Lenovo T450s Samsung SSD firmware upgrade ?

[Val_]

Dear all,

I've just bought a new Lenovo laptop (T450s) that has an SSD. It is the first time I own an SSD and I wonder if I should upgrade its firmware ? For the time being I only installed Fedora (the laptop came without an OS), and GNOME's disk utility tells that the model of the SSD is :

Samsung MZ7TE256HMHP-000L7 (EXT09L6Q)

Is this not a Samsung 840 series SSD ? What worries me is that from what I found, the string between parentheses, EXT09L6Q, is the firmware version, and it seems quite old unfortunately (http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/fwsd22en.txt), before the version that corrected the Samsung 840 read performance bug...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8570/...o-read-performance-bug-coming-on-october-15th

But I also read that 840 PRO SSDs weren't affected, only the 840 and 840 EVO, and I don't know precisely what model the SSD is. And is it possible that I got a firmware version as old as from 2014/06/19 (which is what the first link above seems to suggest) in March 2015 ?

What do you think ? Thank you

 

[corkyg]

My policy on firmware upgrades, in general, is to be patient. I like to make sure that it is necessary. Samsung Magician can tell you if your SSD already has it or not. It can also take care of the update.

 

[Coup27]

If you Google the model number you have stated it takes you to a Samsung enterprise page stating the model is a PM851 which is the OEM version of the 840 EVO.

The firmware on your drive will differ slightly from retail firmwares because OEM's always like to tinker with things to their own liking which is why the firmware version number you have is formatted differently from the retail firmware version numbers. You won't be able to try and compare your firmware version to a retail one to see where it is as OEM's don't work like that. Also, as your SSD is a Samsung OEM model there is a high chance Magician won't offer you much and may state that firmware updates must come from your OEM.

On the issue of the read performance bug Samsung issued a fix in October 2014 however it has since been discovered that the fix did not work and Samsung are working on another fix, see below:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8997/...0-evo-performance-another-fix-is-in-the-works

My advice would be to update your SSD to the latest firmware Lenovo offer and that's it. Once Samsung's latest fix for the EVO bug has been released keep an eye out on your Lenovo page to see if you get an updated firmware, and if so, apply it.

Ultimately though you cannot update OEM SSD's with retail firmwares so your updates must be supplied by Lenovo making it a mute point which actual model of SSD you have.