Samsung 870 EVO - Beware, certain batches prone to failure!

[SPDIF]

I would suggest to update the firmware as soon as possible before it starts degrading. Many drives still work with older firmware, but i would not play with my luck or data...
Even if you not have any errors, just update the firmware to be sure!

Your 870EVO is completely okay at the moment.

If you do not have internet acces, you can download the update from other pc on the Samsung website. Warning, this involves making an update usb stick with an ISO image from Samsung with Linux Grub. You must boot your computer then from this stick to update your 870evo.

 

[E.S]

Imalti's 870evo has no problems.
Besides, he talked about the unrelated 850evo many times.
It seems that the purpose is to make important posts difficult to read with meaningless posts.
is he getting paid?

 

[SPDIF]

Looks like he's sometimes mixing up the 850 and 870 EVO when leaving comment. It makes it difficult to read exactly.

 

[LlF]

I have found a list with the affected drives that should update the firmware immediately! If you do not, you are taking a big risk. But remember it was your decision.
If your drive has this serial number as listed below, your drive will suffer degradation sooner or later if you don't upgrade the firmware.

Samsung 870 EVO	S5Y2NJ0N / S5Y2NJ0R / S5Y3NF0R / S5Y3NG0R / S621NG0R / S625NJ0R / S626NF0R / S626NJ0R / S62BNJ0R / S62CNF0R / S62CNJ0R / S6BANJ0R / S6BBNG0R / S6BCNG0R / S6BCNJ0R / S6PTNZ0R / S6PUNF0R
Samsung 970 EVO	S464NB0K / S465NF0K / S466NF0K / S466NX0K / S466NX0M / S5H7NS0N / S5H9NS0N / 3B2QEXM7
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS	S6P7NG0R / S6P7NF0T / 2B2QEXM7 / 4B2QEXM7
Samsung 980	S649NF0R / S649NF1R / S649NG0R / S649NJ0R / S649NX0R / S64ANG0R / S64DNF0R
Samsung 980 PRO	S5GXNF0R / S5GXNF0T / S5GXNG0N / S5GYNX0R / S69ENF0R / S69ENG0R / S6B0NG0R / 3B2QGXA7
Samsung 990 PRO	0B2QJXD7

So you see, i was right. All drives made after 12/2020 are garbage...

Since 970 evo is on that table I assume im not off topic...
how do I check if it is problematic? samsung magician's diagnostic tool insnt available for the 970 evo, the only value that seems relevant is 0E, but this thread says it is perfectly fine?

 

[Kodehawa]

I have found a list with the affected drives that should update the firmware immediately! If you do not, you are taking a big risk. But remember it was your decision.
If your drive has this serial number as listed below, your drive will suffer degradation sooner or later if you don't upgrade the firmware.

Samsung 870 EVO	S5Y2NJ0N / S5Y2NJ0R / S5Y3NF0R / S5Y3NG0R / S621NG0R / S625NJ0R / S626NF0R / S626NJ0R / S62BNJ0R / S62CNF0R / S62CNJ0R / S6BANJ0R / S6BBNG0R / S6BCNG0R / S6BCNJ0R / S6PTNZ0R / S6PUNF0R
Samsung 970 EVO	S464NB0K / S465NF0K / S466NF0K / S466NX0K / S466NX0M / S5H7NS0N / S5H9NS0N / 3B2QEXM7
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS	S6P7NG0R / S6P7NF0T / 2B2QEXM7 / 4B2QEXM7
Samsung 980	S649NF0R / S649NF1R / S649NG0R / S649NJ0R / S649NX0R / S64ANG0R / S64DNF0R
Samsung 980 PRO	S5GXNF0R / S5GXNF0T / S5GXNG0N / S5GYNX0R / S69ENF0R / S69ENG0R / S6B0NG0R / 3B2QGXA7
Samsung 990 PRO	0B2QJXD7

So you see, i was right. All drives made after 12/2020 are garbage...

4B2QEXM7 is the latest firmware for the 970 EVO Plus, though.

 

[Selaya]

970 evo != 970 evo plus tho

 

[Kodehawa]

970 evo != 970 evo plus tho

He listed the evo plus in there, that's why I'm confused, specially when you can't update from 4B2QEXM7

 

[LlF]

that 2Bxxx firmware is the latest version for my 970 evo according to magician. There's nothing to update there.

 

[SPDIF]

There are two revisions of 970 EVO Plus: with Phoenix Controller or with Elpis Controller, that is why there are two different firmware versions available.

The 2B2 firmware is for the first older Phoenix controller, later version uses 4B2 firmware and Elpis controller.

1] Samsung swapped the controller, changing from Phoenix (S4LR020) to Elpis (S4LV003). The Elpis controller is the same one Samsung uses on the Samsung 980 Pro SSD.
2] The new version has a larger SLC cache, an increase from 42GB in the original to 115GB in the new revision.
3] Samsung did not change the DRAM, and though the revised 970 Evo Plus uses potentially different NAND modules they should fall into the same 92-layer 3D TLC family as the original.
4] The revision delivers "lower performance once its SLC cache is exhausted - the original version keep chugging along with data writing speeds of around 1,500 MB/s after the first 40 GB were written, while the new revision drops that performance to 800 MB/s after 115 GB of writes

Original drive on the top; revised drive on the bottom

 

[80251]

We're getting OT now!

 

[E.S]

Looks like he's sometimes mixing up the 850 and 870 EVO when leaving comment. It makes it difficult to read exactly.

I also have an 850 EVO, I would like you to tell me the condition of this SSD?

 

[SPDIF]

It's an discussion platform, so we discuss. Sometimes a little off, but it is still about Samsung and the SSD's.

Just have two 870 EVO that suddenly died, they had the old firmware and made in 2022.
Shame... Where is the time you just took a Samsung and had quality.

 

[80251]

@SPDIF
The problems with the NVME M.2 Samsung SSD's aren't as prevalent as the horror show that is the SATA 870 EVO though right?

A good reason to start a separate thread about the 970 EVO's and 970 EVO Pluses might be to document it separately from the 870 EVO so we can see how bad the failure rates are. The 870 EVO is in a class by itself as far as failure rates go.

 

[chrcoluk]

There are two revisions of 970 EVO Plus: with Phoenix Controller or with Elpis Controller, that is why there are two different firmware versions available.

The 2B2 firmware is for the first older Phoenix controller, later version uses 4B2 firmware and Elpis controller.

1] Samsung swapped the controller, changing from Phoenix (S4LR020) to Elpis (S4LV003). The Elpis controller is the same one Samsung uses on the Samsung 980 Pro SSD.
2] The new version has a larger SLC cache, an increase from 42GB in the original to 115GB in the new revision.
3] Samsung did not change the DRAM, and though the revised 970 Evo Plus uses potentially different NAND modules they should fall into the same 92-layer 3D TLC family as the original.
4] The revision delivers "lower performance once its SLC cache is exhausted - the original version keep chugging along with data writing speeds of around 1,500 MB/s after the first 40 GB were written, while the new revision drops that performance to 800 MB/s after 115 GB of writes

View attachment 289120

Original drive on the top; revised drive on the bottom

Thats bad news, the one up side of Samsung was supposedly stable use of parts in a SKU.

1500 to 800 drop off defenitly for me falls in to the significant performance change category.

 

[SPDIF]

@SPDIF
The problems with the NVME M.2 Samsung SSD's aren't as prevalent as the horror show that is the SATA 870 EVO though right?

A good reason to start a separate thread about the 970 EVO's and 970 EVO Pluses might be to document it separately from the 870 EVO so we can see how bad the failure rates are. The 870 EVO is in a class by itself as far as failure rates go.

It's all horror with Samsung at the moment, I'm done with it... And again, now i have an 990 pro back from a customer, dead from degrading as the 870 evo.
Exactly the same problem!

The rabbit hole is deeper it seems...

 

[imarti]

Here comes the mercenary and the bot! Thanks for the quick replies.

It is recommended to update to the new firmware. You mention how the 870EVO broke the SSD, something worst on the market, and on the other hand, the recommendation is to update to the new firmware - you are contradicting yourself!

Do you want to protect the interests of users or manufacturers of ssd?
No need to call out that I'm getting paid and that I'm someone's bot.

When I mentioned 850EVO I meant 850EVO and when I mentioned 870EVO I meant 870EVO, no mistake. If you look at post #503 you will see that the screenshot is 850EVO. Do you mind me asking about the current health of the 850EVO?
Unfortunately the English is from google translate and that might be a problem in understanding.

here are the details:
870 EVO
SN2BNZOR
THAILAND 2021.05

Samsung Mgician still does not provide a diagnostic scan option.

 

[SPDIF]

Your drive is healthy, just update the firmware, it's possible that you can do a scan after the update. Once your drive starts degrading, you can't go back anymore and what is lost stays lost, even if you update the firmware. So do it now and then you will be on the safe side. The new firmware also makes it a little faster, they also changed something with the Garbage Collection in this update.

Solid-state storage garbage collection, or SSD garbage collection, is an automated process by which a solid-state drive (SSD) improves write performance. Garbage collection proactively eliminates the need for whole block erasures prior to every write operation.

I think some older SSD firmware has a bug in this, so best to update.

 

[80251]

Your drive is healthy, just update the firmware, it's possible that you can do a scan after the update. Once your drive starts degrading, you can't go back anymore and what is lost stays lost, even if you update the firmware. So do it now and then you will be on the safe side. The new firmware also makes it a little faster, they also changed something with the Garbage Collection in this update.

Solid-state storage garbage collection, or SSD garbage collection, is an automated process by which a solid-state drive (SSD) improves write performance. Garbage collection proactively eliminates the need for whole block erasures prior to every write operation.

I think some older SSD firmware has a bug in this, so best to update.

Some people here have said it might be the NAND flash that's the problem -- I don't see how any firmware update would fix that.

 

[SPDIF]

I thought that too, it's a NAND problem. But many are fixed after an firmware upgrade. Anyhow if you have an 870evo with old firmware, just upgrade it.
But still there are drives that go bad with newer firmware installed. For me the firmware also has something to do with the degrading SSD's.
If the Garbage Collection works bad, it can write too much to a portion of the NAND making it go bad.
If that not works good the NAND wear out faster because of Write Amplification.

Due to the way flash works, much larger portions of flash must be erased and rewritten than actually required by the amount of new data. This multiplying effect increases the number of writes required over the life of the SSD, which shortens the time it can operate reliably.


I still wait for some comment on Samsung's side, i sent literally 20 email to them, but no one is home.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah sammy said the firmware update does not fix the existing issue which is pretty wild lol

They should of recalled all and put the new firmware on them if that's the case.

 

[SPDIF]

Hope sammy makes an official statement sooner or later...

 

[80251]

It sounds to me like Samsung is just going to ignore the issues with the 870 EVO. I'd like to see other threads started for issues with other Sammy products so that can be documented separately on their own.

 

[delshay]

Latest Magician Software has just been released. ...Version 7.3.0

 

[ThrashZone]

It sounds to me like Samsung is just going to ignore the issues with the 870 EVO. I'd like to see other threads started for issues with other Sammy products so that can be documented separately on their own.

Hi,
Sadly so is TPU news personnel :/

 

[SPDIF]

Yes i hoped too that TPU could shed some light on this. But it remains very very quit... Also on other tech forums, nothing. And Sammy doing as it's nose is bleeding...