1TB EVO with Samsung Magician 4.6 F/W update results.

Samsung Magician 4.6 along with the updated 840 EVO firmware was finally available to me on April 27, 2015 (Samsung was throttling its release to most users for about 3 days of the initial release date).

The firmware included with SM4.6 is intended to fix the slow read old files issue discovered here.

Some background:
Around a year ago I had bought several 1TB 840 EVO's and eventually I noticed that files were transferring at KB's speeds (yeah; not a misprint)... but I was way past my return period. Ugh. Oh well, nothing to do but soldier on. I simply used these drives in my least used/important platforms (and hoped for a fix soon... Selling (or even giving away) these junk drives to unsuspecting users was never an option for me).

The test system today is a 1TB 840 EVO which is OP'd by 30% and is on an IB platform (i7 QC) with 16GB RAM running Windows 8.1 x64 Pro.

Testing software as provided by BrainSplatter:
To test the issue of old file read speeds properly, I downloaded and have been using FileBench007a.zip by BrainSplatter over on overclock.net.

Take note that using other programs to 'bench' the TLC drives may or may not show the slow read of old file issue properly. BrainSplatter developed his utility to specifically test for this issue that affects more than just the EVO line (the other SSD known at this time is the original 840 TLC drive by Samsung).


Okay, on to the results!
Almost two weeks before, I had run File Bench once again and as you can see, read speeds were miserable at a low of 97MB/s (even if the average looks okay/good to most here). Each time I run this utility (every few weeks), the speeds continue to drop and the performance is noticeably worse (especially compared to an identical platform/identical install with a SanDisk Extreme Pro). Not just slower. LAGGY like MOLASSES.

File Bench results from two weeks before:



To make sure that the results were fully comparable, before I applied the firmware, I did another File Bench run, below.

Right before applying latest firmware for my 840 EVO:



As can be seen from the screen shot above, the minimum speed is slightly faster, but the average is slower once again. This is also seen with the Total time taken of 12:56 minutes being longer than the test two weeks ago too.

I then applied the firmware through Samsung Magician 4.6 and after a reboot and waiting for 5 minutes for the drive and O/S to settle down I ran another File Bench run.

After applying firmware update EXT0DB6Q:



While the average speed has increased considerably, the lowest performance is almost a third of the minimum as indicated before. This can also be sensed just by navigating the O/S and experiencing the many small stutters and disconnects from the mouse and keyboard inputs. While technically 'better' (as in a higher average 'score'), the performance was now more inconsistent and therefore much more noticeable than what I had before. I left the system to idle for a while but the behavior did not change. Okay, enough of this...

I then ran the SM4.6 Advanced Optimization routine (about 1.5 hours), rebooted the system and after leaving it idle for 5 minutes, ran another File Bench run.

After SM4.6 Advanced Optimization:



Now, the performance 'felt' better matched to the File Bench run results. This performance now matches my expectations from a Samsung SSD (since 2010). Slightly laggy, but obviously faster than a HDD (yeah, not much of a recommendation, I know).

I let the system idle for hours but the performance did not increase appreciably. Reboots, shutdowns and cold starts were noticeably faster. Yet, the feel of the system is still not at 2015 levels nor at the level of other SSD's - even my now ancient Intel 520 drives.

The next day after running File Bench once more and not seeing any further improvement (even after leaving the system idle for many hours), I decided to run MyDefrag 4.31 with the Monthly Disk Data script option. This utility along with Puran DiskFresh is what has kept the drives running to some degree of acceptability in my systems since last September when I discovered the old file read speed issue thread for myself.

After the script ran, I rebooted the system and let it idle for 5 minutes once more.

The results speak for themselves.

After MyDefrag w/Monthly Disk Data script option:



After running MyDefrag the performance of the system really 'woke up'. The average increase of 4MB/s over the Samsung Advanced optimization routine is not indicative of what the system feels like now. Comparing the minimum speeds going from 142MB/s to 285MB/s is more how it now feels when navigating the O/S and doing light tasks like browsing/etc.

I hope it stays like this without needing to be 'refreshed' periodically with MyDefrag or with the SM4.6 Advanced Optimization routine. I still have no faith that this issue is fixed at a core level, regardless of what many have written about this on Samsung's behalf. This is a hardware issue and this kludge of a fix is just for show (by Samsung).

Samsung is still not on my recommend list.

Waiting for over a year for this kind of performance is not something to be forgotten lightly either.

All I can say at this time is that updating the firmware is recommended and followed up with MyDefrag will bring the performance back up to expected levels for now.

 

Ran this on my Extreme Pro for giggles:



Unfortunately I also have some extremely atrocious minimum read speeds, but thankfully most of those are files that I don't access often, or at all.

Also, didn't even have to look at the list to know that a lot of files in my downloads folder made it into the bottom 10%, because every time I open that folder the icons always load in slomo.

 

Nice avatar .

Ran the first firmware update a few weeks ago:

Spoiler: 840 EVO mSATA - File Bench v0.07a, summary

Seems alright, except a small number of outliers:

Spoiler: 840 EVO mSATA - File Bench v0.07a, plot

These don't show up using SSD Read Speed Tester, however:

Spoiler: 840 EVO mSATA - SSD Read Speed Tester v2.04

For fun, situation before fw update:

Spoiler: 840 EVO mSATA - prior to firmware update

Not sure what to make of this; supposedly read speed should have again dropped by now, but it hasn't really. Will still flash the new mSATA fw when it becomes available, for good measure.

 

Did you try running SSDReadSpeedTester2.04.zip from this thread, this program has been designed specifically for the Evo issue:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1512915/...es-benchmarks-needed-to-confirm-affected-ssds

The average speed difference you saw between MyDefrag run and Samsung's Advanced Performance Optimisation is small, while the maximum speeds have stayed the same, which therefore points to only a few files were running slowly before you ran MyDefrag, so I was surprised to hear that you felt the operating system was more snappy after the MyDefrag. The MyDefrag (DiskFresh would work too) would without doubt restore performance to what should be expected of the 840 Evo when the SSD was first launched, so I'm surprised to hear you say that the feel of the system was just 'better than an HDD' but not of '2015 levels'. I think you're doing a disservice to the capabilities of this SSD when it comes to a PC used as a typical desktop user, because in these scenarios there's not much subjective differences between SSD's anyway, and for light usage the 840 Evo is still one of the fastest drives. I think you're being over dramatic and overly negative. I do think it's crap that Samsung had this problem with the Evo, but unlike you I do think they will have fixed it with this latest firmware.

 

I tried out Tiller's advice to defrag my 1TB EVO 840 mSATA. I had previously run the Performance Restoration Tool when it was released ~6 months ago. The SSDReadSpeedTester plots for before and after show that defragging seems to have largely fixed the slower reads.

Before defragging:


After defragging:

However, I should add that I haven't noticed any significant slowdown in performance.

John

 

Tiller is far from a 'typical desktop user', and probably one of the most demanding of his hardware on this board. Stick around and keep reading, and I think you'll find that out soon enough.

 

Although, don't forget to upgrade to the latest version of Magician and therefore the latest firmware - does seem to be fixing most users drives.

Yep, I know, I was just providing an opinion from the other side of the coin to give some perspective. I rarely push the SSD hard with the way I use my PC, so I'm from the other end of the Spectrum (probably a more highly populated end) in contrast to Tiller.

 

I already installed the new Magician (4.6) and it says my firmware (EXT42B6Q) is the latest. Comments elsewhere suggest that Samsung aren't bothering to release a firmware update for the mSATA version of the 840 EVO.

John

 

Ah yes, you have the mSATA version!