Two Samsung 840 Pro's & 1 840 have failed, 4 at [H]ardOCP (Early review sample SSD's)

[videoclone]

Update on Samsung SSD 840/840 Pro Failures see link for whats going on. looks like the issue may not have been hardware related and all retail 840 drives with a newer firmware maybe issue free. At the moment NO retail 840's have failed... only review samples with older firmware.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6483/update-on-samsung-ssd-840840-pro-failures

Two Samsung 840 Pro review samples received by Anandtech have failed.
[Edit] The non pro 840 Anand had has also now failed along with 4x 840's at [H]ardOCP http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1039330548&postcount=65

Looks like the drive reliability list should look a little like this.

Samsung 830 ( 27nm Toggle-mode MLC NAND ) "rock solid reliable"
Samsung 840 Pro ( 21nm 2bpc MLC NAND ) Not so good - 6 have failed...
Samsung 840 ( 21nm 3-bit-per-cell MLC (aka TLC NAND) - also may not be reliable - 1 has failed.

As they continue to shrink Nand, it looks like they are reducing lifespan, reducing reliability all for the sack of reducing cost. I guess the older mature 25nm/27nm NAND SSD's are the way to go.

Linkage -
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6328/samsung-ssd-840-pro-256gb-review/8
"Update: Our replacement 840 Pro also died prematurely, I'd recommend holding off any purchases until we hear back from Samsung as to the cause of death."

 

[tweakboy]

Oh oh, Crucial fans rejoice LOL jk... thats terrible percentage. not one but 2 ,,,
did you update firmware then this happened or your stuck with the stock firmware ?

 

[exdeath]

All mine are 32nm Toshiba and working just fine after years

 

[blastingcap]

Thanks for the heads up, OP

 

[corkyg]

... did you update firmware then this happened or your stuck with the stock firmware ?

I find that question a bit puzzling. Firmware updates do not normally see release at the same time as a new model drive. FWU's in my book are required for one of two reasons . . . lack of basic engineering and testing on the model released to market, or, . . . required by major change in the operating environment beyond the control of the OEM.

Do you know of a firmware update for the 840Pro?

 

[jwilliams4200]

Thanks for the note. That is quite disturbing.

However, it seems premature to blame the flash. It is much more likely to be the firmware or controller. Hopefully the firmware.

 

[capeconsultant]

Bottom line, this SUCKS! I will be looking at 830's for sure. I STILL say bring back SLC drives damn the cost.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Vertex 2 still going strong! Sucks about the 840 Pro though. I was really looking at that for my next drive.

 

[blastingcap]

My Vertex 2 90GB was solid as rock. I sold it after 2 years simply because I wanted to upgrade to a larger capacity.

 

[Zap]

Wow, this sucks. I guess for those wanting one, may as well go with the 830 on a hot deal before supplies dry up.

 

[beginner99]

Just ordered a 830 few days back for my company laptop. First it was dirt cheap and second it has proven reliability compared to 840 (main reason, because no shit IT Department said they won't support laptops with custom hardware...and only offer 320 hdds or 128 GB ssd).

 

[bunnyfubbles]

drives are fast enough for me to where I'd rather get more capacity than speed

I'd gladly downgrade from my 830s to get 1TB of SSD capacity if the price is right

 

[Remobz]

damn

 

[moonbogg]

830 FTW. Might have to grab another one just because its so awesome.

 

[videoclone]

Yeah i'm thinking about poping into my local PC store to tomorrow to grab myself a 256gb Samsung 830 SSD for $199 befor they are replaced by the 840's...

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks for the note. That is quite disturbing.

However, it seems premature to blame the flash. It is much more likely to be the firmware or controller. Hopefully the firmware.

My guess would be the power delivery circuit as that's where many OEMs try to cut costs. Samsung still hasn't gotten back to us about the first dead sample so I don't have any official information, but I don't think controllers fail that often since they are essentially just CPUs.

I'm hammering the regular 840 at the moment to see if I can kill it and hopefully I can also get some endurance numbers.

 

[videoclone]

Its just a little bit of a gamble buying a new SSD, installing the OS/apps/games, then having the drive fail, needing to be replaced and repeating it all over again with another possibly defective drive.

I'll be waiting for user reviews on the 840 pro on newegg and amazon before its a option for the 30 work PC's in my office.... I'm buying them sometime early next year... i just hope i'll still be able to buy 830's at that time as an alternative.

 

[Compman55]

Im sure they will get it taken care of over time. Never buy a first release anything................

 

[hhhd1]

I'm hammering the regular 840 at the moment to see if I can kill it and hopefully I can also get some endurance numbers.

Will be waiting to see those.

 

[Remobz]

Im sure they will get it taken care of over time. Never buy a first release anything................

Problem is that I will be in the USA for December and I need a good reliable and fast SSD to take back home with me. Might have to go with a Crucial M4 or Intel 520 series.

The Samsung 840pro looked damn good and I was dead set on getting one.

I hope there will be 830 drives left for Christmas time at least.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Thanks for the warning, would have missed it if it wasn't for this thread. 2 out of 2 is horrible. Well, I guess I'm glad I got a couple of 830's on sale recently. Higher speeds mean nothing if the drive is not reliable.

 

[Zap]

Yeah i'm thinking about poping into my local PC store to tomorrow to grab myself a 256gb Samsung 830 SSD for $199 befor they are replaced by the 840's...

Do you live near a Micro Center? I hear the Samsung 830 256GB is $149.99 in store, and the 128GB is $69.99, no rebate pricing.

Im sure they will get it taken care of over time. Never buy a first release anything................

:thumbsup:

I think graphics cards are fine as well as CPUs, but yeah SSDs and motherboards often seem iffy before the first round of firmware updates.

 

[Burner27]

Great!!! I just got mine yesterday and it's my OS drive.......well I do have a backup image just in case.

 

[jwilliams4200]

My guess would be the power delivery circuit as that's where many OEMs try to cut costs. Samsung still hasn't gotten back to us about the first dead sample so I don't have any official information, but I don't think controllers fail that often since they are essentially just CPUs.

Did you test either of the failed units with a meter to see if the power delivery circuit was providing power to the ICs?

Did the second unit fail with the exact same symptoms as the first unit? What exact I/O was the second unit subjected to when it failed?

 

[GPz1100]

Do you live near a Micro Center? I hear the Samsung 830 256GB is $149.99 in store, and the 128GB is $69.99, no rebate pricing.



:

Their site shows $189.99 for the 256GB. Is there a coupon of some sort for this? Link?