Windows 10: Samsung SSD Firmware Warning - 960 Series

Thanks Kbird. Appreciate you staying right on top of this.

 

Other than lag , ie programs opening slowly or micro-pauses , you can apparently see the issue in Task Manager>Disk activity as it will peg at 100% occasionally

KB

 

I wonder if Brink has replaced the Microsoft NVMe driver he seems to be using on the drive in his attachment? *Wink

 

Still using the same firmware version since it came with it from the factory.

I haven't noticed any issues, but I'm looking forward to the next release to be safe though.

 

He meant the Driver , your pic shows it using the Microsoft NVME Driver not the Samsung 2.3 Driver (1709) which is supposedly faster but has caused issues for some.....

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/co...Driver_2.3.exe

 

Ah, ok. Still using the Microsoft NVME driver.

 

I haven't encountered any issues using the Samsung driver for my 960 Pro.

 

Nor me on my 950 Pro. Somebody over at Win-RAID has posted a modded Samsung nVME driver that works quite well, in fact. Here's a link for those who may be interested: Forum - Recommended AHCI/RAID and NVMe Drivers.
Cheers!
--Ed--

 

The modded Driver on WinRaid is the same for the 950/960 Drives as the Samsung 2.3 Driver found at Samsung ...the Mod allows Samsung PM981 NVMe OEM SSDs to work with it , eg the Drives in some Dell , HP and other OEM Computer builders that use these but they aren't supported directly by Samsung.

FYI the issue is not with the DRIVER for these NVME SSDs , it is an issue with older versions of the Drive trying to use the latest Firmware recommended by Samsung. The new version is 3B7QCXE7

 

Hi there

Sorry to be "The 5th player in a string quartet" here but I come from the old Fashioned Engineering school that says "If it ain't broke --don't fix it'. !!!

Unless you need a specific reason to upgrade the firmware -- for instance a new feature added - I invariably never bother and I can't say I've missed any performance etc.

I've around 5 SSD's all in fairly regular use (all samsung EVO type 4 X 250 and 1 X 500 GB - this one only 2 months old ) and haven't had a problem with any of them - but as Count Mike says they are SATA so the firmware upgrade isn't applicable.

I would still advise people only to make firmware updates if absolutely necessary -if the device is working properly leave it alone. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

 

I wasn't able to find just what that (failed) FW update was supposed to address. Notably, 250GB 960 Evo has 2 problems I hoped would be fixed with FW update. One is throttling at 60c and another falling performance when over 50% filled. It is also the only one that has heat problems. Thee last one I solved by installing heat spreader but performance fell by 30% at ~75% of capacity used.

 

Mike because of the Spectre/Meltdown updates(both BIOS and Windows, and LINUX microcode updating) M.2's have had performance hits.

I believe, if I remember correctly, the last Samsung M.2 FW updates had to do with the security side, specifically- Bit Locker.
But that might have been the NVMe driver.

Wait a sec:

NVMe driver(see 2.3)
click to enlarge




Latest Magician version 5.2




No data on firmware though, but to give a big ditto and affirm what @jimbo45 said above, this is from the PDF on how to upgrade the firmware for the M.2's:
also click to enlarge

 

Tnx but that doesn't show any changes in FW, only drivers. I have both 2.3 drivers ( only v2.2 works in W7 and without it, it's invisible) and Magician 5.2 and that works just fine. There are no fixes for Meltdown because of my AMD system and Spectre is not entirely fixed yet for this variant for AMD.
Performance drop is not particularly visible as it's still at least 4 times faster than my other, SATA SSDs, to say nothing about "spinners". 250GB 960 Evo is actually a "*******" in Samsung's M.2 drives, it uses different memory chips than other ones, even the Pro version.

 

Hi there

@CountMike

60 deg C here in Iceland -- !!!!!! I think of all the computer problems you might have - overheating of components isn't likely to be a problem --at least for domestic users !!!.

Down a Volcano testing for gases etc is another matter but for that type of research people tend to use those really rugged computers --SSD speed in these instances isn't important -- "Battleship Build" quality is more important than weight or speed - or even power consumption.
If we ever got near to 60 deg C - people would think it definitely was the end of the World !!!!.

I'd still go by what I said -->"If it ain't broke --don't fix it".

Anyway enjoy rest of the weekend. !!

Cheers
jimbo

 

I "Think" the Firmware was mainly to support eDrive, which is part of Microsoft's Bit-Locker Technology, but most companies don't usually give the full details of Firmware issues , probably because it could open them to legal issues is my thinking or a PR disaster.

From Sandisk:

eDrive is a security storage specification defined by Microsoft for use with BitLocker. It is based on the TCG OPAL and IEEE 1667 specifications.


Typically 128 and 250GB SSDs are slower than 500GB and Up SSDs , something to do with the way they work and needing "space to work" , at one time it was suggested to reserve upto 30% of the SSD for this "working" space, and is likely why they slow when getting full , with the 960 EVO I went to the 500GB model for that reason , always having had the smaller drives previously. My 960 wants 38GB (10% currently) for the "Over Provisioning" space , but I have never used it.

Personally I have only seen a 5%-7% slow down since the Meltdown Patch but my Motherboard (X99) has not had a new Bios yet due to Reboot issues with Intel's Haswell and Broadwell Chipsets.


KB.