Sick Samsung 840 Pro

[JackBN]

System: i7-4770K, ASRock Extreme 4 Z87, one SSD, no video card, no Hard Drive

My Samsung 256GB 840 Pro has about 990 hours on it. Primary 160GB partition was about 40% full. Recently it began to boot very slowly -- about 90 seconds.

I cloned it to an Intel 530 240GB SSD, which now works fine.

I want to rehabilitate the Samsung. Using the latest Magician (downloaded directly from Samsung), I updated the firmware. In Windows 7, I reformatted the entire drive. And I used CCleaner to wipe it.

HD Tune reports the Samsung is fine (same thing it said when it was slow booting). ATTO reports normal read and write speeds. Magician reports no problems.

Should I do anything else before trusting this Samsung?

 

[JackBN]

Also, in Magician, I set overprovisioning to the recommended 23GB, leaving a real 214GB for use.

 

[Charlie98]

I wonder if your TRIM function is working. You can manually TRIM your drive using the Magician utility (Performance Optimization, I believe...)

FWIW, my 840Pro died on me suddenly... like, *poof!* and it died. I had just run TRIM on it that morning, and checked it with CrystalDiskInfo... supposedly it was peachy. It had been exhibiting slow performance like yours prior to the failure... in fact, I had a complete wipe and clean install of W7 planned for the next weekend... it just forced my hand a bit sooner. I replaced it with a Plextor, Samsung RMA'd my drive and I got a refurb in return... but there is really no way I can trust it as my primary desktop drive any longer; I stuck it in my daughter's laptop instead (a $200 drive in a 6-year old computer.)

You've done everything you can with your drive, put it back into service and see what happens. I do have one word for you.... BACKUP. If you have any data on the SSD that you can't afford to lose, you need to come up with some sort of backup plan. I use an external HDD and Acronis, which saved my bacon when my Samsung failed. I don't like to think about where I would be without adequate backups...

 

[MoInSTL]

And I used CCleaner to wipe it.

Was there a reason you didn't use Secure Erase (included in Magician)? You just create a bootable flash drive or CD/DVD, change your boot options to boot to it. It will tell you it is locked when you try to run it and instructs that the power cable be removed for a few moments, plug it back in and to re-run it by typing segui0.exe That's a zero, not the letter O. It states in Magician that it also restores it to factory default. When you click on the ? help button, it also says it restores its efficiency. One last thing. When booting off a flash drive, it may look like garbage as it's missing some fonts. Just hit the Esc key a few times.

The selected drive is in a Frozen State.
To continue with Secure Erase please follow the directions below:

Do not switch the computer off during the process.
1. Open computer casing.
2. Disconnect the SATA power cable from the SSD, then reattach after a few seconds.
3. Restart the application by typing 'SEGUI0.exe' and then proceed.
Press any key to continue

EDIT: OP only has one SSD. Anyone with more than one drive, disconnect them if SSD it going to be OS boot drive,

 

[JackBN]

Secure Erase refused to work, no matter what I tried. Magician reported the drive was frozen, and following the Magician instructions (several times, a couple ways) did not change the frozen status.

The Samsung SSD was in a hot swap bay, with a power switch on the bay.
I tried pulling the power plug on the bay, I tried turning off/on via the switch. I tried turning on the Samsung after boot was complete. No joy.

I did a web search, and found others encountering the same problem, with no solution.

Since the drive was (quick) formatted, is anything more useful? I could slow format, or try secure erase with CCleaner (used CCleaner normal erase before).

 

[MoInSTL]

Sorry it didn't work out for you. A quick format just deletes the "Table of Contents" telling the drive where data is. It does not erase it. You can Google it. I know the time between unplugging it and plugging it back in can take 1-2 minutes, not seconds like it says. Your machine needs be booted up with your flash drive, powered on and the drive hooked up when unplugged and plugged back in. Do you have a cable and an open port on your motherboard you could try? After you plug it back in, then hit any key and it bounces out to a DOS prompt. Type segui0.exe, hit enter and it should work,

It's not that big of a deal, but it would bug me if it didn't work. The first time I did it, it was a 64GB Samsung 830 which is long gone. I kept not leaving it unplugged long enough, got p*ssed off, went and got something to drink, came back, plugged it in and it worked. I would take it out of the bay and plug both cables directly into the motherboard, boot with your flash drive or whatever and try it again if you feel like it. At some point you will probably sell it and it needs to be secure erased. I have used it on the 64GB 830 Pro I sold, my 128GB 840 Pro in a laptop and the 250GB 840 EVO in my desktop well as an older Intel SSD using its version of secure erase. I am a middle-aged woman and if I can do it, you can too. Also try creating your bootable flash drive or CD/DVD again just in case it got corrupted.

 

[JackBN]

I got secure erase to work on the THIRD computer I tried.
The first: i7-4770K, ASRock Extreme 4 Z87
The second: i7-4770K, ASRock Extreme 6 Z87
The third: i7-3770K, ASUS (forget the model) -- my wife's

 

[JackBN]

Of course, the question now is whether the Sammy is reliable, after having gone through EVERY step I know to fix it.
And how to test it. Since the Samsung problems were not constant, working fine for a couple days may not prove much.
And, to repeat, it passed HD Tune tests even when it was definitely sick.

I had similar problems some time back with a Crucial M4 (and HD Tune said all was well).
Crucial told me how to fix it (updated firmware; power cycling; idle time -- presumably for TRIM to operate).
My daughter uses it now ONLY for a backup clone, not as a primary (and not her only backup drive).

My new Intel 530 240GB works great, perhaps slightly slower, but not enough to notice without benchmarks.
Another Intel 530 is on the way -- should cost $130 after rebate.
I had an older Intel 160GB -- never a problem.

 

[MoInSTL]

I got secure erase to work on the THIRD computer I tried.
The first: i7-4770K, ASRock Extreme 4 Z87
The second: i7-4770K, ASRock Extreme 6 Z87
The third: i7-3770K, ASUS (forget the model) -- my wife's

Glad you got it to work. I have an i7-2600k on an Asrock Extreme 4, Gen 3, Z68. So it worked fine for me on Sandy Bridge. Odd it only worked that one time.

I would contact Samsung. They replace them with refurbs.

 

[Charlie98]

Of course, the question now is whether the Sammy is reliable,

As I said, I wouldn't go so far as to say I trust the refurb I got back from Samsung as my main system drive... and Samsung for that matter, that's why I switched to Plextor and Intel. I'll run the refurb 840Pro in my daughter's laptop for a while, if it survives that it will have proven itself :biggrin: ...and then I can think about integrating it back into primary service.

You didn't mention if you had any sort of comprehensive backup system, if you don't have one... you need to come up with something. That goes for any brand SSD, not just your sick Samsung.

 

[John Connor]

I have seen so many people with 840's die. I'd like to get one as they are the fastest thus far, but I'm now hesitant. I have an old 64 GB G. Skill Sniper and it has some 4.5 TB of data written to it and as been on for more than 3 years total time when you add up the power on hours and it has 100% health according to Hard Drive Sentinel. I also have an old Adata 128 GB and it is flawless thus far too! And get this, both SSDs are Sandforce drives. I think I'll go with Intel.