The one thing in common with all the failures I've seen reported (2 x 840Pro anandtech, 1 x 840 anandtech, 4 x 840 Pro hardforum) is that they were all being written to with a heavy workload. But heavy writing is not sufficient to kill one, since I've been really hammering my 840 Pro and it is still alive.
Do you mean many I/O requests with small files / block sizes, or huge files / block sizes by the 'heavy workload' remark ?
I didn't think you had managed to write enough to kill the drive through writes? Does that mean that is just died?
Don't those statements conflict with each other ?
I assume Sammy told you not to tell people something, which is why you wrote "...when we can talk about it" ?
You still have lots of readers that have no idea there are potential issues with the 840 Pro, and they don't frequent every thread in the forums, so it should be made clear on the front page (not tacked on as a 'update' on the first review) that all your samples(?) have died.
True, could have been a bad batch, but this really should be made clear on the main site, just like when the OCZ reliability issues turned up.
Samsung is claiming that the issue is a firmware bug and they already have a fix for it (supposedly no retail drive should have shipped with the broken firmware). We'll be getting samples with the new firmware soon.
Hmmm. I hope it is something that can be fixed through firmware. But the claim from Samsung -- that it can be fixed through firmware, but that no retail drive had broken firmware -- is strange. Are they really claiming that all the retail SSDs shipped already have the fixed firmware? If so, why did they send a second 840 Pro to anandtech with the broken firmware? That was received within a week of the retail 840 Pro SSDs shipping, right? Certainly whatever firmware the retail units shipped with should have been available for the second anandtech sample.
Did Anand record the firmware version of the second 840 Pro sample? My retail 840 Pro (from newegg) has firmware version DXM03B0Q.
The person on hardforum had 4 out of 4 fail -- he should have received retail units, since he was not a reviewer. I guess it is possible that his company received pre-release units, but I did not get that impression from his posts.
Samsung sent us the second sample right after our first sample had died, so that was over a month before the 840 Pro entered retail.
That's what shocked me and Anand as well. His units should be retail without the firmware bug...
Samsung sent us the second sample right after our first sample had died, so that was over a month before the 840 Pro entered retail. I don't think Samsung had a fix for the issue when our first sample died, it's possible that they didn't even know about the issue.
I'm pretty sure he did. I'll ask him when he gets online and report back.
That's what shocked me and Anand as well. His units should be retail without the firmware bug...
That's what shocked me and Anand as well. His units should be retail without the firmware bug...
Btw, does anyone know if the CXM03B1Q is a destructive update? The magician software gives a warning prompt when clicking the update tab "Warning: There's a risk of data loss when updating firmware and backup is recommended"
The only place I've seen the update is: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/MZ-7PC256N/AM
That would probably be quite destructive on an 840 Pro, since that is firmware for an 830. :'(
mrali95 - do you have an 840 Pro purchased from a regular retail store or website? If so, what firmware is on it?
@mrali95, In general, I would never update a firmware on something unless I had a backup of its contents. While it is unlikely for data to get erased, it is all too easy for it to happen. A ssd backup shouldn't take too long to generate, and will pay huge dividends if its contents does get wiped out (lessons well learned from flashing other devices - phones, routers, etc..)
Do Samsung use the advanced channel and review samples as a final form of testing? Put them in the hands of experienced users who throw the kitchen sink at them and if they receive no errors it's the final green light to release?
So really Samsung could have avoided all of this uncertaintyby telling AT that this was pre-release firmware and had you put that in your article too then I don't think people would have gotten concerned.
I have read forums outside of here and there has been a lot of chatter about failing 840 Pro's with references to the AT review with people now thinking there is a problem full stop.
Both drives will be available on October 15th, however in advance of the release Samsung provided us with a beta sample for review. We were only able to get a 256GB 840 Pro initially but we've already asked Samsung for additional capacities. The other bad news is after running through our client test suite and preparing the drive for a run through our enterprise suite, our pre-production sample died. This isn't the first time we've had an SSD die during our test process, pretty much every company has seen a failure during one of our reviews, but despite Samsung's excellent track record even it isn't immune from early issues. These drives are a few weeks away from retail and Samsung will be getting our sample back this week to figure out what went wrong.
I've been hearing more reports of dying Samsung SSD 840 Pros and I believe I know the cause (firmware related, should be fixed in the latest shipping revision) but I'm still waiting for confirmation on one last thing before explaining what's going on there.