BEWARE of new Samsung 850 PRO Firmware!

[TCMuffin]

I would only install a firmware update for a storage device if it claimed to fix an issue I was experiencing with the drive, or if the manufacturer basically said something like "if you want this drive to work at all beyond the next month, install this update".

So do I, usually...it was just that Samsung Magician software kept nagging me to upgrade D:

 

[Fares3d]

Middle East.

I bought the drive from Amazon US.

 

[Pokeas]

Dear everyone affected of the Samsung SSD 850 Pro death!

We created a group in Facebook called "Samsung SSD 850 Pro firmware death"

Here we can together set some pressure on Samsung to handle this issue elegantly and share experiences on their support!

Please join !

 

[TCMuffin]

Dear everyone affected of the Samsung SSD 850 Pro death!

We created a group in Facebook called "Samsung SSD 850 Pro firmware death"

Here we can together set some pressure on Samsung to handle this issue elegantly and share experiences on their support!

Please join !

Click here to join

 

[TCMuffin]

Middle East.

I bought the drive from Amazon US.

Support from Samsung should be world-wide???

 

[soewhaty]

no it is not! it is country-wide

 

[TCMuffin]

The power of social media...I've just had a tweet from Samsung UK...

I am arranging a call back for you Jayne. Please let me know how it goes. Thanks.

 

[Capt.Gil]

Thanks, will try your tip with parted magic. And as to the iso and zip files. But if it means secure erasing my ssd then I think I wont do it cos I have my OS on the ssd now and I need it running non-stop .. school is important. So I hope they issue a newer fw soon that fixes this crap!

NO DON’T

If you do a Secure Erase you’ll lose you OS and Data– Sorry my bad … I was assuming the drive was not yet fully in-service.

The files you mentioned in the FW folder – I’ve never seen such a ditzy arrangement before – and I’ve done this a few times! I’m just guessing that maybe when the ISO gets burned it adds those files as needed to do the firmware update (?) – It’s a stupid arrangement with very little info.

My drive works fine … I think the EXM02B6Q firmware is probably ok, it’s just the updating process is a disaster!

Samsung seems to have thrown all the ingredients together in hopes that it will just magically work – Hence the name ‘Magician’ … (just kidding). No wonder it’s such a piece of crap.

Really folks, it is not that hard or that dangerous to do a firmware update on an SSD but if the firmware update process is so convoluted, messed up and broken to begin with from a reputable manufacturer like Samsung – Well, nobody expects that …

They pulled the update from their website - they know they screwed it up and should take care of it with a nice, quick RMA process.

OR

Samsung fixes their Firmware Update process with a new one that actually works.

 

[tb77]

Just killed my second 850 pro 1TB.

Flashed a fresh SSD, did a secure erase, applied hw encryption and tried to restore a saved image - bang, SSD is in read only mode and secure erase is no longer supported

 

[coercitiv]

Just killed my second 850 pro 1TB.

Flashed a fresh SSD, did a secure erase, applied hw encryption and tried to restore a saved image - bang, SSD is in read only mode and secure erase is no longer supported

Why would you insist on doing it?!

 

[tb77]

Though the old SSD had a problem and Samsung removed the firmware after I already had flashed it. I'll RMA them both and probably move away from Samsung - they have nice products, but their QA is very lousy!

 

[Capt.Gil]

Though the old SSD had a problem and Samsung removed the firmware after I already had flashed it. I'll RMA them both and probably move away from Samsung - they have nice products, but their QA is very lousy!

Yes, exactly … and RMA it for sure.

My 850 Pro shows the new Firmware and seems ok but before I put this SSD into service I’m going to test the hell out of it.

I’ll report back later today or tomorrow.

 

[mukeshnain]

Hi Guys!

So before I found my way to this forum, I saw that my Samsung 850 Pro had a new firmware update in Samsung Magician.

Thinking dearly of Samsung I hit the update button and soon it displayed an error message saying it could not finish the update. When I wanted to restart my computer the drive was unable to boot, and is rendered unrecognizable. BIOS can not even display it's name with usual letters instead uses several lines of strange symbols and numbers. When I try to boot with windows disk, it looks like its loading in a dos like surface, but when it tries to boot into the windows install UI only the mouse cursor is visible everything is black and nothing happens.

I have an option of putting it into a secondary drive, but even like that windows does not recognize it, and it is not displayed.

Device manager seem to find it, and this is how its identifying it:

SCSI\Disk3_c_K___cCK_c_K_cCK_;!c_c_K_
SCSI\Disk3_c_K___cCK_c_K_cCK_;!c_
SCSI\Disk3_c_K___
SCSI\3_c_K___cCK_c_K_cCK_;!c_c
3_c_K___cCK_c_K_cCK_;!c_c
GenDisk




What could I do?

Having the same issue with my SSD. As per the Samsung customer care, there is no way to fix drive or retrieve the data. Customer care requested me to replace the drive with a new one.

 

[tb77]

I could reactivated my second (brand new) 850 pro via the Samsung PSID revert tool - edrive functionality could be disabled and I did a secure erase after that and restored my backup image. First SSD is still broken and will probably be RMAed.

 

[soewhaty]

What is the 'PSID revert tool' and what is 'edrive functionality' ???

 

[tb77]

Edrive functionality is hardware encryption support for Microsoft's bitlocker. Once it's activated, secure erase won't work anymore and it can't be disabled via normal tools.

 

[soewhaty]

ok and what about the other part of my question?

 

[tb77]

PSID revert tool is provided by Samsung support or try google. It's required to disable edrive after it was activated.

 

[soewhaty]

ok, thanks for the explanation ... why would one even bother do hardware encryption...

 

[tb77]

It's faster than using software encryption via the CPU and on business machines encryption is often required - laptops get lost.

 

[soewhaty]

True! Software encryption is slower than hardware. .. and yes, for a business rig then encryption is a good idea should it be stolen or lost or whatever, but for a home user ... guess no need to go for any encryption, unless user needs dictate so.

 

[TourGuide]

I hate to be 'that guy' but I've updated two SSDs to the new firmware, a 1tb and a 512 and both are fine. Now my needs do not include encryption or anything out of the ordinary, so there you have it. Some are working as expected.

 

[tb77]

Yeah, I think the new firmware breaks encryption, we will see, what Samsung will release next

 

[AJHII]

Like others, I ran Samsung Magician firmware update and poof...like magic...my SSD OS and data disappeared. Wondered why they called it Magician until that moment. Tech support: We will just RMA it....no sorry for the trouble we caused...we will erase all data before we look at the drive. Yeah, right.
Problem: SSD no longer recognized by bios or Samsung firmware tools...drive not found. My bios recognized something there but not functional and would not allow me to boot to OS even when bad SSD attached to working system.
Fix: So happened I had an identical 1tb SSD and an identical computer system. Using Samsungs dos boot firmware update utility I booted to the cd (please make note to change parameters in bios to boot compatible cd drive. I let the dos program run (now able to identify the uncorrupted ssd) up to the point where it asked me if I wanted to flash the drive by typing "y". I hot swapped the good ssd for the corrupted one and hit y all the way to reboot....getting a mismatch error. After a couple of short prayers I took the drive out and put it back in the original computer and shazaam...my OS is back completely intact.
Notes: After successful restoration I noted Magician was sluggish to recognize the drive but today the program recognized it quickly. Guessing the change in the firmware not recognized until online update now change to recognize both versions as current (as my other drive with previous firmware also recognizes original firmware as current) I cancelled my RMA request with Mr. David Mourão at Total Tech Solutions, Inc who later asked for more details as to how I recovered.
Hope this helps....if you know where to get an identical drive your in business (don't think identical computer necessary...but must be able to hot swap drives...may have to enable hot swap capability in bios first). Other thoughts drives may have to be partitioned identically for this to work....but not sure if this will make a difference

 

[soewhaty]

@TourGuide - I also did the fw update successfully. The only issue with my 256gb 850 pro ssd is that Magician now shows that it is twice slower in its Performance Benchmark too. that is both in terms of speed and iops. Now I get 300/500 mb and 55000/55000 iops and before the update used to get 520/520 mb and 90000/90000, which is what it needs to be. Did you experience the same? Can you confirm for us? 10x