Samsung 980 Pro has a nasty firmware glitch that could kill your SSD

[Cal Jeffrey]

PSA: The Samsung 980 Pro SSD launched last year is a good option for someone looking to upgrade to a solid-state storage solution, despite its high cost per gigabyte. However, if you bought it more than a few months ago, you might want to update its firmware immediately.

Computer builder Puget Systems reports that some customers are contacting it complaining about failing Samsung drives. The problem appears isolated to the Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD. The 500GB and 1TB models seem to be unaffected.

Puget Systems says the problem is a glitch in the drive's firmware. The bug is causing SSDs with the original firmware to switch to read-only mode. This malaise permanently renders the drive unusable for storage, but it could also cause a computer to fail when used as the boot drive.

While Samsung has not officially issued a warning or statement, Puget Systems has worked closely with the company regarding handling it. Samsung said its customers should upgrade to the newest firmware as soon as possible. That version would be 5B2QGXA7.

The affected firmware is version 3B2QGXA7. Some newer drives came installed with version 4B2QGXA7, which Puget says should be fine to run, but if you are paranoid or don't know your version number, it wouldn't hurt to stick with Samsung's recommendation.

To update your 980 Pro's firmware, go to Samsung's support page and download and install the SSD Magician app (above). Launch the software, hit the update button, and select the appropriate option on the new screen (below).

Puget has contacted all of its affected customers via email. If you purchased a drive directly from Samsung, you might receive communications from it on the issue.

Puget notes that the Samsung SSDs have been some of its "most reliable parts." However, a handful of 990 Pro users reported rapidly declining disk health. In one instance, an owner noticed the drive losing about one percent of its life rating per week. Another said he lost 64 percent after only 2TB of writes. That's not a good sign for a drive rated at 1,200TBW.

It is unclear if the 980 Pro line is suffering a similar declining health issue as the 990, but the bug's timing feels fishy. Once an SSD reaches its write limit, it does switch to read-only mode. So owners suddenly reporting drive failures might not have noticed that their SSD health had rapidly declined since purchase.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/97476-samsung-980-pro-has-nasty-firmware-glitch-could.html

 

[Avet85]

Is it a 990 Pro or a 980 Pro? Names are all over the place in the article.

 

[HardReset]

Some still consider Samsung SSDs as best ones despite there has been numerous disasters like 840 Evo and this one ""

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Is it a 990 Pro or a 980 Pro? Names are all over the place in the article.

Yeah thanks for pointing that out. I wrote the side note about the problems with the 990 at the end of the article then got my brain all turned around on the edit. Should be clearer now, but to answer the question it's the 980 Pro that is having the read-only glitch and the 990 pro that has seen the rapid drive health problem.

 

[bviktor]

Some still consider Samsung SSDs as best ones despite there has been numerous disasters like 840 Evo and this one ""

Name one brand that haven't had numerous disasters.

 

[HardReset]

Name one brand that haven't had numerous disasters.

Name one brand that had more disasters AND better reputation than Samsung has.

That's the problem. Many morons consider Samsung ultimate SSD brand but as seen numerous times, facts don't support that.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Name one brand that had more disasters AND better reputation than Samsung has.

That's the problem. Many morons consider Samsung ultimate SSD brand but as seen numerous times, facts don't support that.

Personally, I find ALL Samsung products overpriced. When it came time for a storage upgrade for my PS5, I went with a XPG 1TB Gammix S70 Blade and have had zero issues with it and it was about $100 cheaper at the time than the 1TB 980 Pro.

 

[HardReset]

Personally, I find ALL Samsung products overpriced. When it came time for a storage upgrade for my PS5, I went with a XPG 1TB Gammix S70 Blade and have had zero issues with it and it was about $100 cheaper at the time than the 1TB 980 Pro.

Exactly. Samsung brand drives cost a lot but they doesn't actually give anything for high price. Just so called "quality".

 

[Mr Majestyk]

980 EVO you mean. They never released a 980 Pro, just marketing BS to con the sheep.

 

[Burty117]

980 EVO you mean. They never released a 980 Pro, just marketing BS to con the sheep.

Why comment if you can't even do a quick Google to check if what you're saying is true?
https://www.samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/nvme-ssd/980-pro-pcle-4-0-nvme-m-2-ssd-1tb-mz-v8p1t0bw/
Just putting it into Amazon you can buy one right now...

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Why comment if you can't even do a quick Google to check if what you're saying is true?
https://www.samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/nvme-ssd/980-pro-pcle-4-0-nvme-m-2-ssd-1tb-mz-v8p1t0bw/
Just putting it into Amazon you can buy one right now...

Oh dear god. I'll spell it out, the "so-called" 980 Pro is a tlc ssd, not an mlc ssd like the 970 Pro. It's an update of the 970 EVO. I don't give a toss what they market it as. It's slower than the 970 Pro in a large % of benchmarks and even slower than the 970 EVO Plus is some. So yeah like I said 980 EVO.

 

[NumberSix]

I've got one in my PS5 so updating it is going to be a pain in the arse.

 

[Burty117]

Oh dear god. I'll spell it out, the "so-called" 980 Pro is a tlc ssd, not an mlc ssd like the 970 Pro. It's an update of the 970 EVO. I don't give a toss what they market it as. It's slower than the 970 Pro in a large % of benchmarks and even slower than the 970 EVO Plus is some. So yeah like I said 980 EVO.

Apologies your grace, I guess I shouldn't have been so clumsy as to believe the company that makes said SSD that they named it correctly.
I must remember my lord and savior "Mr Majestyk" knows all, sees all and most importantly, labels Samsung SSD's better than Samsung does.

 

[psycros]

Apologies your grace, I guess I shouldn't have been so clumsy as to believe the company that makes said SSD that they named it correctly.
I must remember my lord and savior "Mr Majestyk" knows all, sees all and most importantly, labels Samsung SSD's better than Samsung does.

It would've been quicker to just apologize.

 

[poohbear]

Some still consider Samsung SSDs as best ones despite there has been numerous disasters like 840 Evo and this one ""

840 Evo was fixed. I had 2 and I put them in other family member's computers and they're still chugging along nicely.

Now, the 980 Pro firmware was automatically updated on my system w/ a Samsung Magician software update. Didn't even realize they do automatic firmware updates!

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

Apologies your grace, I guess I shouldn't have been so clumsy as to believe the company that makes said SSD that they named it correctly.
I must remember my lord and savior "Mr Majestyk" knows all, sees all and most importantly, labels Samsung SSD's better than Samsung does.

BWAHAHAA! The /sarc runs deep in this one.

 

[HardReset]

840 Evo was fixed. I had 2 and I put them in other family member's computers and they're still chugging along nicely.

Now, the 980 Pro firmware was automatically updated on my system w/ a Samsung Magician software update. Didn't even realize they do automatic firmware updates!

840 Evo was not fixed but only "fixed". Refreshing NAND makes drive wear out faster than it should.

Many, including me, warned about 840 Evo. Unproven TLC NAND for high price was nothing else than gambling. As predicted, Samsung fanboys were wrong.

 

[Hodor]

Why would they even have an option to switch the drive to read-only mode?
And if that option exists, why can't we use it (it would be great for backup drives, so you can write-protect them).

 

[Fastturtle]

I'll stick with slower Team Group NVME drives as they work fine. Simply can't see the diff in performance between a faster drive and what I've been using. Heck I can't even tell the diff in boot times between an M2 NVME and a Sata 2.5 SSD so why spend the extra money?

If I need more speed, I tend to move to the Enterprise variants even though they're pricey. Find that they tend to work better and have much better customer service then consumer versions.

 

[Athlonite]

The affected firmware is version 3B2QGXA7. Some newer drives came installed with version 4B2QGXA7

Mine came with FW version: 5B2QGXA7 and I've had my 980 Pro since early last year so if your still rocking an old firmware there was no excuse for more than a year to not update it

 

[5thAxisMillman]

This issue just happened to me while onsite with a customer. I lost the ability to boot to my $10k Dell Laptop because of this stupidity. I had my old 970 Pro drive in Slot 3 and removed the 980 Pro 2 TB from Slot 1 to get back up and running. 15 years of using Samsung Pro drives and what a shock this one was. Will not admit they are at fault well they are and Samsung should be ashamed of letting this one get by and not reporting back to registered owners of these M2 980 Pro 2TB drives be aware this could happen. Updating now and hoping I have not lost all those files. My fault, but had a death in the family and 100 other things going on to not have backed up in the last few months.