Alienware owners with Samsung PM800 SSD - TRIM now available!

I eventually managed to flash my 128 GB with VBM19C1Q firmware.
TRIM power is mine, Yeah !
I would like to add that the flash was made with an older desktop than the previous ones I have used (DELL Precision 380 with Intel 955X Express chipset) .

 

http://drop.io/mushkin

 

I have updated to the "new" firmware (VBM1901Q) which is supposed to have Trim support. My old firmware was the "Dell" VMB19D1Q, yet still for some reason or another crystal disk info indicates "trim" is not working. See the attachment below.

Reasons for this would be greatly appreciated?

 

Hi all. I did get the driver from the main link, I looked through all the files and saw it. I also noticed that on the Corsair download, they do not have bin, but enc files.
And thanks for the link to the muskin software, now downloaded.

Anyway I tried to flash the Dell drive at work and did a 1 and then 2, not a 2 and then 1 !
I refired up the desktop and it stopped at detecting drive on IDE0. I tried drive in, out and it refused to see it.
I then put the drive into the work T60 and it seemed to recognise the drive, but insisted it had a HDD password on it.
At this stage I was conviced I had bricked the drive
I got home and I have a Macbook Pro (probably no use), an older Aopen xcube, Asus P5Q Pro, and Acer D150 netbook - the intended recipient.
I was thinking of taking one of the desktops apart to have a go at a reflash, but the netbook was to hand and is only 2 screws.
Put it in, it went into DOS straight away. fired up maindiag and I was able to flash.
All works.

So, even if you think you have just bricked something, persevere and try as many other machines as you can.

I tried to flash the HP one I got , but that fails with everything. It is running vbm1ah1q. Any ideas on how to flash this one ?

Cheers

 

Scrub that, it has just worked on the netbook

Cheers

 

I think 190 just supports GC while 19C does TRIM or GC

 

I just got my m17x R2 on Friday with the 256gb drive, it came with Firmware VBM24D1Q (which others have mentioned does support TRIM).

 

Anu updates from Dell? I have FW: VBM15D1Q in my Alienware m17x. That's what you get for being one of the first ones to get it. Crappy firmware.

 

Hi Guys, just got my Samsung 256GB SSD (TRIM enabled) today but something is bugging me

Anyone knows why did my performance drop this much?

Left photo (Win 7 newly installed) ---------------- Right Photo (Installed hardware drivers nothing else)

 

TRIM isn't working. Your SATA controller driver needs to be the Windows driver and not the one provided by Dell.

 

Haven't seen you posting around here much since the summer. Hope the M17x is treating you well.

 

Or more directly, uninstall the Intel Matrix Storage Manager as it keeps TRIM from working.

 

I'll be getting in the Samsung 256GB SSD (I assume) from Dell in my Alienware M11x, and I'm not sure how Dell sends them, but just so I'm on top of things - if Intel Matrix Storage Manager is installed, uninstall it, will the Windows drivers be already installed or some Dell ones? Should I run that crystal mark program to make sure TRIM is working?

 

This is the program you need, LINK.

It tells you if TRIM is enabled, if you are using the Windows drivers and what firmware your SSD has.

 

I also checked if TRIM was enabled using CDI

 

I doubt TRIM not working would cause such a dramatic performance drop. One of my 256GB Samsung SSD's is not TRIM-enabled (it's in my XPS 1640), and performance on that drive is awesome, even after months of using it.

Not sure why your performance would drop like that...

 

hey Mandrake. It is treating me well except the ssd. I have been gaming on it alot at work when I am on call. Haven't regretted the purchase one bit. Now I just read have they have a R2 version of the m17x. Must...stop....upgrade...urge

 

Post a screen shot of that program I linked.

Nah go for it!

 

Here is what the driver should look like:

 

Also look at this thread which I explained how to set it up. LINK

 

Okies



Update: Thanks to Mr. PRO -> Mandrake!



Follow up question:

I noticed the icon has changed (yellow color). Why is it?

 

here are my crystal disc benchmarks after 7 months of use. Pretty crappy

 

what do you guys think? Need TRIM??????

 

I never noticed the color change. Did your speeds go up?

Yes, definitely. Upgrade your firmware.

 

what do u make of these results guys? Can all this be related to no TRIM?

 

oh, sorry Mandrake. DIdn't see your response. WIsh I could upgrade the firmware. It is that Pain in the 15dq whatever that can't be upgraded until DELL releases the FW tool.

 

I haven't been following but I thought it was. I remember dave-p saying his drives were upgraded and he was waiting for Dell.

 

Very glad to say, YES!!

Thank You So Much for the help. + Rep!!

............................... Before .............................

....................................After........................................

 

I with you!
I do also have a HP one.
No success so far

 

Sorry, lost track of who was doing what! Your results were before and after what? Firmware upgrade?

 

Look at his screen-shot from post 221.

 

ah so changed the nvidia to the standard AHCI controller and speeds increased?

 

Correct because until he did that TRIM was not working.

 

I forced the TRIM software on my drives

But I believe it will not work on the 15 series FW

I did hear that if you call Dell and complain about the Poor Drive performance they will exchange it with a new one - which did have TRIM enabled

 

Vandit needs to do that then with hid numbers.

 

I find myself with 2 Dell 256GB SSDs on the 15 firmware... so far I have not had any luck with my netbook or any of my Gigabyte-MB based machines to flash using MainDiag.

Could anyone that has successfully flashed with MainDiag indicate what motherboard model number or laptop/netbook model they used? This might be able to help others figure out where they can find a machine that can actually do the flash.

 

So if I'm hoping to receive a new unit come early March (sig), should I expect any troubles with their SSD in terms of having up-to-date firmware and TRIM enabled etc? I don't have another computer I can do a flash on the firmware with so I'm kind of stuck with whatever firmware they give me. I don't want to run into issues that people are saying.. like 15 firmware? not sure what that means..

 

DO NOT FLASH THE FW VBM19C1Q on the new SSD SAMSUNG PM800 with Black Cover (MMDPE56G5DXP) !!!

It's a new PCB (1,8") with a new REV of the controler PM800 and new memory flash chip.

If you flash your drive, you will brick it (I bricked the mine yersteday ).

According to Samsung Site http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/products/flash/ssd/2008/product/pcLineup.html , it's a new modele of the end of 2009

 

I've given up trying to flash this, finally got a competent rep on the phone (through business support, consumer FTL) and am getting a new drive shipped out.

 

might have to do the same for my 15 FW version

 

To date theres still no TRIM for raid 0 is there?

 

It's more difficult because it will require hardware support with the controller along with the controller on the SSD and the software within Windows.

 

Hi guys, I would like to know what is the better way to erase my Samsung SSD VBM19D1Q?

*My write speed has significantly dropped and I would like to wipe it clean without altering its firmware.

Tried using the HDDerase on my laptops and desktop but no luck

Thanks in advance!

 

I have to ask why would it be slowing down with trim enabled? Wasnt trim suppose to fix that? lol.

Shame they cant work on a new controller to manage trim ssds, but then again I wouldnt raid them if there was, really isnt worth it (for me)

 

Correct you shouldn't have to clean your blocks if TRIM is enabled. Go back to the drive controller info program and see if it has changed.

 

@Blaze182
I'm also wondering that but couldn't figure why.

@Mandrake
I did make sure that the drive controller is still the Microsoft one. I even tried install/uninstall the nVidia drive controller driver but problem remains the same.

Things I tried: (all these to no effect)
Reinstall OS (basic installation) (3 times)
Reinstall OS (aligned the partition through DOS) (3 times)
Reformat the SSD through DOS prompt (3 times)
Reformat the SSD through Device Management (2 times)

HDDerase v3.3 & v4.0 - can't detect my SSD
Gparted - can't understand how to use
ubcd50RC1 - can't detect my SSD

Any suggestion?

 

Yes stop reformatting the drive for one, it won't help. I don't know of an erase program to try but it's honestly not needed.

Aligning the disk concerns me because (I know we've discussed before) you are changing the alignment Windows 7 sets up for you when installing the OS. If this was Windows XP I would say yes take extra steps for alignment.

Start over, install the OS, make sure it's using the MS SATA controller driver and report back with speeds. Don't take any extra steps. It's possible after this that a problem still exists which means try reflashing the SSD with the latest firmware. If that doesn't help you may have a failing SSD. If too many blocks have gone bad the SSD won't have enough room to shuffle the data around that it needs to. Then your performance will start decreasing. Constant reformatting can actually shorten the life of the blocks.

If you want additional advice go HERE. These guys keep up with all the latest info regarding SSDs.

 

I tried aligning the disk when I discovered that mine was not aligned after installing Win 7 (basic installation w/o any extra steps) and that caused me the nightmares

I managed to align the disk though DOS prompt but the speed was horrible no matter what I did. Maybe TRIM or GC wasn't doing its job? Thought HDDerase/GParted could bring the SSD back to its factory state

I also tried installing the OS (basic installation) with same result.
Read 101MB/s, Write 82MB/s (Right after OS installation).
Read 115MB/s Write 37MB/s (after image recovery)

 

Well.. that was the sad part.

After taking a break for 4 hours, I went back to my desktop to try wiping my disk using HDDerase/GParted but failed again for the 4th time. So decided to give up and deleted the partition on my disk using GParted and returned the disk on my notebook to do the basic installation of the OS for the sake of the screen shot to send with my complain to the seller, but to my surprise after running winsat the speed was back
Seq Read: 208MB/s
Seq Write: 166MB/s

I sincerely THANK YOU Mr. Pro for your kindness/helpfulness to your fellow NBR members especially me.


EDIT:

 

Nice, glad it worked out in the end.