When SSD Performance Goes Awry: Samsung's SSD 840 read performance degradation explained

[Tgard]

So what is to be our final solution for this? Samsung will keep making new firmware that wears out our drives faster than normal until the warranty has expired? The really do need to replace our 840 Evos with 850s if they truly do not have the problem. Class action for this maybe? It would be a lose-lose either way as it would probably take years and then all owners that have their names in will get a check or discount for a new drive in the whopping amount of $4.78 for every drive you own, 6 years after the fact.

To combat the problem, I have been making a ghost image of the drive and then formatting and writing the whole image new every couple months. (Well twice so far). Not really interest in a firmware fix that keeps re-writing the data over and over and lessening the re-writes on the drive.

My first SSD was a Samsung Evo, and since then I have gone with Intel and Crucial. Samsung has probably lost a customer in me. They need to stop playing around and make this right. If we would boycott, then we may get some satisfaction.

The "problem" here is that the consumer ssds (840evo) will survive somewhere around 10x the number of writes Samsung states for warranty. It's more likely something other than flash will die first (controller?). You would need a high server load to wear those drives in 3 years time anyway.

I sincerely hope you are correct with the 10x. The problem with mine is I use it for C drive so the data for Windows just sits there and gets slower and slower. The files are not changed unless it is a few at a time with updates etc. I have also been using it for my Steam Drive so the games would load faster. I keep 5-6 of the games I mainly play and after I have had the games on the drive for a few months the frame rates will go down by more than half. Before I recognized that this problem was the Evo, I was constantly checking for updated drivers and using the Task Manager to kill background stuff and it generally became a pain. Now with making the mirror image of the drive and copying it back new, those problems went away. Even though my way wears out the drive less, than the newest firmware, I still shouldn't have to do that.
Sincerely hope you are correct about the number of re-writes. It puts my mind at ease a bit if the drives have this kind of lifespan.

 

[MoeJoe]

I recently yanked a 840 EVO from my rig;
beyond the degrading performance - which still exists after the firmware updates and the refresh tool in Magician - I was still getting strange hangs on the drive during extended activity or large file xfers.

I'll be seeking some type of exchange/upgrade warranty remedy from Samsung.

Incidentally, the 840 Pro I still use is a beast !

 

[Darth Shiv]

I recently yanked a 840 EVO from my rig;
beyond the degrading performance - which still exists after the firmware updates and the refresh tool in Magician - I was still getting strange hangs on the drive during extended activity or large file xfers.

I'll be seeking some type of exchange/upgrade warranty remedy from Samsung.

Incidentally, the 840 Pro I still use is a beast !

Periodic hangs could be related to other things too. My OCZ had that but Intel was half the problem. Power saving features put the SSD out of spec. Bad drivers (Intel are epically tragic on disk controller drivers - just look at X99 platform) are another major headache. Look for updates and system optimisations.

 

[MoeJoe]

Periodic hangs could be related to other things too. My OCZ had that but Intel was half the problem. Power saving features put the SSD out of spec. Bad drivers (Intel are epically tragic on disk controller drivers - just look at X99 platform) are another major headache. Look for updates and system optimisations.

My system is loaded with other Samsung SSD's and none of them act up.
Not a host/mobo or driver issue. I even tried moving the drive to the lower
performing Asmedia SATA port and it still performed badly.
No, this is a dud drive/dud design and I'm glad I yanked it.

 

[hrowder]

The question is... Will Samsung replace the drives with a more viable type? I have a 1TB 840 Evo which I am using for long term storage of video and picture files. This is terrible news to me. I don't want to lose all those files or have them crippled by slow performance when I need to see them. Is there something I can do to get a replacement? I bought from NewEgg when they were first put on sale for the then still astronomically high price of around $700. I have another 1 TB drive which is an 850 pro as the main system drive. This is my first build to use SSDs exclusively as the main drives. I wish they were both 850s now. What can I do?

 

[LenUmina]

This is all bullshit. The fix is linear, not digital. Re-bias the sense circuit according to the parametric shifts, temperature compensate, and add more resolution - all of which is a no brainer, and I don't actually believe the Samsung explanation either. There are other issues with this technology or we'd have 6 TB SSD's for $300 - the one thing that does scale is the error correction, unfortunately in the wrong direction.

 

[LenUmina]

But there is a more sophisticated solution....

 

[kuroiei]

As tough for an EVO user like myself this is what really pissed me off is how Kingston treaded it's customers with the V300 series. I bought one initially only to return it the very next day and swapped it for an 840 EVO, which I have to this very day. The performance on that Kingston was HORRENDOUS! Even my old WD HDD outperformed it. Later I learned that they swapped some parts for the consumer version, leaving the review products intact. It enrages me to this day that
1. Kingston V300 is the single most popular SSD in every shop I live in (read: the only available)
2. the online reviews are still skewed and the ratings are untrustworthy