Looking to get an SSD for an old laptop

[Brandon H Supervisor]

I really hope the 850 EVO's dont have the same bug the 840 EVO's have, my average read speed was down to 57MB/s on a 5 month old drive. Samsung released a "Restoration Tool" that I used to get back up to 536MB/s but it's already dropping as I type this. I'm afraid to test it again because it just makes me mad, and while they keep talking about a new "fix" but haven't released it yet.

 

My first ssd was a Kingston 300v still used in my desktop and it was reading @ 267MB/s and it's 2 years old, they have a newer model that is really tempting me right now. I'm going to check out the BX100 as well $99 usd for 240GB sounds pretty good.

that bug was fixed several months ago now w/ a firmware update that was released. and I'm pretty sure it was confirmed that the 850 series was not affected

[DavidM]

that bug was fixed several months ago now w/ a firmware update that was released. and I'm pretty sure it was confirmed that the 850 series was not affected

Nope, it wasn't fixed, the latest is they have another "fix" in the works. I have firmware EXT0CB6Q and according to PC Perspective firmware EXT0DB6Q is finally supposed to actually fix the issue and will be released this month. The quote is from the same article.

 

 

One final note - this issue was *only* on older TLC Samsung SSDs. Your 850 EVO is not affected (it has a completely different flash architecture), and neither is your 840 Pro or 850 Pro (those use MLC flash, not TLC).

 

We didn't know about the 840 EVO problems until they were reported on the web, while Samsung said nothing, you can still look at their website and see the latest firmware available for download was issued in Dec. 2013. You have to download their "Restoration Tool" which updates the firmware and moves all the data to fix the read times.

 

A side note the newer 840 EVO's now use MCL and NOT TLC, so unless the problem is somewhere else (not a ssd expert so I don't know) they should be bug free. I have my fingers crossed the bug is fixed because other than this is been a great drive. In my case the D: partition was holding my drivers for the laptop and some music that was put there when I got the drive and was reading @57MB/s, while the C: partition was reading at 219MB/s still slower than my old Kingston. After the using the "Restoration Tool" both partitions returned to their proper speeds @ 536MB/s, but are now beginning to slow... not much yet, but I really hope the new firmware fixes it for good this time.