Question STABLE NVMe - USB Adapter?

cyberjedi · Nov 11, 2019

I'm looking to buy a *RELIABLE* NVME-USB external adapter, that doesn't disconnect randomly, can keep up the close to 1GB/s speed.
So far all adapter's reviews contain frighteningly high % of reports of malfunction, random disconnects, sub-par speeds, falling to even under USB 2.0 speeds, etc.
There are 3 main chipsets in the market: JMicron JMS583, Asmedia ASM2362, and Realtek RTL9210 (~~no product has surfaced with the latter yet, so no REAL reviews, experiences yet~~ UPDATE: it is on the market already).
Also ASUS has a new product, ROG Strix Arion, but there isn't enough feedback about it yet, and I mean real life feedback not just being able to run a few benchmarks, but real stress test to see if the device (adapter) can keep it up, without disconnecting or slowing down hard.
I would really appreciate any feedback from those who have GOOD experiences during stress-tests, like tons of random 4k writes with a stable speed, cloning 100's of GB-s at a stable high speed close to 1GB/s.
I know SSD's very well, so please stick to the point and don't start to educate me on how their speed falls after some writes, etc. I'm aware and this is NOT the point.
You can help if you can point me to a STABLE and RELIABLE NVMe-USB-C adapter that WORKS as expected.
Thank you in advance!

andyhi · Jan 22, 2021

MrAdalbert said:
I have new Orico M2PV-C3 (RTL9210--VB) with firmware 1.24.2 dated 2020.12.07. I could provide it if someone tell me how to extract it from the device.

Thanks for reporting the newer firmware on your device. Does the LED power off when you perform a software device eject/remove from windows?

I just submitted a request for updated firmware from the Orico support site based on the issue I was having with v1.21.10. I mentioned v1.24.2. I'm not expecting a response, but we'll see what happens.

Update - ~~Email request sent to newegg@orico.com.cn as well.~~

Update 2: Received the reply, "We do not have firmware to provide, we look forward to your understanding"

Someone else had luck getting updated RTL9210 firmware from Fideco... that may be a better route if anyone can reach out to them.

apoelistasaudi · Jan 22, 2021

How many users have they post in this forum saying that Orico have supported their products by firmware? Good luck though.

andyhi · Jan 22, 2021

apoelistasaudi said:
How many users have they post in this forum saying that Orico have supported their products by firmware? Good luck though.

I gave them partially negative feedback in the NewEgg review. Orico responded to another purchasers negative reivew. I doubt it will make a difference, but maybe they will respond to public shaming

I really like the enclosure I purchased... the design isn't perfect but it's great for the price. However, If it weren't for this thread and the info on flashing other RTL9210B firmware, I would have sent the unit back.

IlllI · Jan 22, 2021

apoelistasaudi said:
If you will use m.2 SATA SSD I recommend jms580 enclosure from orico. My favourite so far. I have another m.2 sata enclosure with different chip that is not as good. For usb 3.0 speed controllers. Supports also 3.1 gen 2 for max speed (550 mb/s).

This is an interesting comment. From my understanding I was under the impression that JMicron chips were the worst out of the main three (Asmedia being second best and Realtek being the best). Did JMicron come out with a more efficient chip perhaps? Everything I read so far (for example a topic like this) said to steer clear of them b/c they got really hot vs the other two and especially compared to the Realtek chip (which barely gets warm to the touch). That is my main reason for looking for an enclosure using the Realtek chip.
edit: I found an enclosure with 4th type of chip from VIA vl716 (I found a review on anandtech back in 2016 with an enclosure using this chip, so I guess it is pretty old)

Asxetos · Jan 23, 2021

Guys, i just bricked my Orico RTL9210 adapter trying to update it to the v1.23.15 firmware posted here. (i had successfully updated it to v1.23.9 a few weeks before).
The firmware tool showed "Failed" and the adapter is no longer detected.

Any ideas?

Thanks...

apoelistasaudi · Jan 23, 2021

IlllI said:
This is an interesting comment. From my understanding I was under the impression that JMicron chips were the worst out of the main three (Asmedia being second best and Realtek being the best). Did JMicron come out with a more efficient chip perhaps? Everything I read so far (for example a topic like this) said to steer clear of them b/c they got really hot vs the other two and especially compared to the Realtek chip (which barely gets warm to the touch). That is my main reason for looking for an enclosure using the Realtek chip.
edit: I found an enclosure with 4th type of chip from VIA vl716 (I found a review on anandtech back in 2016 with an enclosure using this chip, so I guess it is pretty old)

Well for usb 3.0 m.2 sata 3 (550mb/s) jms580 is the king (cool always, and lower watt/amp consumption). Note jms580 does not Support usb 3.1 gen 2 speeds (1000mb/s) or b&m keys nvme only m.2 sata.
@Asxetos bcs you are asxetos🤪 no ideas mate.

Rum Eater · Jan 23, 2021

Received today Blueendless M2807N NVME SSD enclosure. It looks like it has JMS583 Rev A2 chip. Firmware out of the box is 2.0.9

IlllI · Jan 23, 2021

apoelistasaudi said:
Well for usb 3.0 m.2 sata 3 (550mb/s) jms580 is the king (cool always, and lower watt/amp consumption). Note jms580 does not Support usb 3.1 gen 2 speeds (1000mb/s) or b&m keys nvme only m.2 sata.
@Asxetos bcs you are asxetos🤪 no ideas mate.

Just when I thought I had an understanding of what to look for and avoid lol. I guess I'll have to do more research now that Jmicron is a viable option. Before I was completely disregarding anything with a JM chip...which made things more difficult b/c most offerings seemed to use Jmicron from what I found.

Asxetos · Jan 24, 2021

apoelistasaudi said:
bcs you are asxetos

well, good thing i hate giving up.

I managed to un-brick it.

Flash chip unsoldering - reading - hex editing - reprogramming - resoldering involved (so not for the novice) but its doable.
Happy to share the procedure with anyone.

PS
One more very interesting thing i found.
After all the fuss to unbrick the Orico, i thought i can fool around with a cheapo AM8180 i had bought for $12 off Ebay (problematic, hence the purchase of the Orico).
After viewing the flash contents from the AM8180 i realized that the AM8180 controller is just a rebranded RTL9210 chip.
(just much lower firmware version and different chip revision (IC Ver : 0xa0010002 for the Orico adapter, 0xa0010001 for the AM8180).

It so happens that you can update the firmware on the AM8180 with the Realtek RTL9210 firmware tool (TESTED) and if desired, change the USB ID which causes problems to people.
You just have to rename the "RTL9210_Lite.cfg" to "AM8180_Lite.cfg" for it to work.
You end-up with a perfect RTL9210 clone.

Here is a ready file set (v1.23.15) i made.

Josh68 · Jan 27, 2021

apoelistasaudi said:
@Josh68 we have commented before that not setting jms583 to standby timer of 1 min is not recommended as high heat will,in time, disintegrate either nvme or jms583 PCB .

JMS583 works well with firmware 2.0.9 only but again if you will use it as an external boot device or for playing games (ready boost) then better get something cooler (rtl9210 10gb/s). For usb 3.0 5gb/s I recommend jms580 which is cooler than rtl9210.

Cooler = less amps = less power

Still with rtl9210 latest fw there is one glitch that remains i.e.. disconnecting rtl9210 still gives power to usb enclosure (see status light). You will have to wait for standby to kick in before removing (set standby timer to 1 minute)

I evidently haven't set things up to get notified when someone responds to my posts. So, late reply. Thanks, @apoelistasaudi, for the feedback. I now have a Plugable enclosure which has the rtl9210 chip, so maybe that's the better choice.

I'm still wondering whether there's a way to force reflash the M2X back to stock 2.0.9 firmware, because at this point (and given your feedback) I think the enclosure is fine.

I now have a new NVME HP EX920 after submitting the toasted one with a warranty RMA. It looks like I need to ensure I have a standby timer on if I use that one at all frequently.

Asxetos · Jan 27, 2021

Anyone has the latest 1.24 firmware for rtl9210?

apoelistasaudi · Jan 27, 2021

Josh68 said:
I evidently haven't set things up to get notified when someone responds to my posts. So, late reply. Thanks, @apoelistasaudi, for the feedback. I now have a Plugable enclosure which has the rtl9210 chip, so maybe that's the better choice.

I'm still wondering whether there's a way to force reflash the M2X back to stock 2.0.9 firmware, because at this point (and given your feedback) I think the enclosure is fine.

I now have a new NVME HP EX920 after submitting the toasted one with a warranty RMA. It looks like I need to ensure I have a standby timer on if I use that one at all frequently.

You could try hard reset method if you can't reflash with the proper way e.g. it is bricked. I have posted here the procedure for jms580 which is the same for jms583. Basically you force usb to firmware update using tweezer shorting specific pins of a rom, at same time you insert this in usb and wait for 3 seconds, then remove tweezers Then you can reflash using latest firmware and app..

I should have made an instruction pdf.., all info was in that thread I can't remember its number.

Not sure this is what you asked... Try this only if jms583 is bricked.

Josh68 · Jan 27, 2021

apoelistasaudi said:
You could try hard reset method if you can't reflash with the proper way e.g. it is bricked. I have posted here the procedure for jms580 which is the same for jms583. Basically you force usb to firmware update using tweezer shorting specific pins of a rom, at same time you insert this in usb and wait for 3 seconds, then remove tweezers Then you can reflash using latest firmware and app..

I should have made an instruction pdf.., all info was in that thread I can't remember its number.

Not sure this is what you asked... Try this only if jms583 is bricked.

Thanks, @apoelistasaudi. In fact, I think my M2X is fine, not bricked. I haven't inserted the new NVME drive into it just yet to check, but there's probably no harm in doing that.

All I'm after -- I think -- is a way to either force the proprietary firmware updater to re-flash the enclosure (it won't do anything if it detects the firmware is already 2.0.9), or extract the stock config from that firmware updater to use with the JMMassProd tool. I've just tried opening the JMS583Updater_v1_0_0_5 from mydigitalssd, but what I'm looking for is something I can use as the JMMassProd.ini to reset the device's configuration, but I can't find anything like that.

In short, I think all I've done is reflash my M2X with a modified config and the same firmware (using JMMassProd), so it's not bricked, AFAIK.

After looking back in this thread, I think @Andalu might have the files I'm looking for, so I'll do a PM.

apoelistasaudi · Jan 27, 2021

You can reflash with same firmware no problem on mine. Changed a few times the config file to test the sleep timer

Josh68 · Jan 27, 2021

apoelistasaudi said:
You can reflash with same firmware no problem on mine. Changed a few times the config file to test the sleep timer

Thanks, @apoelistasaudi. I was saying that the proprietary firmware flasher will not re-flash once it detects the firmware is up-to-date. I realize that JMMassProd can be used over and over. What I was after was a stock config for the M2X, or a way to trick the proprietary flasher into re-flashing over the same firmware version.

Do you have a config file you recommend for this device? I'm not sure what you have. I realize a lot of the config is irrelevant to performance (e.g., manufacturer or model name). In the end, it may not matter at all that my config isn't original, and I also understand that changes to the sleep timer setting are probably desirable.

apoelistasaudi · Jan 27, 2021

you are welcome.
m2X has a custom made locked firmware. Do not think you will achieve anything by the unlocked 2.09 firmware which will not be recognised. Your only chance is to use the hard reset method but I don't advise it.
I would speak with m2x support, if I were you, and asked them to supply you with a revised firmware with 1min standby timer..

will check for the link
check here: is what most of us with unlocked jms583 have used to firmware flash, and modified some of the config ini settings.
link

First link.

I did post the JMMassProd.ini I used I believe.

Josh68 · Jan 27, 2021

apoelistasaudi said:
you are welcome.
m2X has a custom made locked firmware. Do not think you will achieve anything by the unlocked 2.09 firmware which will not be recognised. Your only chance is to use the hard reset method but I don't advise it.
I would speak with m2x support, if I were you, and asked them to supply you with a revised firmware with 1min standby timer..

will check for the link
check here: is what most of us with unlocked jms583 have used to firmware flash, and modified some of the config ini settings.
link

First link.

I did post the JMMassProd.ini I used I believe.

Thanks so much, @apoelistasaudi. I'll see what I can accomplish. In fact, the link you provided me reminded me where I got JMMassProd in the first place (I'd forgotten).

As it is, I think my enclosure's ok, but I'll test it out soon. I'm keeping the Plugable since I know it works and I got reasonable deal on it. Best case scenario, I can get another drive for other backups/uses and use the M2X for that.

chrxmvtik · Jan 28, 2021

Heya guys, pardon my french if I am posting in wrong thread but..

Yesterday I bought Unitek S1204B with realtek 9210B (RTL9210B chip). Right after I opened a box/inserted nvme ssd I updated version of chip to:

Realtek RTL9210 NVMe/USB 3.1 Controller firmware Version 1.23.15

Before and after update situation did not change. When I connect enclosure to any laptop it doesn't discover any SSD (tried with fresh formatted/partitioned 970 Evo Plus and Toshiba XG5).

Any try of doing something in disk manager in Windows ends in the same way - Incorrect funcion.

Thanks in advance for any tips.

apoelistasaudi · Jan 28, 2021

But yours is a dual sata/nvme hardware. Don't believe that this firmware has dual sata/nvme support... I could be wrong. Can one confirm and if true do we have a compatible firmware?? Do you have sata or nvme installed???

chrxmvtik · Jan 28, 2021

apoelistasaudi said:
But yours is a dual sata/nvme hardware. Don't believe that this firmware has dual sata/nvme support... I could be wrong. Can one confirm and if true do we have a compatible firmware?? Do you have sata or nvme installed???

Thank you for reply, I have NVMe SSD installed.

If anyone has firmware that should be flashed into Unitek S1204B then I will be eternally grateful .

apoelistasaudi · Jan 28, 2021

@Josh68
Please read the Info under link on my previous reply to you. He said that he has successfully updated firmware of m2x using second link firmware. Try it if you wish.

spider100 · Jan 29, 2021

Hello I have completed 22 round of sun and recently replaced a hard disc that is 500GB initally it was 1TB but after 3 year it is totally full of memory.

IlllI · Jan 30, 2021

I finally got around to reading all 22+ pages. It was interesting to see the JMs580 evolve into something fairly good (after several firmware updates). Early on I was very soured on JM based on user experiences on here, like reading about all the stuff apoelistasaudi went through with the JMicron enclosures in general, but in the end even he recommends the JMs580 for SATA SSD enclosures.

I'm still unsure WHY that specific SATA Jmicron chip runs cool compared to say the one for NVMe. Is it because SATA SSDs don't tax/stress the controller chips the way NVMe does? I am going to take a guess that the manufacturing process is basically the same for these two chips, so it is unusual to someone like me, that doesn't know much about this stuff, how one runs cool for a SATA enclosure, while on the other hand for NVME it runs very hot and is not recommended.

apoelistasaudi · Jan 30, 2021

Jms580 has no firmware updates. Only one that exists is the one I have created (I think version 1.0.5, see post 414)

Jms583 has.many firmware updates. Problem free is V2.0.9.

Rtl9210 firmware still is not final. Still problem with safely remove hardware which does not power off device. Still we have not tested the newest fw bcs we can't find it (v1.24.02)

For SATA for usb 3.1 gen 1 (5gb/s) also called usb 3.0 I recommend jms580

For nvme usb 3.1 gen 2 10gb/s I recommend rtl9210, rather than jms583 which uses higher amperage and has higher temperature.

Note JMS 580 uses SATA
Jms583 uses nvme

Out of the two (rtl9210 and jms580) for prolonged usage though lower speed I am happy with jms580 which is always cool.

Hope this is enough info. Going back to SATA enclosures (5gbps) we will get high disagreements and we will open the bag of Aeolus. .

Usb 3.1 gen 1: 900 mA (4.5W)
Usb 3.1 gen 2: 1500mA (7.5W)

IlllI · Jan 30, 2021

apoelistasaudi said:
Jms580 has no firmware updates. Only one that exists is the one I have created (I think version 1.0.5, see post 414)

Jms583 has.many firmware updates. Problem free is V2.0.9.

oh, I meant overall I was being soured on Jmicron as a whole, reading about all those previous issues people were having early on in this topic hah.

apoelistasaudi said:
Hope this is enough info. Going back to SATA enclosures (5gbps) we will get high disagreements and we will open the bag of Aeolus. .

I guess I was just trying to understand some things better for my own curiosity, but I certainly don't want to open a can of worms so to speak

Question *STABLE* NVMe - USB Adapter?

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Question STABLE NVMe - USB Adapter?