Samsung 840 EVO - Second affempt at firmware to fix the slow read issue

Cyber Akuma

Cyber Akuma

Gawd
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So, I have a Samsung 840 EVO... from what I understand the first attempt to fix the slow read issue with the drives didn't work, so they released a new firmware.... at least I think they did.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/us/html/support/downloads.html

I am looking at the ISO-bootable firmware updaters. It's listed as "Apr. '15", which dosen't really help as there is no year listed. After a bunch of Googling, it APPEARS to have been released in April 15, 2015, and this is the new firmware that is supposed to fix the read issue for good, right?

From what I understand, this firmware will basically peridically move the data around so it is always "new" to fix the problem with old data slowing down. But the description worries me:

"Supports Advanced Performance Optimization in Magician 4.6"

Does this mean that I need to use Samsung Magician software and IT will perform the periodic refreshes? Or is it optional and the firmware alone will do it? Reason being that I have two 840 EVOs in a RAID0 setup, so I cannot access them through the magician software, and can only update the firmware by temporarently disconnecting the raid (as it's my boot drive) and running the updater on both of the drives off of a boot disk.
 
What I want to know is, how in the world does the "old" data get slowed down in the first place? It is something with an indexing algorithm or what?

And if they can only "fix" it through a manually run program, it must mean that it is a hardware issue and not a firmware issue.
 
cyclone3d said:
What I want to know is, how in the world does the "old" data get slowed down in the first place? It is something with an indexing algorithm or what?

And if they can only "fix" it through a manually run program, it must mean that it is a hardware issue and not a firmware issue.
Click to expand...

idiot firmware programmers or incompitant project management take your pick
 
Just out of curiosity, have you ever noticed any slowdowns accessing data on your 840 Evo's?

I have two 840s in my rig (500gb/1TB), and I read about this issue a while back and wondered how bad it really is. I have not updated my firmware yet, mainly because I have never noticed any slowdowns at all. My 500gig evo is my boot drive, and has seen over 13TB of data written so far, and seems fine. I use the 1TB for games, and haven't been able to catch a slowdown there either. It's not had near the data passed through it as the other drive though.
Maybe my data isn't old enough yet to fall into the problem area yet.
 
I've noticed it with my 250 and 750GB drives, you can see it with a tool like HD Tach, mine were below 50mb/s in places. Still usable, but you start to notice the longer boot/load times. It'll drop off to unreadable over time without the firmware update.

cyclone3d said:
What I want to know is, how in the world does the "old" data get slowed down in the first place? It is something with an indexing algorithm or what?
Click to expand...

As I understand it there was a problem with the first gen triple-layer cell flash Samsung used in the 840 evo drives. All flash memory cells gradually lose their charge, but it shouldn't happen in months or years. First they tried changing the algorithms for getting data off the cells. The latest firmware apparently rewrites old data over time to make up for the charge loss since the algorithm fix didn't seem to completely fix the problem.
 
it most definitely requires magician and you have to do it manually and can take quite a while...to me it looks like something that could be a yearly thing but im sure it puts some wear on the drive
 
primetime said:
it most definitely requires magician and you have to do it manually and can take quite a while...to me it looks like something that could be a yearly thing but im sure it puts some wear on the drive
Click to expand...

No, you can manually run the performance optimization through Magician (it's essentially the performance restoration tool from the previous fix), but that's intended for people who haven't done it yet or if you've left the drive off for long periods of time and you have degradation everywhere. The new firmware actually re-writes old data on its own over time, even if Magician isn't installed. You only need Magician to update the firmware.

http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-n...update-performance-degradation-fixed-at-last/

And from Samsung:
Samsung revised the firmware algorithm to maintain consistency in performance for old data under exceptional circumstances. Therefore, read performance was restored without the need for Magician. This algorithm is based on a periodic refresh feature that can maintain the read performance of this older data...
Click to expand...
 
primetime said:
it most definitely requires magician and you have to do it manually and can take quite a while...to me it looks like something that could be a yearly thing but im sure it puts some wear on the drive
Click to expand...

What on Earth is someone who uses a RAID supposed to do then? In fact, since their software is Windows-only, what if I was a Linux or Mac user, what are they supposed to do?

DeathFromBelow said:
No, you can manually run the performance optimization through Magician (it's essentially the performance restoration tool from the previous fix), but that's intended for people who haven't done it yet or if you've left the drive off for long periods of time and you have degradation everywhere. The new firmware actually re-writes old data on its own over time, even if Magician isn't installed. You only need Magician to update the firmware.

http://www.thessdreview.com/daily-n...update-performance-degradation-fixed-at-last/
Click to expand...

Is that current ISO-bootable firmware updater dated April 15 the same thing? Or is the update only available through magician? I have no way to boot into Windows while the drives are outside of their RAID.
 
Cyber Akuma said:
Is that current ISO-bootable firmware updater dated April 15 the same thing? Or is the update only available through magician? I have no way to boot into Windows while the drives are outside of their RAID.
Click to expand...

I would assume so. April 15 was when they started rolling it out.
 
Cyber Akuma said:
What on Earth is someone who uses a RAID supposed to do then? In fact, since their software is Windows-only, what if I was a Linux or Mac user, what are they supposed to do?



Is that current ISO-bootable firmware updater dated April 15 the same thing? Or is the update only available through magician? I have no way to boot into Windows while the drives are outside of their RAID.
Click to expand...

While i know its common knowledge rapid mode only works on one drive, i never heard magician could not be installed on raid array. I assume you tried installing it and it gave an error? But anyway i would assume the bootable iso should do the same thing if thats the case
 
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primetime said:
While i know its common knowledge rapid mode only works on one drive, i never heard magician could not be installed on raid array. I assume you tried installing it and it gave an error? But anyway i would assume the bootable iso should do the same thing if thats the case
Click to expand...

I haven't tried it myself, but when you setup a raid through the BIOS the actual physical drives are hidden from the OS and all it sees are the virtual drive, and Googling for it just now, even Samsung's own manual for their magician software says it does not work if the drives are in a RAID.
 
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