Question Crucial MX500 Firmware Error - Drive works but cant do anything in Storage Executive

[phanco]

Just wondering if anyone has had anything similar.

I have 3 Crucial drives in my PC, 1TB NVME, 1TB MX500 SATA and 500GB MX500 SATA. Planned to move the 500GB into Son's PC as he needed some additional storage. Launched Crucial Storage Exec (CSE) and it stated that the drive had a firware error. I could view the drive, but immediately after viewing it would disappear from the drive list in CSE (but was still fully operational in windows). Contacted crucial and gave lots of info. I cant email them stuff as they reject my Hotmail account as SPAM! so had to use twitter support on a 24 hour turnaround - but basically they have nothing to offer...

Things I have tried :

1. Uninstall AHCI driver (standard windows one) and reboot to reinstall driver - no difference
2. swap SATA port with the 1TB drive that is ok -> no difference
3. delete and re-install CSE -> no difference
4. remove drive into a usb caddy -> no longer reports firmware error, but cant run self test in CSE (but drive still works)

I installed it into my Son's PC, as he is still on windows 10 and have never bothered installing CSE. He also has an existing MX500 500GB of his own. Installed CSE and low and behold BOTH my drive and his drive showing up with a Firmware error - but both drives are working.

Now, the drives are working, SMART stats look ok, but obviously cannot use CSE to change provisioning on drives or to run smart tests (or indeed for any future firmware upgrades).

Anyone have the same issue.

 

[fzabkar]

Is it just the 500GB SSD that throws the error, or does the 1TB version do it as well?

 

[phanco]

Is it just the 500GB SSD that throws the error, or does the 1TB version do it as well?

Just the 2 500GB (on firmware MC3R023) - the 1TB MX500 appears ok (firmware MC3R033) - I am assuming the 500GBs are an older controller revision hence the firmware difference

 

[fzabkar]

It does appear that there is something different about those drives with M3CR023 firmware (not M3CR032) :

https://www.crucial.com/support/ssd-support/mx500-support

Version M3CR033:
This firmware will update the MX500 SSD from version M3CR032 to M3CR033. If your SSD has version any version besides M3CR032, this firmware update is not applicable and not necessary. M3CR033 includes the following changes:

• Fixed SATA protocol error that causes start-up failure on certain data center RAID systems)
• Improved boot time after unexpected power loss
• Fixed Read DMA command abort after an interrupted Secure Erase

The M3CR033 firmware is only compatible with drives that shipped with M3CR032.

The M3CR023 firmware is compatible with all drives shipped with firmware other than M3CR032.

Edit:

I downloaded the two updates and extracted the firmware payload files (1.bin).

The 023 firmware contains a reference to Silicon Motion's SM2258AA controller whereas the 033 firmware refers to SM2259AA. They also differ in the NAND flash chips (512Gbit versus 2Tbit).

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000680  53 4D 32 32 35 38 41 41 20 43 49 44 50 41 47 45  SM2258AA CIDPAGE
00000690  22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22  """"""""""""""""
000006A0  22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22  """"""""""""""""
000006B0  22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22  """"""""""""""""
000006C0  22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22  """"""""""""""""
000006D0  4D 69 63 72 6F 6E 2C 35 31 32 47 62 69 74 2C 4D  Micron,512Gbit,M
000006E0  54 32 39 46 35 31 32 47 30 38 45 45 48 41 46 28  T29F512G08EEHAF(
000006F0  42 31 36 41 29 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  B16A)...........

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F

00000680  53 4D 32 32 35 39 41 41 20 43 49 44 50 41 47 45  SM2259AA CIDPAGE
00000690  22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22  """"""""""""""""
000006A0  22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22  """"""""""""""""
000006B0  22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22  """"""""""""""""
000006C0  22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 22  """"""""""""""""
000006D0  4D 69 63 72 6F 6E 2C 32 54 62 69 74 2C 4D 54 32  Micron,2Tbit,MT2
000006E0  39 46 32 54 30 38 45 4D 48 42 46 28 42 32 37 41  9F2T08EMHBF(B27A
000006F0  5F 45 53 35 29 28 53 4D 32 32 35 39 41 42 29 00  _ES5)(SM2259AB).

 

[phanco]

that's interesting and confirms theories that I'd read elsewhere. the drives are working I'm just concerned that I cant change for example over provisioning options, nor perform future firmware upgrades, if CSE thinks they have invalid firmware ...

Was just wondering if this was a common problem, or specific to the 2 drives that happen to be in my house!

 

[fzabkar]

I don't know what Crucial's software is doing. "Firmware error" is a very vague term. People often complain that Samsung's tool doesn't detect their Samsung SSD, so this problem doesn't appear to be unique to Crucial.

 

[phanco]

Update for posterity...

RMA'd one of the drives, replacement delivered today, and all functions in storage exec seem to work. new drive has different firmware level (M3CR043 ) which from the firmware download page implies another change in controller.

Definitely feels like a poor firmware upgrade that then crapped out Storage Exec...

Off to backup the other drive and RMA it next ...

 

[phanco]

scrub that, 1st reboot and same issue so perhaps it is software (Crucial Exec) rather than firmware related...

 

[erwin1978]

I bought my Crucial MX500 500GB in 2021. It had firmware M3CR032. I used Storage Executive version 6.09 and I could not update the firmware so I gave up. I just updated Storage Executive to 7.12 and now it won't show me the SMART report consistently. Firmware update is a bust. I also tried to update via bootable USB. It told me the update was successful but Storage Executive tells me the drive firmware is still on the previous version. I tried twice. Crucial and Micron are no help. They just tell me that the latest version of Storage Executive is great. No it's not.

 

[Antoine75]

Actually, I bought the MX500 2Tb and installed it on today, and I got the exact same issue...
Disk is working perfectly fine in windows, but in Storage Executive, it's not. It appears, disappears, Details opr smart reports lead to errors, etc.

The interresting thing is I noticed something: WHEN the disk is busy, copying files for example, then the problem disappear and storage executive perfectly works and make reports of my disk.
But when my disk is not busy, THEN? storage executive can't do anything with it.
It's like the disk was sleeping, so Storage Executive cannot communicate with it...

The problem, if this is correct, is I have no idea how we can fix the issue, even when Crucial will have a firmware relase for this... Firmware install will fail on tesring drive, and I'm not sure at all it's a good idea to have the disk busy while its firmware is being updated (I don't even know if this is do-able...)

My current firmware: MC3R043

 

[Puffnstuff]

I also have a MX500 2tb firmware M3CR023 and SE has reported a firmware error for months now plus W11 file explorer doesn't show a capacity status under my pc.