Question Samsung 840 Pro degradation issues

[blackrain2]

Does anyone remember this?

Samsung's SSD 840 Read Performance Degradation Explained - Slashdot

An anonymous reader writes with a link to TechSpot's explanation of the reason behind the performance degradation noticed by many purchasers of certain models of Samsung SSD (the 840 and 840 EVO), and an evaluation of the firmware updates that the firm has released to address is. From the piece...

hardware.slashdot.org

I have an unopened drive. I did a little research to see if this was ever resolved to the satisfaction of consumers with updates. I could not find anything concrete. Does anyone know how this played out in the end? Were people happy or were they still complaining of issues after the last update? Not sure if its risky to try and use it or if I should just sell it.

 

[UsandThem]

They released updated firmware for some versions of the drive.

It would be fine to use with normal PC usage, but is a bit dated at this point. So unless you choose to practically give it away, I don't think there would be that many people interested in a 840 PRO. Sure it uses MLC NAND, but the drive was released in 2012, so it will be a fair amount slower than most current drives.

 

[blackrain2]

They released updated firmware for some versions of the drive.

It would be fine to use with normal PC usage, but is a bit dated at this point. So unless you choose to practically give it away, I don't think there would be that many people interested in a 840 PRO. Sure it uses MLC NAND, but the drive was released in 2012, so it will be a fair amount slower than most current drives.

I was just wondering if they actually fixed the issues with the drive or not with the latest firmware. Seems like they did. I paid about $100-120 for it and it looks like its going for $60-65 on ebay. Not sure if its worth the risk to keep and try out or not.

 

[UsandThem]

Not sure if its worth the risk to keep and try out or not.

If you have a use for it, sure. If not, sell it if someone wants it and is willing to buy it.

It's old tech by this point, and just about every current drive out there (including DRAM-less) should beat it in performance.

 

[Dranoche]

I've been running one as the boot drive in one computer for a little over 7 years now. There were 2 fixes, with the final one working permanently. I applied the final fix and have not had any issues since. It hasn't been noticeably different than other computers with newer SSDs. Unless you have a specific use case that would realistically benefit from the speed of a newer SSD or will be doing an insane volume of writing, it's perfectly fine.

The final fix occasionally re-writes data to maintain performance. I don't know if anybody ever confirmed what the rate of refresh was but since the performance degradation built over a month or two or longer I can't imagine it needed to re-write all that often. That process is technically eating up write cycles but for general use it's really nothing since the actual lifespan of the drive is measured in hundreds of terabytes.

 

[undertaker101]

Still using one as my primary boot drive, these were built like tanks and most newer sata drives are not all that much faster...the latest sata ssd from Samsung the 860 pro is only two generations removed from this one.

 

[blackrain2]

I've been running one as the boot drive in one computer for a little over 7 years now. There were 2 fixes, with the final one working permanently. I applied the final fix and have not had any issues since. It hasn't been noticeably different than other computers with newer SSDs. Unless you have a specific use case that would realistically benefit from the speed of a newer SSD or will be doing an insane volume of writing, it's perfectly fine.

The final fix occasionally re-writes data to maintain performance. I don't know if anybody ever confirmed what the rate of refresh was but since the performance degradation built over a month or two or longer I can't imagine it needed to re-write all that often. That process is technically eating up write cycles but for general use it's really nothing since the actual lifespan of the drive is measured in hundreds of terabytes.

Just a gaming PC. I assume that wouldn't really require a special SSD. I also have an 850 EVO....since you know alot about previous generation drives, do you know of any big issues that weren't resolved with that model?

 

[Shmee]

If it is a decent size, I figure it should be fine to use it for a basic boot drive or even a game/storage drive. That said, newer drives that may be even greater capacity, and likely faster, are so cheap now. I would find a use for it for something, somehow. Just have backups of anything important, as always.

As for the 850 Evo, those are great drives and I don't know of any widespread issues with them. That said, I did have one die on me under warranty suddenly and randomly, so I had it replaced under warranty. It's replacement works fine.

 

[nosurprises]

I was just wondering if they actually fixed the issues with the drive or not with the latest firmware. Seems like they did. I paid about $100-120 for it and it looks like its going for $60-65 on ebay. Not sure if its worth the risk to keep and try out or not.

That's pretty expensive for an old drive. What's the capacity? I have the 840 Pro for 6 years, and I'm still using it without issues.

 

[coercitiv]

I have an unopened drive. I did a little research to see if this was ever resolved to the satisfaction of consumers with updates.

The 840 Pro is a MLC drive and never had the issue described in the article. I owned both the 840 Pro and an OEM version of the the cheaper TLC version of the 840 and I can tell you the following:

• 840 Pro worked very well from day one, still works in a backup machine.
• 840 TLC drive showed reading speed degradation even after months of use, to the point where speed became a big problem. A firmware update brought the situation under control, in the sense that read speed degradation was lower, and kept under control over time.

 

[Dranoche]

Just a gaming PC. I assume that wouldn't really require a special SSD. I also have an 850 EVO....since you know alot about previous generation drives, do you know of any big issues that weren't resolved with that model?

Samsung moved to 3D NAND on a larger process in the 850 EVO from planar NAND in the 840 EVO. That helped address the issue in the 840 EVO that resulted in reduced performance. My understanding is that there was a stability or decay issue with the voltage in each cell that slowed down reading and could lead to corruption. The problem was inherent to the specific hardware in the 840 EVO which hasn't been used since.

 

[fzabkar]

Samsung 840 EVO - how to easily lose your data forever:
https://forum.acelaboratory.com/viewtopic.php?f=227&t=8735

I spoke with our ACE Lab developers and did you know what we found? Everything is very simple - NAND memory in Samsung 840 EVO is TLC based, and it is VERY VERY Bad. After some time when you write the data on memory, the charge inside NAND cells is flow away. The voltage inside cells become worse and worse, and finally - flow away forever. It means that if you will not use your 840 EVO drive for some time, you will find that your SSD is EMPTY.

You ask me - are the guys from Samsung didn't know about that issue? Why they did not find the way to fix this bug?!
And I will answer - they release new FW, which make very simple thing - in background, when you working with your laptop or with PC, it just rewrite customer data again and again, again and gain by cycle, every time with the only goal - to keep the data and charges inside cells "fresh". When drive is not connected to power source, charge from cells is flowing away.

 

[Ranulf]

As others have said, the 840 Pro never had the problems. They fixed it on the 840 EVO but I don't remember if they ever fixed it on the 840. The fix on the 840 EVO was to have the samsung magician software installed and it would refresh the drive to make sure your data didn't floating away.

 

[fzabkar]

Ace Laboratory produce the tools (PC3000 SSD) that recover the data from these drives. They have an intimate knowledge of the firmware as a result of their own reverse engineering. If they say that the NAND flash is very very bad, then they should be believed. They know what the firmware is doing, not you or I.

In any case, the problem was not fixed. You cannot fix bad NAND, you can only work around it. That's what the firmware update does.