Samsung SSDs failing?

This, again, makes me wonder why the SSD makers don't come up with their own "Drive Monitor" software that runs in the background and would download and apply firmware updates such as these when the need is identified.

My PC manufacturer has this for the PC, AMD has this for Radeon Graphics, Intel has this for their hardware. This isn't rocket science, and should become standard operating procedure given the nature of what can happen if these firmware updates are ignored (and you can be sure that, for the most part, they will be by most users because they have no way of knowing about them to begin with).
 
phaZed said:
Samsung does, "Samsung Magician"
Click to expand...

I have Samsung Magician on my partner's machine, and I've never found a way to have it in "constant monitoring" mode.

I've used this sort of service station software from SSD makers, but to a one, you have to fire it up before those checks occur or the updates apply (and that's only if you let them). I want "the full automatic" experience for something like SSD firmware, other than perhaps a notification prior to applying the update if such would be disruptive. Often, you'd never know it's happening, or happened, after triggering it manually. Others, restarts are required, but I can't recall if that was the case for any SSD firmware update I've done.
 
britechguy said:
o a one, you have to fire it up before those checks occur or the updates apply
Click to expand...
WD Dashboard and Samsung magician sit open in Systrayall the time for me, unless I close them. Not sure they will automatically notify of a problem with the drives or firmware updates though, because I haven't had any.
 
Larry Sabo said:
Samsung magician sit open in Systrayall the time for me
Click to expand...

It could be that I set it not to do this, though I'd think I'd recall that. I try to minimize what my partner can "point and click" on when he gets frustrated. Even though I can set things up so that they stay hidden in the overflow area, sometimes a click on the chevron that shows it occurs.

Luckily, over the years, I have managed to get him (and even some of my clients) to be far less frequent "random button pushers" when frustrated. And in the case of clients, some of that has come from post appointment discussions about the fact that what I just undid, and was paid for, was created by button pushing in the absence of knowledge.

Learning to walk away when in a fit of pique is a skill that any computer user should be taught as early as possible. Much unnecessary pain and suffering could be avoided if that were standard practice.
 
Samsung Magician, when running in the systray will notify you of an available update, but as far as I know, you cannot set it to automatically install a firmware update. Frankly, I don't think I would want that considering the risk if the process goes pear-shaped.
 
HCHTech said:
Frankly, I don't think I would want that considering the risk if the process goes pear-shaped.
Click to expand...

A valid viewpoint.

I'm of the mind that I'd rather have a firmware update go pear-shaped (and think the probability is very small given how many different firmware updates I've done over the years and how much more "click and let 'em go" they've gotten) than the kinds of permanent pear-shaping that can happen when they're not applied.

There's definite risk, both ways, but I'll take the risk that goes with mitigating what I believe to be a bigger risk. We each have our own tolerances for this sort of stuff. There was a time when I avoided firmware updates as much as I could because I saw too many go wrong. That's not been common now, in my own experience, for long enough that I no longer have that nagging worry each time one is needed.
 
If important enough, it is highly recommended to make a data backup/full image/clone before executing a firmware update.

As always with the crazy demand for more storage capacity, with NAND flash technologies, the firmware could be buggy, when so much is expected to control, in particular, the Wear Leveling, Overprovisioning and Error Correction Code technologies. A bug with those technologies would likely accelerate failure when least expecting, even with an insignificant amount of write cycles compared to the manufacturer's expected TBW and P/E values.
 
Thank you for pointing out the article.

As rules of thumb:
  • Avoid the latest models when buying for yourself or your client ; wait sometimes until possible bugs occur and a patch is published.
    This is also valid for high end SSD. For example, the excellent Crucial M4 has known some very serious firmware bugs.

  • Check if the manufacturer published firmware upgrades right after you buy an SSD.
Manufacturers are likely under the constant time pressure.
They don't have time to quietly test their SSD in house before releasing them to the market.

As for the reliability, the 980 and 990 Pro series from Samsung were previously using MLC NAND. Now they use V-Nand TLC, like middle-range consumer SSD. They are often wrongly marketed under the name 3-bit MLC which is in fact TLC.
The 970 Evo Plus is also sometimes marketed as having MLC NAND, but in fact is seems today using V-Nand TLC.
 
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