News Samsung Issues Firmware Fix for 980 Pro SSD Failures

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Samsung's PM9A1 appears to be the OEM version of the 980 Pro:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-launches-pm9a1-ssd-cheap-980pro
https://www.newegg.com/p/1Z4-000R-00AJ9

This is a Dell firmware update for the PM9A1:

Samsung PM9A1 PCIe Gen4 NVMe Solid State Drive Firmware Update (17 Jan 2022):
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-is/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=v22yd
https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER08056306M...-Drive-Firmware_V22YD_WIN64_3630.8229_A00.EXE

Fixes & Enhancements

- Improved the solid state drive data management to prevent data integrity issues.
Click to expand...

I wonder what that means?
 
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From checking the logs in C:\Program Files (x86)\Samsung\Samsung Magician\Log my 980 Pro 2TB has been running the latest 5B2QGXA7 firmware since January 26, 2022 - over a year ago - if that's the "fixed" firmware, hate to see the bad.

26-01-2022 13:06:53 INFO BDIM DiskInfoManager::_FillDiskInfoComm 820 [DISK 0] Samsung SSD 980 PRO 2TB, S6...7Z , 5B2QGXA7, PHYSICALDRIVE 0

I can watch my media and data integrity errors go up every minute - over 3,425,000.

CrystalDiskInfo

Rich (BB code): 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

CrystalDiskInfo 8.17.13 (C) 2008-2022 hiyohiyo
                                Crystal Dew World: https://crystalmark.info/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    OS : Windows 11 Enterprise [10.0 Build 22621] (x64)
  Date : 2023/02/01 22:04:13

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
 - Standard SATA AHCI Controller [ATA]
 - Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller [SCSI]
 + Xvdd SCSI Miniport [SCSI]
   - Xvd
   - Xvd
 + Standard NVM Express Controller [SCSI]
   - Samsung SSD 980 PRO 2TB
 - Microsoft VHD Loopback Controller [SCSI]

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------
 (01) Samsung SSD 980 PRO 2TB : 2000.3 GB [0/1/0, sq] - nv

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (01) Samsung SSD 980 PRO 2TB
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Model : Samsung SSD 980 PRO 2TB
        Firmware : 5B2QGXA7
   Serial Number : S6...7Z
       Disk Size : 2000.3 GB
       Interface : NVM Express
        Standard : NVM Express 1.3
   Transfer Mode : PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4
  Power On Hours : 10858 hours
  Power On Count : 54 count
      Host Reads : 17379 GB
     Host Writes : 30179 GB
     Temperature : 54 C (129 F)
   Health Status : Good (94 %)
        Features : S.M.A.R.T., TRIM, VolatileWriteCache
    Drive Letter : C:

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 000000000000 Critical Warning
02 000000000148 Composite Temperature
03 000000000062 Available Spare (98)
04 00000000000A Available Spare Threshold (10)
05 000000000006 Percentage Used (6)
06 0000022C279B Data Units Read
07 000003C5BF33 Data Units Written
08 000020A01587 Host Read Commands
09 0000532D0292 Host Write Commands
0A 000000005A6F Controller Busy Time
0B 000000000036 Power Cycles
0C 000000002A6A Power On Hours (10,858)
0D 00000000001F Unsafe Shutdowns
0E 0000003442AF Media and Data Integrity Errors
0F 0000003442AF Number of Error Information Log Entries

HWINFO64

Code: 
Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.)                 
Available Space Below Threshold:                                                OK
Temperature Exceeded Critical Threshold:                                        OK
Device Reliablity Degraded:                                                     OK
Media In Read Only Mode:                                                        OK
Volatile Memory Backup Device Failed:                                           OK

Drive Temperature:                                                              54 °C
Warning Temperature Threshold:                                                  82 °C
Critical Temperature Threshold:                                                 85 °C
Time Above Warning Temperature Threshold:                                       0 minutes
Time Above Critical Temperature Threshold:                                      0 minutes

Spare Capacity Available:                                                       98%
Device Health:                                                                  94%
Power Cycles:                                                                   54
Power On Hours:                                                                 10858 hours
Unsafe Shutdowns:                                                               31
Media Errors:                                                                   3425187
Total Host Reads:                                                               17381 GBytes
Total Host Writes:                                                              30182 GBytes
 
randyh121 said:
Honest question. Which brand is more reliable and better than Samsung then?
Every other brand I've seen is <Mod Edit>.
Yeah Samsung's new NVMe pro line is not as reliable as the EVO and QVO lines of SSDs, but every other brand is horrible worse by far
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what brand I will buy next. I have always had the Pro drives from Samsung and with no problems. And here we are with 980 Pro problems right on top of the 990 Pro mess from Samsung's latest and greates Samsung 990 Pro: SMART value "Health" drops far too quickly for some

I have enough ssd's for now (included 980 Pro) so I will take my time to see what all other offer next time. But Samsung shouldn't count on that I will jump on their models next time. Two in a row is one or two too much regarding their lack of QC and quality.
 
Agreed, I am not going to be so quick to jump on Samsung drives again after this, especially since Samsung tends to charge a bit of premium for their drives for the supposed quality.
 
digitalgriffin said:
Samsung should replace the affected drives due to premature failure. No if ands or buts.

My Samsung magician says I can't run diagnostics on my 970 evo plus because I don't have the latest firmware. Yet when I go to the firmware page it says "you have the latest firmware" go figure.

Not a good look Samsung
Click to expand...

Hey friend, just wanted to let you know that I've ran into this particular issue and was able to resolve it via making sure the actual Samsung NVMe driver was installed, and NOT the generic windows one.

There shouldn't be a difference, and yet.... :)

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/ Look under the driver section.
 
Samsung Magician has an odd way of updating. I was on 7.1 and it said there was an update. I updated it and it now was version 7.2. Then it said there was another update and it updated to 7.2.1. Why not just update the latest version instead of making us update multiple times.

I was able to update the firmware for both my 1TB drives to the latest version.
 
emitfudd said:
Samsung Magician has an odd way of updating. I was on 7.1 and it said there was an update. I updated it and it now was version 7.2. Then it said there was another update and it updated to 7.2.1. Why not just update the latest version instead of making us update multiple times.

I was able to update the firmware for both my 1TB drives to the latest version.
Click to expand...

Poor coding choices by the engineer. I had such issues when dealing with loading old projects on the software I worked on. Sadly the precedent was already there before I got there. Usually the result of not having a "perfect regression" storage where every data structure lacks a version number. (Ie Json or xml data, iserializeable classes). It was maddening to me that something new would make such choices. But it's a mia culpa. Another issue is a previous library is no longer supported so you have migration issues where's theres a non backwards capable upgrade. (Ie a 16bit dll on windows 7). It would cause reconfiguration of units destroying the original (also maddening for a different reason)

At my previous job we supported version 1 of a software which ce from the late 80s. You could also save in version 7 and insert it into version 1 and have zero issues. That's the way it should be done. Zero compatibility issues. But it required more work to from the developer as you rolled your own serializer.
 
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Papusan said:
Samsung's QC and quality have dropped as a stone. They should really stop branding their best ssd's with the "Pro" moniker. All they produce now is cheapo consumer junk ssd's. Nothing smells like "Pro" anymore.
Click to expand...
randyh121 said:
Honest question. Which brand is more reliable and better than Samsung then?
Every other brand I've seen is <Mod Edit>.
Yeah Samsung's new NVMe pro line is not as reliable as the EVO and QVO lines of SSDs, but every other brand is horrible worse by far
Click to expand...
When major system builder have lost their trust into some brands products, you can't close your eyes. And my reply was done before Pudget Systems posted about their new changes... They just follow my own advice :)

Puget Abandons Samsung 990 Pro SSDs Over Reliability Concerns
Papusan said:
I'm not sure what brand I will buy next. I have always had the Pro drives from Samsung and with no problems. And here we are with 980 Pro problems right on top of the 990 Pro mess from Samsung's latest and greates Samsung 990 Pro: SMART value "Health" drops far too quickly for some

I have enough ssd's for now (included 980 Pro) so I will take my time to see what all other offer next time. But Samsung shouldn't count on that I will jump on their models next time. Two in a row is one or two too much regarding their lack of QC and quality.
Click to expand...
 
Papusan said:
I'm not sure what brand I will buy next. I have always had the Pro drives from Samsung and with no problems. And here we are with 980 Pro problems right on top of the 990 Pro mess from Samsung's latest and greates Samsung 990 Pro: SMART value "Health" drops far too quickly for some

I have enough ssd's for now (included 980 Pro) so I will take my time to see what all other offer next time. But Samsung shouldn't count on that I will jump on their models next time. Two in a row is one or two too much regarding their lack of QC and quality.
Click to expand...
WD, Micron, & Hynix (+ Solidigm) all are just as reliable if not more then Samsung and they are all vertical integrators (They make the NAND that goes in their own drives). They are also always cheaper(from my experience). I haven't ran Samsung SSD's since the 830 series(I think I do have some used datacenter SSDs), I base future purchases on price for performance & endurance. Hynxis P41/p31 are excellent(P31 still most efficient SSD), the SN850 series from WD is excellent as well. Although Micron has not released any exciting top performers, for the right price they are reliable drives (they make great 2230 m.2). For budget sensitive builds I use Solidigm, Intel's old SSD business Hynix bought, usually QLC drives with great performance day to day, just don't push them😉.

There are plenty of options besides Samsung, I am swimming in storage especially with all the cheap Optane out there. Samsung commands a price premium over others thanks to its brand, enough issues like this may impact their future ability to command a premium, but people are rather brand loyal, quality issues suck, especially when they impact you (Never trust Seagate thanks to failed HDD 😳)
 
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I just ran into this problem yesterday. Had it 18 months. It is read only mode so there is no attempt to reinstall windows or repair the bad sectors. Luckily I have multiple file backups. Wondering now the hades I have to go through with Samsung to honor their warranty? Not looking forward to it.
 
fzabkar said:
Something isn't right. Please show us your SMART attributes.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry that it took so long to respond. I forgot while at work, but here's the smart attributes from aida64
aida64_smart.png
 
Your 870 EVO has the widely reported bad block disease (91).

However, your other drives are the ones that I was interested in.

970 evo plus with 30 drive writes, and my 1tb sn 850 at 9.5 drive writes with both still showing 100% life.
Click to expand...

AIDA64 appears to be using attribute B1 (Wear Leveling Count) as the indicator of remaining life. In your case attribute 05 (Reallocated Sector Count) would be a more appropriate indicator.
 
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fzabkar said:
Your 870 EVO has the widely reported bad block disease (91).

However, your other drives are the ones that I was interested in.



AIDA64 appears to be using attribute B1 (Wear Leveling Count) as the indicator of remaining life. In your case attribute 05 (Reallocated Sector Count) would be a more appropriate indicator.
Click to expand...

anything i can do for the 870 evo? just completed a firmware update on it.

also, heres what aida shows for the sn850
sn850smart.png


and heres for the sn850x
 
The SATA drive appears to lose 1 point as soon as you write 1 byte to it. The others appear to wait until 1% is written before decrementing the counter. If 9.35TB is still less than 1%, then this would suggest that the endurance rating must be greater than 935 TBW. I guess that's normal, then.
 
USAFRet said:
OK...

Let's assume that 3,694GB writes and 1307 hours equals 1% wear and that is a linear scale.

Extrapolate that current 99% down to 1%.

How far into the future do you reach 1%?
Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure, but I have a feeling it will take less than a year to reach 1%.
 
USAFRet said:
'a feeling', vs actual math.

1,307 hours and 3,694 GB = 1%

130,700 hours and 370TB = 100%
5445 days
14.9 years
Click to expand...

I understand your point. However, in this particular case, the situation is quite unusual. Even with low usage, the lifespan of the drive has already been reduced to 99%, which is concerning. I'm worried that this issue might be limited to new hardware only. I already sent an email to Samsung, but still no reply. I read on Tom's article that the new firmware was supposed to prevent the lifespan reduction, but even with the new firmware, I'm still experiencing the same issue. I hope there are no anomalies that will cause the lifespan to decrease even faster.
 
TheBitkrafter said:
I understand your point. However, in this particular case, the situation is quite unusual. Even with low usage, the lifespan of the drive has already been reduced to 99%, which is concerning. I'm worried that this issue might be limited to new hardware only. I already sent an email to Samsung, but still no reply. I read on Tom's article that the new firmware was supposed to prevent the lifespan reduction, but even with the new firmware, I'm still experiencing the same issue. I hope there are no anomalies that will cause the lifespan to decrease even faster.
Click to expand...
Looking at a single point in time (1307 hours and 99% lifespan) doesn't mean much.

Look at it again in a few weeks.
It may well stand at "99%" for a loooong time.
Or it may decrease far too fast.

But you can't look at a single snapshot in time, and assume a fault.
 
USAFRet said:
Looking at a single point in time (1307 hours and 99% lifespan) doesn't mean much.

Look at it again in a few weeks.
It may well stand at "99%" for a loooong time.
Or it may decrease far too fast.

But you can't look at a single snapshot in time, and assume a fault.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input! I agree, I'll monitor it for a few weeks.
 
This firmware update has been out for over a year. Everyone is acting like it's new. I've had it forever on my 980 Pro 2TB.
 
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