Samung EVO SSDs showing a bad behavior

[ChristineBCW]

Back in mid-August, one of the OVERCLOCK NET writers displayed a bad behavior by his Samsung EVO SSD, and it seems to have been studied and accepted as a problem by Samsung.

This issue comes from a remarkably slow-read for Old Written Data blocks.

(As of this date - a bit more than a month into this issue - this thread is 90+ pages. I read thru the first few which includes several In Denial Questions but then as the results were repeated, we see "acceptance by Samsung" in the Pages 50-70 range, and now solution possibilities are underway.)

One of the horrifying possibilities is a firmware update that require Re-Writes.

Of boot drive SSDs! Oh boy.

"Just buy a duplicate. Update the new one's firmware. Then, clone the Old Bad SSD on it - it will only clone the data-blocks." Then update the Old One and see if the Data Blocks were wiped out and need a re-load. If so, then use that New Drive and re-clone it back to the old one. Return the New One."

Gag. I assume the East German judges will still give out a lot of 10.0's for such gymnastics.

 

[L&LD]

A couple of my customers have been affected by this issue and those gymnastics are not required.

By running diskfresh, the performance was back to expected.

http://www.puransoftware.com/DiskFresh.html


This is okay until a firmware fix is issued.

 

[ChristineBCW]

I have a couple of duplicate EVO 250s so I'll be walking those thru client shops after any firmware fix is installed. But I still might not be inclined to be the first one on my block to have my SSD come home in a box... well, that's the modern version of that song...

 

[stevech]

That Disk Fresh software product seems appropriate only to magnetic disks. It reads then re-writes each sector. In hopes that the rewrite will improve the durability of the magnetically coded data.
I'd think that an SSD would not benefit, as a general rule.

 

[L&LD]

That Disk Fresh software product seems appropriate only to magnetic disks. It reads then re-writes each sector. In hopes that the rewrite will improve the durability of the magnetically coded data.
I'd think that an SSD would not benefit, as a general rule.

In this instance, it does as the data that was written to the SSD older than 3 weeks (irrespective of how old the absolute age of the file is) slows down. By re-writing it, the speed improves.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1507897/...d-written-data-in-the-drive/770#post_22898167


http://www.overclock.net/t/1512915/...ed-to-confirm-affected-ssds/160#post_22918661

 

[F5ing]

Insulation leakage?

Same reason something like SpinRite or MHDD would help.

 

[F5ing]

And if it is a problem with leaking insulation, this fix will be temporary.

 

[jlake]

Back in mid-August, one of the OVERCLOCK NET writers displayed a bad behavior by his Samsung EVO SSD, and it seems to have been studied and accepted as a problem by Samsung.

This issue comes from a remarkably slow-read for Old Written Data blocks.

(As of this date - a bit more than a month into this issue - this thread is 90+ pages. I read thru the first few which includes several In Denial Questions but then as the results were repeated, we see "acceptance by Samsung" in the Pages 50-70 range, and now solution possibilities are underway.)

One of the horrifying possibilities is a firmware update that require Re-Writes.

Of boot drive SSDs! Oh boy.

"Just buy a duplicate. Update the new one's firmware. Then, clone the Old Bad SSD on it - it will only clone the data-blocks." Then update the Old One and see if the Data Blocks were wiped out and need a re-load. If so, then use that New Drive and re-clone it back to the old one. Return the New One."

Gag. I assume the East German judges will still give out a lot of 10.0's for such gymnastics.

I've also been following that samsung evo 840 bug. I was actually researching ssds and I won't be buying that one even if they do fix the bug on 10/15.

I think I'm going with the Sandisk extreme pro. It was on sale the other day for $149, but I snoozed and lost. Maybe around Thanksgiving..price will drop a little.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KHRYRLY/?tag=snbforums-20

 

[F5ing]

And if it is a problem with leaking insulation, this fix will be temporary.

As far as this being a temporary fix, I was referring to the "diskfresh" fix (or whatever app is used to refresh the bits), not Samsung's future firmware fix.

I should mention that I know nothing about the issues with this particular drive. But if it is a problem with leaking insulation (hardware) I think Samsung is going to have a hard time truly fixing the problem with a firmware update.

 

[ChristineBCW]

Some complaints have mentioned "high heat" with these EVOs, some have speculated that this is the TLC drawback, etc., and thus the prospect of a firmware fix seems less.

But this would be the first real knock against Samsung SSDs, I think. Others have suffered model-based black-eyes, but I can't think of another problem that the Samsung products have suffered. Maybe it's just their time.

I've certainly enjoyed the Samsung software for first-time SSD users, but we have more Pro's than Evo's and we've been using Crucials on the more disciplined users. The one attractive thing about the SanDisks is they also have low-capacity products (60Gb and smaller) so we use those as a Temp/Page SSD and leave the larger ones for Boots.

 

[F5ing]

Some complaints have mentioned "high heat" with these EVOs, some have speculated that this is the TLC drawback, etc.

Uh oh. Doesn't sound good.

 

[ChristineBCW]

(Gag... reading AnandTech on Sundays instead of a good Sunday paper...)

In my original link to Overclock, in the 'Page 60s' area there are allusions to LBA Read-Priority being 'the real problem' and that this would indeed be a Firmware Logic solution.

The "high heat" comments (in the Page 70s range, and later) have sometimes been parried by other questions "What's the temp of your other SSDs?" and I can't find complaintants that measure heat from one to another SSD model. So "high" may be an incorrectly-posed term of relativity. If I could find an old mercury thermometer, I could do surface temp measurements but Knowing isn't the same as Fixing so I haven't gumption'd-up myself to merely identify. I've got enough other problems to pay attention to without creating a few more Swords Of Damacles wavin' in the wind.

This definitely has put a stall on EVO recommendations. "I knew I should have only recommended MLCs... we all knew that!"