's AHCI driver ("Standard SATA AHCI Controller" in Device Manager) for Intel's. This may exact a performance penalty, and I have to disable RAID in the BIOS, but it has been problem-free. (For systems like mine that shipped with RAID enabled in BIOS, this also requires reinstalling Windows on the HDD or SSD.) If RAID or RST is required, another workaround would be to disable/remove the ODD and use a USB-attached one instead.

The easiest ways I've found to duplicate the problem, neither of which requires destroying optical media:

• With Power2Go 11, simulate burning an ISO image to a blank DVD. (Selecting "Perform write simulation" generates the I/O but saves the disc; using a small ISO image will save time.) Power2Go will hang when the burn is complete. The app will display 99% progress, but the ODD audibly spins down, and I/O and the app are hung.
• With ImgBurn 2.5.8.0, insert blank media in the drive. In the Mode menu, alternately select different modes of operation, e.g. select Read mode and when the disc is ready, select Write mode and vice versa. I/O should soon hang, with the status displaying "Device Not Ready" or "Terminating Autoinsert Thread..."

I haven't tried other utilities, though I presume many such utilities are affected also. I would finally note that my optical drive has been replaced multiple times, and Dell concurs it's not a hardware problem. Now that I have a satisfactory workaround, I'm done troubleshooting this issue.