Over the weekend Samsung silently updated their 840 EVO Performance Restoration Tool. The incremental update improved support for some system configurations that were previously not recognizing an installed 840 EVO. Samsung also improved how the GUI progress bar responds during the update process, presumably to correct the near silent failure that occurred when the tool was unable to update the drive's firmware. Previously, the tool would halt at 15% without any clear indication that the firmware could not be updated (this would occur if the tool was unable to issue the necessary commands to the SSD, mainly due to the motherboard being in the wrong storage controller mode or using an incompatible storage driver).
Still no word on relief for those owners of the original 840 (non EVO or Pro). We've also heard from some users with Samsung OEM TLC-based SSDs that showed the same type of slow down (some variants of the PM851 apparently used TLC flash). More to follow there.
We evaluated the Samsung 840 EVO Performance Restoration Tool here. If you've already successfully run the 1.0 version of the tool, there is no need to re-run the 1.1 version, as it will not do anything additional to an EVO that has been updated and restored.
I could be off base here, but
I could be off base here, but am I the only one that doesn't think the tool is going to be a long term fix? The firmware the tool uses is still the one going back to 12/13 for the 840 Evo and 03/14 for the 840 and 840 Pro.
So, either the problem shouldn't exist on any drives that already have that firmware, or the actual data rewrite from the tool 'fixes' the issue, but the issue will come back when the data gets stale again.
Any thoughts?
What are you basing that on?
What are you basing that on? The firmware that was out the day prior to the tool launching was one revision behind the version that launched with the tool.
Ah, was mainly basing it on
Ah, was mainly basing it on the date listed next to the firmware, but I think I see where I missed something. The Rev/date on the firmware download site still says EXT0BB6Q/Dec '13, but looking in the restoration tool, my drive has EXT0CB6Q.
Any idea why they haven't posted up that firmware for everyone yet, or is it tied to the restoration tool?
It’s not just a firmware. The
It's not just a firmware. The tool must re-initialize the flash-level metadata so that the issue does not continue moving forward.
Hi Allyn.
If I’ve already
Hi Allyn.
If I’ve already updated my 840 evo 512gb successfully with version 1.0 of the updater, is there a reason to apply this updated patch?
Not only is it unnecessary,
Not only is it unnecessary, but the tool will simply not work after it has succeeded on a given SSD (even the updated version).
Hey, I was thinking of buying
Hey, I was thinking of buying this drive (1tb) from a system builder as it is a great price for a 1tb ssd. What should I look out for?
plug it in and if it works
plug it in and if it works everything should be fine.
I would then format and run this tool and you should have no issues from now on.
So how many tlc drives models
So how many tlc drives models did samsung produce in total?
So far I’ve got:
840 EVO – 19nm TLC
840 – 21nm TLC
PM841 – 21nm TLC
PM851 – 21nm TLC
845DC EVO – 19nm TLC
PM843 – 21nm TLC
PM853T – 21nm TLC
Will you also take a look at
Will you also take a look at the DOS version of the utility? I am interested in whether it will wipe the SSD or not.
I read the DOS instructions,
I read the DOS instructions, and it seems it just runs the utility from a DOS shell. No mention of it wiping the drive, as long as you are booting from a removable drive (USB, CD).
It does the same exact thing
It does the same exact thing as the GUI based utility, but I would still back up prior to doing so, just in case.
How are we supposed to run
How are we supposed to run this on an Nvidia chipset? It still says the driver is not compatible. I don’t want to install drivers not meant for the SATA controller.
I’m not sure on the specifics
I'm not sure on the specifics for NVidia chipsets, but uninstalling the SATA driver would revert to the Microsoft Inbox driver, which should work. Alternatively, you can try the ISO method, as they have just released that option. It might be able to talk to the EVO through that chipset when in DOS mode.
I updated my nForce drivers
I updated my nForce drivers and it worked.
Has anyone tried the ISO
Has anyone tried the ISO file? It boots into DOS but gives an error message whenever it tries to run PERF. The zip file expects you to have a working DOS boot USB drive already.
Ran the DOS 1.0 ISO from CD
Ran the DOS 1.0 ISO from CD just fine. I’m running 2×840 EVO’s 250 gb in Raid 0. I cloned my raid to a different HDD using Acronis True Image, changed to AHCI mode in the bios, booted from CD, ran Samsung’s tool on both drives. Went back into bios and changed back to RAID mode and booted just fine. SSD Speed testers states my SDD’s are back to normal operation speeds. My PC as been working fine for the last few days. We’ll see how SSD’s speeds are in a few months.