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

[mb194dc]

I'm getting an MX500 2TB soon...

Also as far as I know, Crucial is the only company having SSD's with power loss protection, which is a nice thing to have.

The old mx500 had big wear problems as well. Is another thread here about them.

Fixed with a new controller on later ones though. I have a new controller 2TB MX 500 and no issues so far.

 

[chrcoluk]

Remember that BAD blocks never disappear if you do a secure erase. They are still there but internally replaced with SPARE blocks. The SSD will then stop writing to this bad block.
Spare blocks are limited like HDD, once used up it's done for. Like with old HDD, once you have bad blocks on an SSD, take a backup ASAP and have a new disk ready. If you don't care for your data, then you can go on use it until it dies.

The new 870EVO SSD with 1TB space are now shipped with SVT03B6Q firmware, not available online because they use new NAND packages. The 870EVO 500GB and 4TB are still shipped with SVT02B6Q firmware.

Hmm potential MX500 type shenanigans there.

 

[SuperConker]

What you just described mirrors the old 840 issue, data read problems due to data rentention issues, fixed by fresh write or new format (temporarily on the 840 without fixed firmware).

It's not quite the same issue though, after the latest Firmware the 840 EVO will work just fine again
(no bad Blocks/Sectors, CRC-errors or anything like that on it before or after the Update).

I have a 1 TB model of the 840 EVO still, and it's working just fine (only issue was the speed-degradation).
Samsung made a tool for the 840 EVO to run on it (in order to bring the drive back to full speed).

But I never experienced any data-loss on the 840 EVO (unlike on the 870 EVO).

 

[Alcje]

Remember that BAD blocks never disappear if you do a secure erase. They are still there but internally replaced with SPARE blocks. The SSD will then stop writing to this bad block.
Spare blocks are limited like HDD, once used up it's done for. Like with old HDD, once you have bad blocks on an SSD, take a backup ASAP and have a new disk ready. If you don't care for your data, then you can go on use it until it dies.

The new 870EVO SSD with 1TB space are now shipped with SVT03B6Q firmware, not available online because they use new NAND packages. The 870EVO 500GB and 4TB are still shipped with SVT02B6Q firmware.

I was a little bit affraid because of all the problems I've read about. But I think they also changed the 4 TB version! Today I received my 870 EVO 4 TB .

This one was delivered with firmware version SVT03B6Q. On the box: made in china and production date 2023/05/11. This one was ordered from amazon a few days ago with the prime deals in the Netherlands.

Is there a way to lookup the NAND packages numbers with software?

When I did a CrystalDiskmark Bench, I got a BSOD the first time. Maybe bad luck?=)
Now everything is fine.

 

[SuperConker]

I bet there's a new controller on the inside (and maybe a slightly different looking pcb).

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

I do believe the title of the thread could be updated a little to reflect just how widespread the issue really is.

Pretty much all of the batches of the 870 EVO made between 2020 and 2023 are affected by this issue
(so it's not just "certain batches" anymore).

Even if you update them to the newer SVT02B6Q firmware right out of the box, they will still fail.


And the new batches from 2023 (with the brand new SVT03B6Q firmware) are still too new to know if it has fixed anything yet.

You guys are delusional, just because it happened to you doesn't mean its that bad, the 870 still highly rated user reviews on shopping sites, what ever issues the early batches might have had am sure Samsung did something about it, its been nearly three years, enough of this fear mongering crap, i never hear about this anywhere outside TPU, maybe ask why that is?

 

[tpudine]

Is there a way to lookup the NAND packages numbers with software?

You can type the NAND part number into this database (change language to English in top right corner).

 

[tpudine]

You can type the NAND part number into this database (change language to English in top right corner).

Nvm didn't notice that you asked for software. There's no software tool for identifying NAND on Samsung. You would have to open the drive which will void the warranty.

 

[SPDIF]

No they still use the same Samsung MKX controller, just the Nand is different from older ones. Al new 870EVO are now shipped with SVT03B6Q firmware. I think this firmware is not compatible with the older nand they used before. Nand is made by Samsung also there is no table or anything available, it is Samsung's secret sauce.

The controller has eight channels and, like the MJX controller from the 860EVO, would be built around three ARM Cortex R4 cores. In the 870 EVO drives, Samsung used 136-layer nand. What they now use i have no idea.

 

[sethmatrix7]

Imo, Samsung SSDs are overrated, especially the Evo ones that aren't any better than your regular Crucial MX/BX drives, but come with a price premium for some reason.

Samsung used to be the best SSD's imo https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-870-evo-sata-ssd-review-the-best-just-got-better/3

After that Samsung got caught up to in performance for less $ https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/silicon-power-ud90-ssd-review/2

And now Samsung is worse for more $ https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/silicon-power-xpower-xs70-review/2

MindShare is a powerful thing

 

[SPDIF]

No one is perfect i guess, Crucial has also many problems with the MX500 now, data loss and failures or the drive hangs while using it.
Same thing as Samsung you must update the firmware again... WD also had firmware problems with the SN850X. WD's response;

We are aware of the issue and have a planned firmware release soon to address it. The error is not a fatal flaw and does not affect the drive or performance/computer other than adding messages to the event viewer.

Any brand you use, i would advice anyway everyone to check if there is an update for your drive, before using it.

For anyone interested, a screenshot from a NEW 860EVO in CrystalDiskInfo. But not as a usual AHCI SSD, this one in M.2 SATA form.
Brings a tear in my eyes, but still works damn good. Now used with Windows 11 Bit-locker encrypted.

 

[tpudine]

Seems like Samsung is still making and shipping new 870s with the old 128L NAND revision.
My brand new 4TB 870 EVO arrived from Amazon. 05/2023 DOM, made in Korea. Should come with the brand new firmware right? Nope, SVT02B6Q. Serial number was S6xxx.

Serial number begins with S7 = new SVT03 firmware
Serial number begins with S6 = SVT02 firmware

 

[SPDIF]

As someone said here earlier you get different revisions globally, why they do that who knows... Here in Belgium i always get the newer ones with updated firmware.
136-L Nand.

New old stock? I think we will never know what happened at Samsung... Nothing on their webpage about this new revisions.

On their website; Samsung V-NAND 3bit MLC (TLC) same as an 860EVO.

860EVO S5 Serial number and 64-layer 3D(V) NAND

 

[Juggynaut]

I just bought 870 EVO 4TB here in australia from samsung website and got one with 06/2023 DOM with firmware SVT03B6Q
Serial number starts with S7

 

[Solid State Soul ( SSS )]

As someone said here earlier you get different revisions globally, why they do that who knows... Here in Belgium i always get the newer ones with updated firmware.
136-L Nand.

New old stock? I think we will never know what happened at Samsung... Nothing on their webpage about this new revisions.

On their website; Samsung V-NAND 3bit MLC (TLC) same as an 860EVO.

860EVO S5 Serial number and 64-layer 3D(V) NAND

So the new revisions with serial number 7 comes with a 136 layers nand flash while the old version has 128 layers?

Also have Samsung made some downgrades in the quality or removed Dram?

Because the 870 evo has become suspiciously cheap here in the UAE, the 500gb went from 200 to just 120 AED in few months, its now priced almost the same as the MX500 lol

 

[veodko]

WD's response;

We are aware of the issue and have a planned firmware release soon to address it. The error is not a fatal flaw and does not affect the drive or performance/computer other than adding messages to the event viewer.

At least they had the nuts to admit there's a problem and inform about the situation, unlike Samsung. I guess this is the main reason people are mad, Samsung still acts as if nothing happened.

 

[chrcoluk]

Seems like Samsung is still making and shipping new 870s with the old 128L NAND revision.
My brand new 4TB 870 EVO arrived from Amazon. 05/2023 DOM, made in Korea. Should come with the brand new firmware right? Nope, SVT02B6Q. Serial number was S6xxx.

Serial number begins with S7 = new SVT03 firmware
Serial number begins with S6 = SVT02 firmware

Stock can stay in supply channels for long time also. What was the production date?

So the new revisions with serial number 7 comes with a 136 layers nand flash while the old version has 128 layers?

Also have Samsung made some downgrades in the quality or removed Dram?

Because the 870 evo has become suspiciously cheap here in the UAE, the 500gb went from 200 to just 120 AED in few months, its now priced almost the same as the MX500 lol

Suggests demand dropped off, one potential reason for that of course is if the reputation takes a hit, I wonder what would have caused that?

Other drives have also had price tumbles though, I ordered a 2TB SN850X yesterday due to that tumbling as well. (yep samsung you lost me as customer). SN850X has some reported compat issues with some boards, but the scenarios seem to be if not using in a gen 4x4 port, I will be using it in such a port.

 

[Juggynaut]

This cant be good already getting reallocated sectors, my 860 is still good after all these years.

 

[chrcoluk]

How new is that 870 evo with manufacture date?

 

[Juggynaut]

How new is that 870 evo with manufacture date?

06/2023 DOM

 

[chrcoluk]

06/2023 DOM

Thanks, so not great for people hoping the manufacturing changes fixed the issue, although its possible it may have done and you just got very unlucky.

Your issue seems different in that its got failed nand (or controller/dram integrity issue) right from the first day.

 

[SuperConker]

A bad black after only one day is not at all a good sign.

So even the new drives with the SVT03B6Q firmware is failing it would seem.

 

[tpudine]

I think the 870 is just cursed at this point...

 

[Juggynaut]

I filled the drive with random files and then did a full diagnosic scan that took almost 4 hours and it came back as Good.

No increase in reallocated sectors, going to keep monitoring it.

 

[Alcje]

I see a lot of 860 screenshots of cyrstdisk info, I also checked mine. Isnt it strange that on al screenshots the reallocated sector count is 100? Mine the same. How accurate is crystaldiskinfo?