Some of you may have been following our coverage of the Samsung 840 EVO slow down issue. We first reported on this issue last September, and Samsung issued a fix a couple of months later. This tool was effective in bringing EVOs back up to speed, but some started reporting their drives were still slowing down. Since our January follow up, we have been coordinating with Samsung on a possible fix. We actually sent one of our samples off to them for analysis, and have just received this statement:
In October, Samsung released a tool to address a slowdown in 840 EVO Sequential Read speeds reported by a small number of users after not using their drive for an extended period of time. This tool effectively and immediately returned the drive’s performance to normal levels. We understand that some users are experiencing the slowdown again. While we continue to look into the issue, Samsung will release an updated version of the Samsung SSD Magician software in March that will include a performance restoration tool.
A look at the reduced read speeds of stale data on an 840 EVO which had the original fix applied. Unpatched drives were slowing much further (50-100 MB/s).
So it appears that Samsung is still looking into the issue, but will update their Magician software to periodically refresh stale data until they can work out a more permanent fix that would correct all affected 840 EVOs. We have not heard anything about the other TLC models which have been reported to see this same sort of slow down, but we will keep you posted as this situation develops further.
Hmm. The 840 EVO I’m typing
Hmm. The 840 EVO I’m typing this on is unaffected by the post-patch slowdowns, but then it’s never powered off for long and every sector on the drive is read once a week for the backup…
Next drives will be back to Intel, though (unless someone else puts proper power-loss protection including for in-flight data into a reasonably-priced model).
Is there any fix for dual
Is there any fix for dual boot (Linux, Windows) systems?
You can download a bootable
You can download a bootable ISO.
Live CDs are for testing, I
Live CDs are for testing, I dont think anyone wants to run 24/7 and wait for your dvd drive to read everything and take 10 sec to open a browser window. Unless your running something like puppy that boots from CD and runs in RAM.
What issue? Hmm havent
What issue? Hmm havent installed any distros since I got my EVO. Just running winbloze for gaming. Was running dual boot before on a mech HDD.
See Ryan, you wont let me in forum and im getting out of date!!! I should know about this 🙁
After not using their drives?
After not using their drives? It’s my boot drive for gods sake. I’d rather not keep risking the content of my hard drive with these “patches” come up with a fix or replace my hard drive with an 850evo. 400.00 for a glorified HDD
Nobody cares, Samsung.
Nobody cares, Samsung. Seriously. Absolutely. Completely. No one.
People get godlike MX100/MX200, Plextor M5/M6, Toshiba THNSNH, ADATA Premier Pro SP and simply forget about your crap.
The 840 Evo has been one of
The 840 Evo has been one of the most popular SSDs out there since its launch. Plenty of people care.
By the way, when you use the word “godlike” as often as you do, it loses its meaning. Please invest in a thesaurus.
Sheeple.
Sheeple.
Ten thousand years we have
Ten thousand years we have slumbered. Now we rise!
T.Hanks for laughs.
T.Hanks for laughs.
You’re stupid. The 840 evo
You’re stupid. The 840 evo was a excellent SSD when it launched and still is if you can get it for cheaper than the launch price.
Cry more, stupid sheep.
Cry more, stupid sheep.
You seem to be especially
You seem to be especially butt-hurt about Samsung drives for some reason.
You’re stupid. The 840 evo
You’re stupid. The 840 evo was a excellent SSD when it launched and still is if you can get it for cheaper than the launch price.
Your marketing victim tears
Your marketing victim tears are sooo delishuuuuusss…
Moron
Moron
MX100/MX200 is moving the
MX100/MX200 is moving the wrong direction. If you don’t understand why you have no business offering SSD recommendations.
I’ll test my raid 0 250gb
I’ll test my raid 0 250gb evos later tonight to see how they are performing. Without running the benches I was guess they’re running normal.
by a small number of users
What a huge pile of…..
Samsung. When you make a statement, try not to treat your customers like delusional and low intelligent sheep. It was never a small number of users, and it affected drives that where in every day usage. Go and multiply yourself.
Anyway it seems that they just throw restoration tool in Magician because in the end maybe the restoration tool did the whole work, not so much the firmware. It’s just less embarrassing to post a new firmware for an SSD, which is typical, than a type of tool that looks like a defragmentation program that just moves all the data on the drive in different locations to renew the data.
“We will have not
Typo?
Fixed, thanks!
Fixed, thanks!
“In October, Samsung released
“In October, Samsung released a tool to address a slowdown in 840 EVO Sequential Read speeds reported by a small number of users after not using their drive for an extended period of time.”
A small number of users perhaps that bothered to check their drive performance. The average user wouldn’t notice or doesn’t care enough to notice.
It wasn’t a select few drives that have the problem it was every 840 EVO drive hence the firmware fix attempt.
It wasn’t “not using the drive” it was not refreshing the data on the drive on a regular basis which would be anyone using it as a OS drive not constantly reinstalling!
Quite clearly the problems are on going. Thanks for keeping on their heels PCPER because they would sweep this under the carpet otherwise.
I wonder how long it takes before they advise everyone to upgrade to their later products.
Serious though I hope you e-mailed them back correcting the wording of their highly erroneous statement about the situation!
Or maybe they’ll keep
Or maybe they’ll keep releasing things that don’t actually permanently solve the problem until they’ve delayed a complete solution long enough that all the 840s are out of warranty.
Luckily I am not affected by
Luckily I am not affected by this after the last patch and firmware.
You’ve been infected by this
You’ve been infected by this since the day-one, because you bought this crap to begin with.
Trolling a tech thread…
Trolling a tech thread… priceless!
Just used the speed reader
Just used the speed reader test and got 392 MBps
I am an 840 Evo (500GB) user,
I am an 840 Evo (500GB) user, it’s my boot drive & holds essentially all my day-to-day programs and data. Though I have plenty of other storage available on HDDs, I’ve had room available on the SSD so just haven’t used them. I believe there are thousands of users like me who were blindsided by this slowdown issue.
I’m dismayed that it has not actually been fixed, but not surprised. If they really knew why this was happening I expect they would have provided an actual explanation with the last fix instead of just saying “this will fix it” and having it rewrite the drive.
Though my next SSD will likely be MLC or SLC because of this, I’m reluctant (and not easily able) to spend another $200+ to replace it, plus the time/effort spent changing over. So, yes: this is a big deal. Samsung needs to take it seriously. If it’s not repairable they need to own up; it will come out eventually.
That NSA backdoor firmware is
That NSA backdoor firmware is slowing the Evo down 😀
Allyn, have you reflected on
Allyn, have you reflected on the fact that average read speed was down about 50 MB/s for old files when you filled the drive with new files up to 90% capacity? This was covered in the last article with screenshots before and after.
What do you speculate the reason for this would be?
The amount filled was not
The amount filled was not relevant. Stale data pre-update slowed to 50-100 MB/sec, while 840 EVOs that are still slowing post-update seem to level out at 250 MB/sec. It appears Samsung tweaked the algorithm that handles cell drift to recover more gracefully (higher speeds), but for some drives, the drift is not compensated for well enough to completely prevent the slow down (which is what the firmware / restoration tool was supposed to accomplish).
I meant the decrease of about
I meant the decrease of about 50MB/s as in 250 to 200. Look at the charts and compare the section of stale data before and after the drive operations.
Any thoughts of whether the
Any thoughts of whether the 850 EVO will have these issues?
850 EVOs use a completely
850 EVOs use a completely different flash technology and that launch appeared to be delayed because of the 840 EVO issues, presumably so that Samsung could verify they would not have a repeat of these issues on that new line.
thanks
thanks
It’s because of Samsung’s
It’s because of Samsung’s stupid SSD 840 EVO that the Far Cry 3 Map currently working on has major shutter problems, there was noting wrong when it the last time I was working on it. Soon as it’s loaded, it feel like I’m trying to play it off a Radeon 9600 XT VGA Graphics Card Really! Done with ASUS, Corsair and Samsung products 4 Life! March is when we can expect a fix yet again along with a Performance Restoration tool in Samsung’s Magician Software.
PhoneyVirus
http://twitter.com/PhoneyVirus
http://phoneyvirus.wordpress.com/
Samsung bricked my 850 Pro
Samsung bricked my 850 Pro with the firmware upgrade they issued this morning and the rep said they pulled the update immediately but i ran the update before they pulled it. They offered to replace it with a refurbished drive but the rep stated they have had problems with some of the refurbed drives. Wow i wont ever buy a samsung ssd again. I have always had Intel SSD drives and decided to go with Samsung because off the reviews…what a mistakes.
wanted to let you all know
wanted to let you all know that there seems to be quite a lot of people who 850 pro’s just died during last firmware update
Good to hear that there is
Good to hear that there is movement from Samsung I have 2 affected 500GB drives.
Unacceptable. The 840 EVO has
Unacceptable. The 840 EVO has problems that even 4-6 months of Samsung research can’t fully address. Time for replacement of this flawed drive to a technology which Samsung will stand behind.