Assistance - Calling all Samsung EVO owners

What we want to see is some sort of explanation and remedy from Samsung. With the 850 Evos on the way, I hope Samsung don't turn a blind eye to the problem with the 840s.

The issue does cast a doubt over Samsung's reputation for producing good and reliable SSDs.

Having said that. the secure erase/restore does seem to sort the problem. I`ve still not seen any sign of performance degradation on my drive, and my PC does get a fair bit of use every day. Maybe it will suddenly "go wrong", but as the days go by I am more convinced that my Evo is going to be OK.
 
@Nexus I found the parted magic software to be the best to secure erase

can try macrium reflect to clone the ssd to spare hdd/secure erase the ssd and clone the data/os back to it

if drive freezes which it will (lots) then unplug the molex sata power for 30 seconds then re attach


as for the Samsung evo drives,i don't mind the performance drop(ive only noticed it in that benchmark) aslong as the drive continues to work fine for years and doesn't packup I can live with a secure erase once in a while
 
wazza300 said:
if drive freezes which it will (lots) then unplug the molex sata power for 30 seconds then re attach
Click to expand...

I`ve never experienced lots of freezing. All that is usually required is to unplug the power lead (not the SATA lead) from the SSD for a few seconds (30 seconds if you want to make sure, but I`ve always waited just a couple of seconds), then reattach it prior to carrying out the secure erase.

To make it clear, the secure erase software will state that the SSD is "Frozen", which means that the secure erase operation can not continue. That is the moment when power has to be removed and reapplied to the SSD (with the PC still powered up). This should then allow the secure erase to take place.

as for the Samsung evo drives,i don't mind the performance drop(ive only noticed it in that benchmark) aslong as the drive continues to work fine for years and doesn't packup I can live with a secure erase once in a while
Click to expand...
I also didn't notice a performance drop before carrying out the secure erase. If I hadn't seen this thread, I would not have been aware there was a problem. Hopefully, just one secure erase is required. That seems to be the evidence so far, but more time is required to see what happens.
 
This is my drive on the 9th of sept -

SSD-9-9-14.png


My drive now on the 12th of sept -
SSD-12-9-14.png


This was the new drives Samsung sent me after the secure erase it has been about 10 day so far
 
^^

So it looks like the drive is downgrading a bit again then :(


Thanks wazza and Dervious :)

I will try to get around to doing this at some point. Like you both, I haven't noticed any issues with normal usage (only gaming).

Here is my crucial M4 128GB SSD (used for OS + programs) for comparison:

7995Bq8.png


And it is much older than the Samsung one + older firmware

Certainly will be avoiding Samsung drives now!
 
Dervious said:
What we want to see is some sort of explanation and remedy from Samsung. With the 850 Evos on the way, I hope Samsung don't turn a blind eye to the problem with the 840s.

The issue does cast a doubt over Samsung's reputation for producing good and reliable SSDs.

Having said that. the secure erase/restore does seem to sort the problem. I`ve still not seen any sign of performance degradation on my drive, and my PC does get a fair bit of use every day. Maybe it will suddenly "go wrong", but as the days go by I am more convinced that my Evo is going to be OK.
Click to expand...

The problem at the moment is that their SSD support is outsourced, so you can't actually talk to someone from Samsung, and they give the same advice as this thread of simply doing a secure erase. Not exactly what I'd expect from them.
 
Aurhinius said:
This is my drive on the 9th of sept -



My drive now on the 12th of sept -


This was the new drives Samsung sent me after the secure erase it has been about 10 day so far
Click to expand...

The 12th Sept test shows slightly increased CPU activity. I`ve found that AIDA64 is very sensitive to CPU usage (try moving the AIDA64 window while the test is taking place).

FWIW, here's the test I did on 28th August, just after the secure erase.



And here it is 5 minutes ago (PC gets used every day). I did a full install of Mass Effect 2 straight after the first test. I left it installed for a day, then uninstalled it. In the meantime I copied several large folders (15 - 30GB) and files to the SSD, then deleted some of them.



If anything it looks sightly better.
 
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I'm just about to install one of these. Reading the last page of this thread there seems yo be some problems.
Without going through the hole thread is there anything I should do or know before installation?
 
Use Samsung Magician (it should be included on the disc that came with the SSD).

If your PC is already running WIndows, you should be able to attach the new SSD, run Magician and perform the secure erase from there.

If it's going into a PC without any OS (for example, you have just built a new PC), you would normally just install Windows straight onto it. However, it would be useful to know what happens when a brand new Evo is secure erased before first use (ie, does it prevent the loss in performance that some of us are seeing). Therefore, if you have a new machine that has no OS installed, it would be a good idea to see if you can gain access to a PC and either use that machine to secure erase the SSD. If you don't want to start messing with the internal hardware of another PC, you just install Samsung Magican onto it, then create a Secure Erase CD boot disc or bootable USB memory stick (I think that should be possible, even without a Samsung SSD being installed). You can then attach the SSD to your new PC and use the boot disc/memory stick to perform the erase.
 
Sorry mate I've already used it on my other PC to try and get my other PC to work but to no avail.

Having problems now though. Ive formated the ssd but now the Samsung magician will not recognise the ssd. Also if I connect the ssd via Intel z77 SATA 6.0 port the PC won't boot up :/
 
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Now its recognising the ssd but it won't do a secure erase. Gets to 20% then tells me the ssd is frozen and to disconnect the power to it then reattach.
This does nothing though.
 
sprite1275 said:
Now its recognising the ssd but it won't do a secure erase. Gets to 20% then tells me the ssd is frozen and to disconnect the power to it then reattach.
This does nothing though.
Click to expand...

The following might sound obvious, but...

Are you sure you are dettaching the power lead, not the SATA lead ?
 
sprite1275 said:
Yea I'm detaching the power lead. How do you go about doing this "boot from USB " thing. I've tried changing the boot priority to the USB but it just boots up as normal.
Click to expand...

F8 on Asus boards for boot device selection. F11 or F12 on Gigabyte/MSI (can't remember for sure which is which)

This thread reminds me that i need to do a secure erase on my 840 EVO. I wasn't going to get an EVO due to this thread but at £90 for a 250GB i couldn't resist. Plus its from work so if it does give me grief i'll just get it swapped out.

I'll benchmark it first i think because i have already installed/uninstalled/moved a few 100GB of data on it already. Then secure erase it (it is my second drive anyway with just games on that i can back up to my third drive) and then benchmark again. Just to see.
 
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Digit said:
F8 on Asus boards for boot device selection. F11 or F12 on Gigabyte/MSI (can't remember for sure which is which)
Click to expand...

F12 for Gigabyte (I own and mostly use Gigabyte boards !).

I don't think there's a lot to be concerned about with Evo drives. Yes, the benchmarks do show poor performance, but this is not reflected in everyday use. Also, as I keep pointing out, my Evo has been fine since the secure erase two weeks ago. I keep thinking that the problem will reappear, but so far so good.

I would like to see if secure erasing a brand new drive prevents the issue.
 
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