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

[SuperConker]

Been reading this Thread for a while, and had to Register to say something about the 870 EVO failures.

I would reccommend that you do NOT trust CrystalDiskInfo when it comes to the Samsung 870 EVO failing
(it might give you the impression that the drive is perfectly fine, when it's not).

Already made a few posts about it on the Ten Forums

Samsung 990 Pro SSD rapid health drops

When you buy the fastest flagship SSD on the market, you expect a certain level of reliability and confidence from its performance, but things can and do go wrong sometimes, and customer support is paramount at instilling continued confidence in the brand

www.tenforums.com

Definitely use something like Hard Disk Sentinel (HDSentinel) and Samsung's own Magician software instead
(to get a more correct picture of what is going on with your 870's).

I lost around 250 GB of important data due to CrystalDiskInfo not being true about the actual Health of these drives
(i thought the drive was ok at first because of that).

 

[pathtonowhere]

So if you update the firmware for the 870 EVOs, do they remain ok? Has anyone tried it?

 

[Bwaze]

I have found a list with the affected drives that should update the firmware immediately! If you do not, you are taking a big risk. But remember it was your decision.
If your drive has this serial number as listed below, your drive will suffer degradation sooner or later if you don't upgrade the firmware.

Samsung 870 EVO	S5Y2NJ0N / S5Y2NJ0R / S5Y3NF0R / S5Y3NG0R / S621NG0R / S625NJ0R / S626NF0R / S626NJ0R / S62BNJ0R / S62CNF0R / S62CNJ0R / S6BANJ0R / S6BBNG0R / S6BCNG0R / S6BCNJ0R / S6PTNZ0R / S6PUNF0R
Samsung 970 EVO	S464NB0K / S465NF0K / S466NF0K / S466NX0K / S466NX0M / S5H7NS0N / S5H9NS0N / 3B2QEXM7
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS	S6P7NG0R / S6P7NF0T / 2B2QEXM7 / 4B2QEXM7
Samsung 980	S649NF0R / S649NF1R / S649NG0R / S649NJ0R / S649NX0R / S64ANG0R / S64DNF0R
Samsung 980 PRO	S5GXNF0R / S5GXNF0T / S5GXNG0N / S5GYNX0R / S69ENF0R / S69ENG0R / S6B0NG0R / 3B2QGXA7
Samsung 990 PRO	0B2QJXD7

So you see, i was right. All drives made after 12/2020 are garbage...

Where is this list from? "Serial numbers" are actually firmware names, not drive serial numbers, so it just lists all the firmwares of individual drives before the latest one that should fix the issue.

Also, I can't even find any press releases or official notifications from Samsung. Even about the good news, firmwares that should fix the issues with affected drives. The only place Samsung even writes about that is on download pages of individual firmware releases that several tech news sites used as source for their article.

Has Samsung really decided that ignoring the issue is a good tactic, and less talking about it less harm to the image? So people will not see and connect the brand Samsung to drive failures if they don't notify their users about potential degradation and drive failures and how to migitate that?

Really?

Also, I don't buy the W1zzard's explanation on why most of this isn't reported on TechPowerUP:

"I sent the link to the news people, they apparently ignored it. I guess that's why we're hiring more news editors right now."

In last weeks when this has escalated TechPowerUP has published tons and tons of news, press releases, even reviews. If it's from overwork, this still doesn't explain the priorities - why reviews of headphone amplifiers, headphones, fans, news about all kind of crap, and not this?

It is about failures of component that almost every PC uses, from the sales leader in this category, and drives affected are one of the most sold drives. Even here it's kind of burried under topic of older SSD drive failures.

There is no excuse not to write about this. Or you can just say you have been told / have been paid not to write about this.

 

[skappley]

Oh no, that's bad - I have 4 of these 870 EVOs (with 4 TB each) running in my homelab server. One started failing now, it reports reallocated sectors and reading errors. I'm using ZFS on that server, which is quite good because I didn't lose any data thanks to redundancy, however ZFS says the drive should be replaced and I'm now wondering if Samsung will accept it for RMA or not.

I wrote a short message to Samsung support and they just now responded with a list of things they want, from Magician reports to pictures and so on - that's quite some effort in my case, seen that the drive is in Linux machine. I'll next try to contact the shop where I bought it, maybe it's easier to return it to them.

After reading about all these errors with 870 EVOs I'm wondering if it would be best to sell these drives and replace them with something else? I bought the four EVOs mid 2021, so I guess they are all affected, even if just one has shown errors so far.
Or would it be sufficient to update their firmware? I guess I'd have to move them one by one to a Windows machine for that, too, right?

 

[SuperConker]

Check the "S.M.A.R.T." data on your drives with a software like "Hard Disk Sentinel"
If there are any bad sectors i would return the drive.

Manufacturing-date has no impact on whether this issue will happen or not,
but rather what Firmware version they have on them
(supposedly, the new firmware fixes the issue).

If the other drives are fine then i would Update the Firmware right away on those.

 

[skappley]

Check the "S.M.A.R.T." data on your drives with a software like "Hard Disk Sentinel"
If there are any bad sectors i would return the drive.

I've done that, yes. First there was one reallocated sector and a couple of reading errors. I've done a long SMART selftest of the drive after that and after that test it had 3 reallocated sectors. Afterwards I've used it with ZFS again and it continued to have error correction issues (don't remember the exact term right now) and was therefore marked as "faulted" again.

Ok yes, I'll try to update the firmware of the fine drives. Let's hope that helps...

 

[SPDIF]

Update as soon as possible your firmware, wetter it has the problem or not. Better Safe than Sorry! Remember once it has bad sectors, the update stops it but the damage that has been done stays in your SSD.

The firmware numbers in the list from some SSD means they are affected even with this firmware installed. Date has surely an impact, drives from before 12/2020 has no problems with any firmware installed. I can know it, i literally sold 100+ drives in my shop. After 2020 it was raining complaints...

I don't understand why it stays quiet anywhere about this, more customers have this problem but not everyone reports it.

 

[H3LLGHA5T]

So if you update the firmware for the 870 EVOs, do they remain ok? Has anyone tried it?

I don't think so. I can't recall any firmware updates releasing for 870 Evos since I bought them over a year ago and they were up to date when I looked which I do periodically, yet I had both of them get the same critical errors. When I backed up all the data from them, there were a handful of (thankfully not really important) files which couldn't be read.

 

[tpudine]

So if you update the firmware for the 870 EVOs, do they remain ok? Has anyone tried it?

If you update it quickly before writing lots of data you should be fine, the update won't save you if your drive has already started showing bad sectors. If your drive shipped with the newer firmware you should also be fine. Though it's hard to be 100% certain with this issue.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah I'm thinking most people here are not using 1-2-4tb 870 evo's as backup drives which don't see a lot of action I know my backup drives don't and only see action every couple weeks and maybe only monthly.
These are likely more like game/ movie/... drives accessed a lot and are just not holding up.

 

[P4-630]

So I just did the trouble to install the latest firmware (SVT02B6Q) on my 870 evo, used as external drive.

I expect no further issues.

 

[SuperConker]

Hi,
Yeah I'm thinking most people here are not using 1-2-4tb 870 evo's as backup drives which don't see a lot of action I know my backup drives don't and only see action every couple weeks and maybe only monthly.
These are likely more like game/ movie/... drives accessed a lot and are just not holding up.

My 4TB 870 EVO's were used as backup-drives where there was little to nothing written to them (once the files i wanted to add, were added).
They were basically left Idling for 2-3 months after that (i run my computer 24/7 and never turn it off).

Despite this, they all failed the same way after 2-3 months of just being powered on (after 2000+ Power on Hours).

There was never any real warning-sings beforehand that something was wrong with them.
One day the drives were fine... the next day they were broken...

This suggests to me that the usage (or TBW) is not the issue with these 870's.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Damn that's messed up

 

[Daytrader]

My 4TB 870 EVO's were used as backup-drives where there was little to nothing written to them (once the files i wanted to add, were added).
They were basically left Idling for 2-3 months after that (i run my computer 24/7 and never turn it off).

Despite this, they all failed the same way after 2-3 months of just being powered on (after 2000+ Power on Hours).

There was never any real warning-sings beforehand that something was wrong with them.
One day the drives were fine... the next day they were broken...

This suggests to me that the usage (or TBW) is not the issue with these 870's.

Yup same here really, 2 x 4TB 870's just used for installing games to, one already sent back for replacement, and other one about to be sent back soon i reckon, they replaced the first one with a date of manufacture of sept 2022, i am using it but not sure if in the long term it will be ok, one of the drives i had was just plugged in even for like 6 months, without even anything written to, only just started putting games on it.

 

[Eddie58]

Has Samsung really decided that ignoring the issue is a good tactic, and less talking about it less harm to the image? So people will not see and connect the brand Samsung to drive failures if they don't notify their users about potential degradation and drive failures and how to migitate that?

It could also be cost reasons, if they make people aware there is a fault with these drives they might have a flood of returns. Keep in mind that unlike the 980 Pro and 990 Pro, the 870 EVO is a slow and silent degradation over time. Most people won't notice until they try to copy a file from a bad block or they get some random error with their system, and even then they might not realize the drive was at fault.

Manufacturing-date has no impact on whether this issue will happen or not,
but rather what Firmware version they have on them
(supposedly, the new firmware fixes the issue).

This is wrong, we have no idea if manufacturing date has an impact or not.

 

[SuperConker]

It could also be cost reasons, if they make people aware there is a fault with these drives they might have a flood of returns. Keep in mind that unlike the 980 Pro and 990 Pro, the 870 EVO is a slow and silent degradation over time. Most people won't notice until they try to copy a file from a bad block or they get some random error with their system, and even then they might not realize the drive was at fault.


This is wrong, we have no idea if manufacturing date has an impact or not.

We kind of do know by now.

If you read through the whole thread, you can see that people have been having issues with drives spanning all of 2021
(and most of 2022, until the new Firmware came out).

Only drives that has the new Firmware on them seem to be fine (so far).

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Long time for no tpu news story about this issue.

Should of been brought up with the 980 and 990 issues.

 

[SuperConker]

PRHi,
Long time for no tpu news story about this issue.

Should of been brought up with the 980 and 990 issues.

Yeah, all news outlets and even Samsung themselves are more or less brushing the issue with the 870 EVO under the rug.

Despite that the 870 EVO issues is much worse than the 980/990 PRO issues
(you don't lose data on the 980/990 PRO, but on the 870 you can lose data).

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Yeah just the other day we finally got word from W1zzard

I sent the link to the news people, they apparently ignored it. I guess that's why we're hiring more news editors right now

Hopefully he will push this past all the rumors mascaraing as news threads around here and get the ball rolling on a news thread about this shit ssd.

 

[OneMoar]

this thread is 19 pages of garbage
the 870 evo is a old drive and a old design and been in service for many years
if there was really a wide spread problem you would know about it
what we have is a handful of drives failing nothing more
go home kids

 

[P4-630]

I have found a list with the affected drives that should update the firmware immediately! If you do not, you are taking a big risk. But remember it was your decision.
If your drive has this serial number as listed below, your drive will suffer degradation sooner or later if you don't upgrade the firmware.

Samsung 870 EVO	S5Y2NJ0N / S5Y2NJ0R / S5Y3NF0R / S5Y3NG0R / S621NG0R / S625NJ0R / S626NF0R / S626NJ0R / S62BNJ0R / S62CNF0R / S62CNJ0R / S6BANJ0R / S6BBNG0R / S6BCNG0R / S6BCNJ0R / S6PTNZ0R / S6PUNF0R
Samsung 970 EVO	S464NB0K / S465NF0K / S466NF0K / S466NX0K / S466NX0M / S5H7NS0N / S5H9NS0N / 3B2QEXM7
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS	S6P7NG0R / S6P7NF0T / 2B2QEXM7 / 4B2QEXM7
Samsung 980	S649NF0R / S649NF1R / S649NG0R / S649NJ0R / S649NX0R / S64ANG0R / S64DNF0R
Samsung 980 PRO	S5GXNF0R / S5GXNF0T / S5GXNG0N / S5GYNX0R / S69ENF0R / S69ENG0R / S6B0NG0R / 3B2QGXA7
Samsung 990 PRO	0B2QJXD7

So you see, i was right. All drives made after 12/2020 are garbage...

Curious about the source of this "list"....

 

[SuperConker]

this thread is 19 pages of garbage
the 870 evo is a old drive and a old design and been in service for many years
if there was really a wide spread problem you would know about it
what we have is a handful of drives failing nothing more
go home kids

The 870 EVO is Samsung's current/newest offering as for SATA drives goes.

Not sure why you're trying to make it into that it's not an issue.

If you had purchased 3x expensive 4TB SSD's and they all failed for no good reason
(3 out of 3 failed for me, which is a 100% failure rate).

And then you lost your data due to it as-well? Well, then you'd be pissed too.

Especially if you found that many others have the same issue,
and that the Manufacturer is just brushing it under the rug.

I'd say people have a right to be mad over this.

 

[TechPowerupUserMember]

I've posted to here https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/...aw-partition-to-ntfs-assistance-needed.304321 and the main thread is here https://www.tenforums.com/drivers-hardware/202207-samsung-ssd-2-5-evo-970-raw-corruption-ntfs.html if anyone is interested to see my progress. Currently searching for an 'in-place' fix to return RAW to NTFS.

I have x2 1 TB Samsung EVO 870 and I purchased around time stated on original post. Can find out serial numbers if someone wants.

 

[kevin335200]

Curious about the source of this "list"....

Samsung SSD 0E Issue with affected SN

Yeah, that's me. I collected the first eight digits of the serial number, but the author of the NAS Compares article confused it with the firmware.

SNs are extracted from CDI or Samsung Magician screenshots across multi-sources, e.g., Amazon 1-star reviews, Baidu Tieba (similar to Reddit), forums, etc.

 

[chrcoluk]

I have found a list with the affected drives that should update the firmware immediately! If you do not, you are taking a big risk. But remember it was your decision.
If your drive has this serial number as listed below, your drive will suffer degradation sooner or later if you don't upgrade the firmware.

Samsung 870 EVO	S5Y2NJ0N / S5Y2NJ0R / S5Y3NF0R / S5Y3NG0R / S621NG0R / S625NJ0R / S626NF0R / S626NJ0R / S62BNJ0R / S62CNF0R / S62CNJ0R / S6BANJ0R / S6BBNG0R / S6BCNG0R / S6BCNJ0R / S6PTNZ0R / S6PUNF0R
Samsung 970 EVO	S464NB0K / S465NF0K / S466NF0K / S466NX0K / S466NX0M / S5H7NS0N / S5H9NS0N / 3B2QEXM7
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS	S6P7NG0R / S6P7NF0T / 2B2QEXM7 / 4B2QEXM7
Samsung 980	S649NF0R / S649NF1R / S649NG0R / S649NJ0R / S649NX0R / S64ANG0R / S64DNF0R
Samsung 980 PRO	S5GXNF0R / S5GXNF0T / S5GXNG0N / S5GYNX0R / S69ENF0R / S69ENG0R / S6B0NG0R / 3B2QGXA7
Samsung 990 PRO	0B2QJXD7

So you see, i was right. All drives made after 12/2020 are garbage...

No idea where you got this list from but I feel I got real lucky.

870 EVO, 970 EVO, 980 PRO that I own all dont have any of those serial's.