SP3 SSD, possible firmware bug, same as just fixed in another Samsung drive.

Anonymous
2014-10-20T22:49:51+00:00

I've just had to update the firmware in another device that had a Samsung 840EVO SSD because they had a serious firmware bug with it.  Out of curiosity I tested the Samsung drive in my Surface Pro 3 and it looks like it has exactly the same issue (the SP3 drive is closely related to the 840 series I believe, but an OEM version.

The test is simple, just look at the read rate across the drive.  Older data (OS, installed apps) suffered from terrible read performance after a month or so.  Newly written data is fine.

As you can see, much of the drive is down to 50MB/s now.  It should be a fairly level line right the way across at about 350+MB/s.  This test was run with AC power connected and nothing else running.

If this is the same issue as the 840EVO, the good news is it can be corrected with a firmware update and refresh of the data.  Bad news would of course be Microsoft need to look into it first, then get the Samsung engineers looking into it.

Perhaps some other people could run the test too, and post results.  Remember the drive needs to be a month or more old, so that the data can have been sitting there only being read during that time.

Further details of the bug and the fix that Samsung released can be found here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8617/samsung-releases-firmware-update-to-fix-the-ssd-840-evo-read-performance-bug

Surface | Surface Pro | Install and update

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Anonymous
2015-09-30T22:01:46+00:00

Hello all

We wanted to let you know that an update to resolve this is still being worked on.  Please continue to post your experiences and technical details.

Mod Edit: Samsung SSD Optimization Utility for Surface Pro 3 now available.

Best regards

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-08-16T13:36:48+00:00

    The SSD in question (my SSD in this case) had the Samsung FW upgrade and repair overhaul talked about earlier in this and other threads. This overhaul showed a significant stabilisation and performance increase in read-write activity of the drive. Thus a more pleasant and more responsive operable Surface Pro 3 as well as on AC power as on battery. It only struck me that when on AC the performance of the SSD rose compared to being used on battery power.

    Yup no disagreement there, I guess some folks concerns here, revolve around there still not being any final stable build, & "official stamp".

    Plus, some have cited disk retries increasing in no, hence they're concerned that maybe it's somehow related, I don't know if they've any solid basis for either of those 2 claims.

    Finally, some are concerned about increased power draw & hence faster battery drain, to me that was always gunna happen -given the corresponding increase in avg. performance.

    Whether the increase in draw is excessive relative to the performance gain, I'm unsure, I haven't refreshed my memory on all of that sorta stuff.

    BR.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-08-17T09:21:56+00:00

    I brought the matter to the attention of a dutch Microsoft Support employee and mailed him a link to (my postings in) this thread.

    Lets see wat comes up!

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-31T02:02:59+00:00

    Here's my HD Tune 5.6 Read Benchmark

    Surface Pro 3, 256GB Samsung MZMTE256HMHP-000MV SSD

    Purchased Nov 2014.  Boot times are painfully long.  Would really appreciate a Firmware update.

    Very disappointing.

    HD Tune Pro: SAMSUNG MZMTE256HMHP-000MV Benchmark

    Test capacity: full

    Read transfer rate

    Transfer Rate Minimum : 8.5 MB/s

    Transfer Rate Maximum : 217.0 MB/s

    Transfer Rate Average : 91.0 MB/s

    Access Time           : 0.164 ms

    Burst Rate            : 197.2 MB/s

    CPU Usage             : 56.1%

    HD Tune Pro: SAMSUNG MZMTE256HMHP-000MV Information

    Firmware version : EXT41M0Q

    Serial number    : S1F1NYAFA5####

    Capacity         : 256.1 gB (238.5 GB)

    Buffer size      : n/a

    Sector size      : 512 bytes

    Standard         : SATA 3 (6.0 Gb/s)

    Supported mode   : UDMA Mode 6

    Current mode     : UDMA Mode 5

    Avergae speed    : 2034 MB/s

    Rotation speed   : 0 RPM (SSD)

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-31T08:35:08+00:00

    Here's my HD Tune 5.6 Read Benchmark

    Surface Pro 3, 256GB Samsung MZMTE256HMHP-000MV SSD

    Purchased Nov 2014.  Boot times are painfully long.  Would really appreciate a Firmware update.

    Very disappointing.

    Hi Edward,

    You could try the steps I took, layed out in my post of august 13th.

    Worked for me.

    Regards!

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