Samsung 870 EVO - Beware, certain batches prone to failure!

[R0Sch]

Googling says x58 supports TRIM just fine, except it wont work in RAID

Was that extra controller in a RAID mode?

No and I never used RAID on my drives. Bios is set to AHCI.

 

[Mussels]

That should be fine, was just worth checking

I've seen a lot of people run their controllers in RAID mode despite not actually having any RAID arrays - just because the drivers wouldnt install in AHCI mode (because they're RAID drivers, not AHCI drivers)

 

[yollamamama]

Seems my drive randomly stopped working completely today without warning. I have a 2TB 870 EVO from 03/2021 SN: S620NG0R.... It isn't even being picked up by my BIOS even after cable swapping and drive swapping with a known good one. Is there anything I can do to recover my data? If I send it in is there a chance it can be repaired so I can recover my data if I can't do it myself?

 

[R0Sch]

Seems my drive randomly stopped working completely today without warning. I have a 2TB 870 EVO from 03/2021 SN: S620NG0R.... It isn't even being picked up by my BIOS even after cable swapping and drive swapping with a known good one. Is there anything I can do to recover my data? If I send it in is there a chance it can be repaired so I can recover my data if I can't do it myself?

Sounds like something on your SSD PCB got fried. Reminds me of this video troubleshoot:

Samsung wipes all drives during RMA for data security purpose. So no chance even if repaired. They explicitly write "we don't provide data recovery services".

 

[Mussels]

Seems my drive randomly stopped working completely today without warning. I have a 2TB 870 EVO from 03/2021 SN: S620NG0R.... It isn't even being picked up by my BIOS even after cable swapping and drive swapping with a known good one. Is there anything I can do to recover my data? If I send it in is there a chance it can be repaired so I can recover my data if I can't do it myself?

no


important data should never be stored in one location

 

[floogulinc]

So has anyone that have rma there bad 870 ssd, ever got a new one back, or are they just refurbished ssd's ? thx

I RMAed 3 drives and got 2 new retail box. One in a white "not for retail sale" box. They all seem to be new.

 

[Daytrader]

I RMAed 3 drives and got 2 new retail box. One in a white "not for retail sale" box. They all seem to be new.

Nice, yeh i had a brand new in box sent to me, dated sept 2022.

 

[R0Sch]

I also received yesterday a new one back, manufactured in 2022-07-14. It also has the newest firmware SVT02B6Q on. Fingers crossed.

 

[E.S]

According to samsun's firmware update page,
The 870evo seems to have been manufactured in a new process since November 2022.
Was the problem caused by the manufacturing process?

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

semiconductor.samsung.com

Samsung SSD Firmware (40)​

*The 870 EVO model will be manufactured with a revised V6 process starting November 2022.

 

[R0Sch]

That is very interesting indeed. Might be.

 

[E.S]

some poeple say bad blocks are caused by the linux kernel.
Is it true?

201693 – Samsung 860 EVO NCQ Issue with AMD SATA Controller

bugzilla.kernel.org

 

[ThrashZone]

some poeple say bad blocks are caused by the linux kernel.
Is it true?

201693 – Samsung 860 EVO NCQ Issue with AMD SATA Controller

bugzilla.kernel.org

Hi,
No telling
Linux killed one of my crucial mx100's ssd a while back because of a firmware incompatibility so I wouldn't be quick to rule linux out.

 

[Potomac]

Hello,

I have a 870 EVO 500 GB bought in February 2021 (production date : January 2021), and my OS is archlinux.
The firmware shipped with this SSD is SVT01B6Q.

5 days ago I noticed that smartmontools reported me 31 reallocated sectors, and the short and long self tests don't succeed,
a very small amount of files was corrupted because of these bad sectors.

After google search I found this thread, and I followed advices like flashing firmware to the last version (SVT02B6Q), no improvements, smart tests (short and long) still fail. and bad sectors increased to 41.

Then I decided to run "Samsung magician tool" on a windows PC, a full diagnostic scan :

Then I decided to do a "secure erase" of the SSD (I have already backup data on another SSD), because some users (like the author of this thread, Citay) managed to recover the SSD by simply erasing all the data (low level format, or better : the "secure erase" sata command), and it worked

Short and long smart tests works now after the full erase, and Samsung Magician doesn't find bad sectors when I redo a full scan :

Smart data still show reallocated sectors and uncorrectable errors count, but these values don't increase anymore since the update of the firmware :

I don't know if I have to do a RMA, the SSD seems to work fine despite these 41 reallocated sectors, perhaps it was mainly a firmware bug, and the new firmware manage to avoid new bad sectors ?
The SSD has a very low usage (only 1.6 TB written since february 2021).

What do you think ?
Should I RMA this SSD ? I am not very fond of refurbished SSD that Samsung usually send...

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Not sure magician ever found anything wrong
Crystaldiskinfo did

Downloading File /78047/CrystalDiskInfo8_17_13.exe - CrystalDiskInfo - OSDN

Free download page for Project CrystalDiskInfo's CrystalDiskInfo8_17_13.exe.CrystalDisklnfo is disk utility that supports some types of USB connections, Intel RAID, and NVMe. If anything abnor...

osdn.net

 

[Potomac]

I tested also Crystaldiskinfo, and the software shows 99% health, and no warning/error messages.

Short and self smart tests are made internally by the SSD (softwares like CrystalDiskInfo, Smartmontools and Magician only read the results reported by the SSD),
a diagnostic scan (reading all LBA sectors) is a good test for tracking bad sectors,

Forcing the SSD to remap bad sector has chances to succeed (full erase), but it doesn't mean than the surviving flash memory cells are in good shape,
however no new bad sectors 3 months after the full erase may be a good sign.

I will try to stress/benchmark the SSD (copy files, reinstalling OS), if new bad sectors occur then I will do a RMA.

 

[80251]

@Potomac
I wouldn't just be worried about reallocated sectors with your SSD I'd be worried about the ECC Error Rate and Uncorrectable Error Count as well.

 

[Potomac]

Yes of course.

The ECC error rate and number of uncorrectable errors increased because I ran diagnostic tools and smart self-test too often,
when it hits one of the bad sectors (red mark on the Samsung Magician graph) : the counters go crazy as the SSD tries to read the bad sector several times before giving up.

Once these bad sectors were remapped (with the help of "secure erase" sata command), the ECC error rate and the number of uncorrectable errors stopped increasing.

 

[80251]

Depending on how long the warranty is I'd still consider RMA'ing that EVO 870. Why get burned?

 

[Potomac]

You probably right,

I have started RMA procedure, I have just sent to them by email screen captures, invoice and photos,
not sure if the RMA will be accepted, because if they try to check the SSD with their software then they will notice that Samsung Magician reports no errors for the diagnostic scan (because of the secure erase I made), they will just notice the SMART errors (41 reallocated sectors, 16749 uncorrectable error count and 16749 ECC error rate).

I will try to benchmark the SSD before send it, perhaps another bad sectors will occur after copying big files.

 

[64K]

Is this still an issue or has it been sorted out now?

 

[Potomac]

Some production of 870 EVO SSD (250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB and 4 TB) made between the end of 2020 and september 2021 may have the problem,

the symptoms are :

- SSD works without problems for 6 or 18 months, and suddenly the user notices errors during SMART self tests, and some unreadable sectors, increase of reallocated sector count value, and often corrupt files.
- Despite of a moderate usage of the SSD (1.6 TB of data written for example) the reallocated sector count value increases (40, 60 or even more).
- A secure erase (or write zeros) may allow the SSD to pass SMART self tests (short and long version), with Samsung Magician software showing no errors during the diagnostic scan, without being sure of the lifespan of the SSD, it can at any time create again corrupted files.

We don't know if the new firmware (SVT02B6Q) can reduce the risk, or if samsung has improved quality control and used better quality memory chips for 870 EVO SSDs made after september 2021,
I think the risk is still here for the 870 EVO series.

 

[80251]

I'll never buy a Samsung 870 EVO and I don't really trust my 870 QVO anymore either.

 

[Potomac]

The SSD was just picked up by DHL for RMA, now I have to wait for it to be received by Samsung.

I hope everything will go well, this SSD has bad SMART infos (reallocated sector count, uncorrectable error count, ECC error rate), but bad sectors are no longer visible during a surface scan (since I made a secure erase), I don't know if Samsung will do a surface scan when they receive SSD for RMA, or if they just check SMART infos.

 

[ThrashZone]

Is this still an issue or has it been sorted out now?

Hi,
870's are cursed so no I think sammy is just kicks the ball down the road with rma replacements
They'll likely still have future issues with 870's but the warranty does not start over it continues from when original purchase date.

 

[Potomac]

Perhaps it's time for Samsung to end 870 series, it must be 2 years since 870 was launched on the market.

880 EVO models, with new quality control process, better flash memory modules, may help to restore confidence for customers.