Samsung 840 EVO SSDs suffer from performance degradation

By JJ_
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JJ_

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I came across a reddit post about Samsung 840 EVO users across the board having problems with slow read speeds from 'old' files written on their SSDs.

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/2g1jfi/seems_that_the_samsung_840_evo_is_notorious_for/

http://www.overclock.net/t/1507897/samsung-840-evo-read-speed-drops-on-old-written-data-in-the-drive

 

Quite surprising as I've recommended EVO's. This hasn't been picked up by mainstream media. Would be nice to see Neowin run an article on it seeing as 840 EVO has such a foothold and is quite renown for its stability.

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+LogicalApex MVC

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Thanks for the heads up on this issue. I have an 840 EVO in my wife's machine and it likely affected by this firmware bug. Hopefully Samsung fixes it even though the drive is practically EOL as they just announced the 850 EVO.

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JJ_

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No problem. Samsung are the only SSD's I recommend and I've bought 2 EVO's recently. I hope this is just a firmware issue and not related to the TLC chips the EVO's use. My 830 on the other hand seems to be chugging along as strong as ever.

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JJ_

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I've read some suggestions about the wear level algorithm being at fault at firmware level. I just hope whatever the problem is, that it is reversible via a firmware update and has no lasting effect on the drive :angry:

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JJ_

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Quoted from overclock.net - Not looking great.

 

 

Hah, I saw this and decided that I HAD to make an account, lol.

First off, I hit up @SamsungSupport on Twitter to ask if they were going to release a firmware update to solve these issues.

"We can't speculate on the release of future updates, but for all solid state drive questions, please either email (cont)...

..Press 1 for consumer > Press 1 for new inquiry > 4 for PC > 5 for Drives & Memory > 1 for Solid State Drive. (cont)

...The SSD support team is available 9 AM - 9 PM Mon-Fri. Thanks! (name redacted)"

So I call up the SSD branch of the tech support and the agent says "Why don't you write to the CEO's office about this!? We can't do anything, but maybe they can."

I'm all hyped, because I thought that this meant that they were taking it seriously, so I wrote a brief letter, explained the problems that the SSDs were having, and linked to this forum and OCUK.

The next day, I get an e-mail that says:

"Dear Valued Customer,

Thanks you for contacting the CEO?s Office. Please contact www.seagate.com/samsung
regarding your request.

Best Regards,
SEA CEO?s Office"

WHAT!?

This is a SAMSUNG drive with SAMSUNG flash and a SAMSUNG controller in a SAMSUNG enclosure. This isn't a spinny-disk!

So, I sent off a polite, but stern e-mail to general customer support yesterday explaining the hoops (no username pun intended, lol) that I've jumped through and asking for one of the following 1) an ETA on a firmware update, 2) a full refund of my purchase price, or 3) the ability to exchange the drive with an 840 Pro or 850 Pro of a similar capacity.

I'm pretty miffed by how this is getting handled; Samsung hasn't even publicly acknowledged that this problem exists, let alone say that they plan on fixing it.

This is not acceptable.

I'll keep you guys posted with how the situation plays out.

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+Nexus18 MVC

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There is a rather big thread over on overclockers.co.uk as well. Majority of people have the same issue too, including myself.

 

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18615995

 

Here is my 250GB EVO, which is used for purely games and has 35GB left and isn't even a year old...

 

BTW, I am still using SATA 2 so that is why speeds are even lower than the majority of other people.

 

6g3X1gJ.png

 

And for comparison, here is my 2+ year old crucial M4 128GB drive, which is used for programs + OS [W8.1] and has 64GB left:

 

7995Bq8.png

 

IIRC Samsung have said that they can't reproduce the fault on their end and still are looking into it....

 

A secure erase apparently fixes the problem but for how long, who knows.... So I am 90% sure, it is just a firmware problem.

 

Definitely won't be buying another Samsung drive though, crucial and intel from now on.

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francescob

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I just bought 200 of these for work.  Grr.

 

This last round I bought 120 MX100 this last week, so that's good.  Hopefully it's a simple fix.

They're still far more reliable than many other SSDs even though they're a step down from the 830s. I'm starting to have the feeling Samsung loves building a reputation through quality only to cash in on it. Their HDDs quality was dropping too before they sold to Seagate.

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Mayhem

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Has many already i also have the same problem on 840 EVO 250gb, older files are indeed slower to about 30mb/s copying speed

 

Staff, you could check especially the overclockers link and see by yourself that this is a news worthy for frontpage to bring even more people up to speed and forcing Samsung to release a fix (we all hope its a firmware bug) because of the bad publicity

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+kpo6969 Subscriber¹

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Has many already i also have the same problem on 840 EVO 250gb, older files are indeed slower to about 30mb/s copying speed

 

Staff, you could check especially the overclockers link and see by yourself that this is a news worthy for frontpage to bring even more people up to speed and forcing Samsung to release a fix (we all hope its a firmware bug) because of the bad publicity

+1

From an 840 EVO owner and 7 year member of Overclock.net.

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Grand Master

MS Bob 11

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WTF this is like one of the most popular and most bought SSDs for the incredible value it offers. Samsung should hurry up with a firmware fix if it's a firmware issue.

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epk

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Have one and it kinda sucks but I hope they fix it soon.

 

I guess this shows that SSDs are still not really mature and that with new technologies you should just get something to use now and not try to future proof.

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xWhiplash

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Have one and it kinda sucks but I hope they fix it soon.

 

I guess this shows that SSDs are still not really mature and that with new technologies you should just get something to use now and not try to future proof.

 

You could just back up the data, perform a ATA secure erase, and restore the data for better performance right?

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