Samsung SSD 840 EVO Performance Restoration Software

[Ian]

If you're like me, you probably noticed that your SSD 840 EVO has gotten a little slower over time. According to places like the Tech Report, the drive slows when reading older data.

SSDs usually calibrate changes in the statuses of cells over time via the flash management software algorithm. Due to the error in the software algorithm, the 840 EVO performed read-retry processes aggressively, resulting in a drop in overall read performance. This only occurs if the data was kept in its initial cell without changing, and there are no symptoms of reduced read performance if the data was subsequently migrated from those cells or overwritten.

Samsung has now released firmware EXT0CB6Q that fixes the problem. There is also a utility that you can run that will restore the drive's performance. Both can be downloaded here:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... loads.html

I'm currently in the process of updating the drive in my laptop.

[Ian]

Okay, it took most of the day but I updated the drive in my laptop. Here's the performance before:

Samsung EVO Pre Optimization.PNG (38.3 KiB) Viewed 19074 times

Take note of the spots where the read speeds drop to almost nothing. Yes, I have lots of old data.

Optimization process takes forever. Also, don't plan on using your computer while its doing this. The performance is horrible while its working.

Samsung EVO Performance Restoration.PNG (132.94 KiB) Viewed 19074 times

Samsung EVO Performance Restoration step 1.PNG (142.73 KiB) Viewed 19074 times

Samsung EVO Performance Restoration complete.PNG (136.11 KiB) Viewed 19074 times

And the performance when its done. Much better!

Samsung EVO After Optimization 2.PNG (33.62 KiB) Viewed 19073 times

[Dartman]

Well, a update that really helped Still plugging away on my WD server grade 500 gig black drive I got when I upgraded to my 1090t in here.
Hope to soon score a better chip that works with this board from my geek friend who I helped salvage and scrap a bunch of leftover OLD PC's in the shed we built for him. They've been in there untouched for like 4 years so he needed help to clear up room and save any useful parts.
That would be a nice upgrade for my OS someday and same size as now, just MUCH faster.
Maybe when I win the lottery...

[Ian]

SSD prices are dropping quickly. There are a lot of drives out there now that are below $0.50/GB. A 500GB SSD still isn't cheap though.

[stix]

I'm still happy with my hard disk drives. They provide a good balance of performance and reliability for the money. Don't need the performance of a SSD, especially if the performance degrades over time and requires time-consuming fixes. Sure, I've thought about getting one just for the fun of booting up faster and seeing other speed improvements, but it's hard enough to keep costs down without buying stuff I don't really need. How long have we had SSDs now? And the best of them still appear to have serious performance issues. I though you got a hybrid laptop drive awhile back, Ian. How did it go with that?

[Ian]

I though you got a hybrid laptop drive awhile back, Ian. How did it go with that?

It never lived up to the hype. SSD all the way for me now.

[Ian]

As you guys have probably heard, the last "fix" wasn't really permanent. Over time, people (like myself) saw the performance of their 840 EVO drop once again. In response, Samsung released a new firmware as well as a new version of their Magician software.

Here's my performance before the update. I have a lot of data on this drive and the performance drops down to 200 MB/s in many areas.

Samsung 840 EVO HD Tach Pre Update.PNG (36.96 KiB) Viewed 18006 times

Magician 4.6 includes an advanced option under Performance Optimization that "rearranges data for optimal performance".

Samsung 840 EVO Performance Optimization Advanced.PNG (87.39 KiB) Viewed 18006 times

The optimization is fairly quick. It's nothing like the last "fix" that took nearly all day to run. Afterwards, the performance looked like this.

Samsung 840 EVO HD Tach Post Update.PNG (29.9 KiB) Viewed 18006 times

It will be interesting to see how well the drive performs in the long term. I'm expecting to have to rerun the optimization at some time in the future.

[Dartman]

Well lets hope it sticks this time. At least they are supporting and trying to fix issues and it seems to help even if only for a while. I've been fighting with slightly corrupted or messed up MKV video files on my big HDTV storage drives making the file manager/ explorer in 7 take forever to load up and use tons of CPU power.
When it does it you have to restart Explorer. I finally went through and redid all the wonky files to MPG format and that seems to make Explorer happy and it reads everything quickly and doesn't start hogging the CPU.
Sorta similar affects when it happens so now I just check after a video file gets saved and make sure it's being read and reported back properly and redo if needed.
Still no money for toys, at least computer toys. Been hanging onto my tax refund as best as I can and figuring out what is the best bang per buck to spend some of it on.
Probably something exciting like a new dryer to match the HE washer we ought last year