The Samsung 840/840 Pro SSD thread

[888gorilla]

I have firmware DXT06B0Q. Should I keep this or is an update necessary?

I have that firmware, my machine is not letting me do the update, seems to be running fine!

 

[Kierkegaard]

Firmware update

I have firmware DXT06B0Q. Should I keep this or is an update necessary?

When I have no problem with the original firmware, before updating, I expect to see the returns. All of updates are not always without making problem.

My original firmware is: DXM04B0Q

 

[Kierkegaard]

Firmware update from Mac

I want to pull the trigger on a Samsung 840 Pro but need to clear up how i will be able to install the FW from a windows machine.

So what's the procedure for a windows machine? i.e. format drive, install windows,install magician software and update and then reformat it back to Mac and go from there?

How should i go about this?

Cheers Paul

Why you not do the update of your firmware from a Mac, if you have one?

 

[SandboxGeneral]

I want to pull the trigger on a Samsung 840 Pro but need to clear up how i will be able to install the FW from a windows machine.

So what's the procedure for a windows machine? i.e. format drive, install windows,install magician software and update and then reformat it back to Mac and go from there?

How should i go about this?

Cheers Paul

You don't need to put Windows on your Mac to update the 840 Pro firmware. The OS X firmware download page is right here. Just download the ISO and burn it to a disc and boot to that and follow the steps outlined in the PDF on that page.

Direct link to 840 Pro firmware ISO: DXM04B0Q | PDF

 

[buysp]

You don't need to put Windows on your Mac to update the 840 Pro firmware. The OS X firmware download page is right here. Just download the ISO and burn it to a disc and boot to that and follow the steps outlined in the PDF on that page.

Direct link to 840 Pro firmware ISO: DXM04B0Q | PDF

Great thanks mate, i feel alot more confident in taking the plunge now.

Why you not do the update of your firmware from a Mac, if you have one?

I was under the impression that doesn't work properly from some of the threads i have viewed on this forum.

 

[Jorge7]

How do I see what the current firmware version is?

I have a 2008 Macbook, OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3, Samsung 840 Pro SSD. I am new to Macs and could not find it in either Finder or Disk Utilities. Not sure whether to update firmware or not, I just bought the SSD Mid February, 2013.

 

[UBS28]

Using TRIM from OS X won't damage the Samsung 840 or cause shorter life span?

 

[offthehook]

firmware update on my 840 120 (non pro) went smoothly.
but can someone explain to me why I now have 10 gigs of additional free space on my ssd? nothing is missing or has been deleted (e.g. all applications are there and fine).

strange

 

[SandboxGeneral]

I have a 2008 Macbook, OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3, Samsung 840 Pro SSD. I am new to Macs and could not find it in either Finder or Disk Utilities. Not sure whether to update firmware or not, I just bought the SSD Mid February, 2013.

What is it you cannot find in Finder or Disk Utility?

As long as you're computer is working, the OS X firmware download page is right here. Just download the ISO and burn it to a disc and boot to that and follow the steps outlined in the PDF on that page.

I updated my firmware last week and haven't had any issues.

Direct link to 840 Pro firmware ISO: DXM04B0Q | PDF

Using TRIM from OS X won't damage the Samsung 840 or cause shorter life span?

No, TRIM is a tool to help keep the SSD at optimal performance. It not only increases data writing speeds, but it increases the lifetime of the SSD itself. Get Groth's TRIM Enabler here.

firmware update on my 840 120 (non pro) went smoothly.
but can someone explain to me why I now have 10 gigs of additional free space on my ssd? nothing is missing or has been deleted (e.g. all applications are there and fine).

strange

On their support page they list the fix as:

This update addresses the following issues : Improved ''''dirty drive'''' write performance.​

I can only speculate, but maybe that fix cleaned up a lot of deleted files.

 

[RJCP]

Hi guys! I've just installed an 840 ssd in my system, and then restored it from my previous HDD system via Time Machine.
However I have noticed that upon pressing Alt at startup (had to do it to update the firmware), OSX recovery doesn't show up.

Any input? I have a bootable USB of ML, so I can recover, but I thought this was very odd behaviour. Maybe I should have installed ML fresh and then do the migration of my stuff via OS instead of a Time machine restore?

 

[hfg]

Hi guys! I've just installed an 840 ssd in my system, and then restored it from my previous HDD system via Time Machine.
However I have noticed that upon pressing Alt at startup (had to do it to update the firmware), OSX recovery doesn't show up.

Any input? I have a bootable USB of ML, so I can recover, but I thought this was very odd behaviour. Maybe I should have installed ML fresh and then do the migration of my stuff via OS instead of a Time machine restore?

Yeah ... a fresh install would have created the recovery partition, simply restoring from Time Machine doesn't provide that function.

 

[Azagar]

I know i'm beating a dead horse, but I just installed a 512gb 840 pro in my cMBP and what an incredibly difference it has made. $440 from macmall was just too tempting to pass up. This is my first SSD so I am pretty surprised at the difference it made to my computer. Also threw in a pair of HyperX LoVo 8gb to max out the machine. I'm sure that helped too.

 

[chmodme]

not having any luck

I use an 840 Pro in a MBP, and am interested in doing the firmware upgrade.

Burned the .iso, thanks for the link...but upon rebooting all I get is a black screen and

freeDOS

At this point the machine is unresponsive to any input and must be rebooted.

Any insight?

thanks

chmod

 

[SandboxGeneral]

I use an 840 Pro in a MBP, and am interested in doing the firmware upgrade.

Burned the .iso, thanks for the link...but upon rebooting all I get is a black screen and

freeDOS

At this point the machine is unresponsive to any input and must be rebooted.

Any insight?

thanks

chmod

I am assuming you haven't gotten far enough to actually update the firmware correct?

Perhaps try burning a new ISO disc and try again. Also, see about getting a lens cleaner for the SuperDrive.

 

[hfg]

I use an 840 Pro in a MBP, and am interested in doing the firmware upgrade.

Burned the .iso, thanks for the link...but upon rebooting all I get is a black screen and

freeDOS

At this point the machine is unresponsive to any input and must be rebooted.

Any insight?

thanks

chmod

Did you give it a bit of time before hitting the power switch? I seem to recall it taking awhile to load the CD environment before it displayed the splash screen.

 

[Jo Chen]

Updating firmware is usually a wise thing to do as they're intended to fix problems and improve functionality. I just updated my Samsung 840 a few days ago and had no issues - that's not to say that others haven't though. Here is the link to the firmware for OS X.

Thank you!

 

[dukebound85]

I just ordered the 840 500gig. Do I need to over provision? To my understanding, 12gigs is already overprovisioned, hence the difference between this and the pro series to my understanding.

Should I over provision more? Or is this something that no longer needs to be done with improvements in the controller?

 

[SandboxGeneral]

I just ordered the 840 500gig. Do I need to over provision? To my understanding, 12gigs is already overprovisioned, hence the difference between this and the pro series to my understanding.

Should I over provision more? Or is this something that no longer needs to be done with improvements in the controller?

It's my understanding from reading reviews on Anandtech, that the manufacturers are building in the additional space needed and keeping it separate from the OS partitions. So we don't need to do a manual over-provision.

 

[dukebound85]

It's my understanding from reading reviews on Anandtech, that the manufacturers are building in the additional space needed and keeping it separate from the OS partitions. So we don't need to do a manual over-provision.

as in what is available?

for instance....does the 512 pro have 512 available? does the 500 non-pro have 500 availiable with 12 gigs for that provisioning?

 

[SandboxGeneral]

as in what is available?

for instance....does the 512 pro have 512 available? does the 500 non-pro have 500 availiable with 12 gigs for that provisioning?

I'll have to look up the article again to get specifics and to verify what I'm saying. But I don't think it's anything close to 12GB though.

I'd check my MBP and/or iMac which have the 830 512GB and 840 500GB respectively, to see what the usable space is but I'm not with them right now and on the iPad.

Edit: here is what I was thinking of, it's in regards to an Intel SSD, but I imagine all manufacturers do this. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/9

Intel ships its X25-M with 7.5 - 8% more area than is actually reported to the OS. The more expensive enterprise version ships with the same amount of flash, but even more spare area. Random writes all over the drive are more likely in a server environment so Intel keeps more of the flash on the X25-E as spare area. You’re able to do this yourself if you own an X25-M; simply perform a secure erase and immediately partition the drive smaller than its actual capacity. The controller will use the unpartitioned space as spare area.

 

[Azagar]

my 512 pro has 511.12GB capacity according to the get info window.

 

[dukebound85]

I'll have to look up the article again to get specifics and to verify what I'm saying. But I don't think it's anything close to 12GB though.

I'd check my MBP and/or iMac which have the 830 512GB and 840 500GB respectively, to see what the usable space is but I'm not with them right now and on the iPad.

Edit: here is what I was thinking of, it's in regards to an Intel SSD, but I imagine all manufacturers do this.

my 512 pro has 511.12GB capacity according to the get info window.

ah so the provisioning is the drive being shipped with more than 512 and 512 being what is usable

 

[SandboxGeneral]

ah so the provisioning is the drive being shipped with more than 512 and 512 being what is usable

Yes sir, that's my understanding of how they work.

 

[jjk454ss]

I have the ISO to install the newest firmware, but is there an easier way to check the current firmware version? Is it possible to boot the installer from a USB drive instead of a CD/DVD?

Here is my speed test, this is a Mini with a Fusion drive though:

 

[Hellhammer]

ah so the provisioning is the drive being shipped with more than 512 and 512 being what is usable

NAND capacities are actually measured in Gibibytes (1024^3 bytes) instead of Gigabytes (1000^3 bytes). Hence a 512GB SSD has 512GiB (549.8GB) of NAND on the board, so ~7% of the capacity is reserved for over-provisioning. The SSD 840 has ~9% set for OP (thus the capacity of 500GB), most likely to extend the endurance of the NAND (it uses lower endurance TLC NAND and more OP results in lower write amplifcation).