I have just took delivery of the same drive. Are there any benefits to the updated firmware (noticeable) and is booting of the iso and updating easy enough?
Going to get my torx screwdriver out tonight
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The Samsung 840/840 Pro SSD thread
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I have just took delivery of the same drive. Are there any benefits to the updated firmware (noticeable) and is booting of the iso and updating easy enough?
Going to get my torx screwdriver out tonight
I have just took delivery of the same drive. Are there any benefits to the updated firmware (noticeable) and is booting of the iso and updating easy enough?
Going to get my torx screwdriver out tonight
Samsung lists as a description of the firmware update as
Personally I say update it because the manufacturer saw a problem or problems with it and this is supposed to correct them. Regardless if you're experiencing issues or not, doesn't mean the SSD isn't experiencing them.
There was a user the other week in one of these SSD threads that claims to have gained 10GB of storage space back after he updated. I can't say with authority that it was part of the firmware update or not, but it seems like it worked out well for him.
Updating the SSD with the latest firmware on a brand new one, probably won't yield any noticeable improvements, as is what I did. But like the other user who was running his SSD for a period of time before the update had noticed an improvement in performance.
Running the OS X ISO was very simple and straightforward and took me all of 5 minutes or so. Be sure you use the internal SuperDrive to run this as it will only work on the main SATA bus of the computer and not any external USB/FW/TB interface.
Do you have iStat Menus or iStat Pro on your MBP? What kind of temperatures are you seeing? I have the same MBP as you and if I use it on my lap for a while It will get to around 100F to 120F which isn't bad at all.
Do your fans spin up when it gets that hot?
You could be indexing spotlight and its running hard. I would give it a couple boot ups and see if it still is running hot. I would also recommend IStat to keep a eye on you system
This firmware upgrade is not destructive correct? As in my data will be there after performing it?
From what I have read yes. However, best bet is to also have a back up just in case something goes amiss.
I didn't lose any data when I did it, nor have I heard anyone else losing any. But it doesn't mean it isn't possible. Like Stridemat said, make sure you have a proper backup first.
It was still running very quiet, so I guess the fan wasn't really spinning that much? The fan runs automatically right? I don't have to turn it on or anything?
And I don't have istat, but I'll get it tonight and check my mbp again. And the reason I mention the battery was that it doesn't last as long as it was with the HDD. Normally with a fully charge cycle, it last about 8hrs, 5hrs if I am watching video. But after SSD, it last a little over 3hrs!
Any ideas?
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What do you mean indexing spotlight?
To which add, the new update to SMART Utility. This update includes smartctl 6.0, the latest version of this command-line tool. The only other way I've seen to get this tool running on my Mac is by compiling it or by using the Parted Magic toolset (see above).
You can access smartctl by doing SMART Utility > Drives menu > Enter smartctl options:
In the dialog that appears enter -a:
To see the results, do Help menu > Show Log:
Here are the results for my drive:
Code:
2013-03-07 10:44:27.693 SMART Utility[349:207] (
"smartctl 6.0 2012-10-10 r3643 [i386-apple-darwin10.8.0] (Volitans Software)",
"Copyright (C) 2002-12, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org",
"=======> INVALID ARGUMENT TO -g: /dev/disk0",
"=======> VALID ARGUMENTS ARE: aam, apm, lookahead, security, wcache <=======",
"Use smartctl -h to get a usage summary"
)
2013-03-07 10:47:02.891 SMART Utility[349:207] (
"smartctl 6.0 2012-10-10 r3643 [i386-apple-darwin10.8.0] (Volitans Software)",
"Copyright (C) 2002-12, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org",
"AAM feature is: Unavailable",
"APM feature is: Unavailable",
"Rd look-ahead is: Enabled",
"Write cache is: Enabled",
"ATA Security is: Disabled, frozen [SEC2]"
)
2013-03-07 10:51:31.353 SMART Utility[349:207] (
"smartctl 6.0 2012-10-10 r3643 [i386-apple-darwin10.8.0] (Volitans Software)",
"Copyright (C) 2002-12, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org",
"=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===",
"Device Model: Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series",
"Serial Number: S12SNEACB04828M",
"LU WWN Device Id: 5 002538 5500c6cde",
"Firmware Version: DXM04B0Q",
"User Capacity: 512,110,190,592 bytes [512 GB]",
"Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical",
"Rotation Rate: Solid State Device",
"Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]",
"ATA Version is: ACS-2, ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4c",
"SATA Version is: SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)",
"Local Time is: Thu Mar 7 10:51:31 2013 MST",
"SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.",
"SMART support is: Enabled",
"=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===",
"SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED",
"General SMART Values:",
"Offline data collection status: (0x00)\tOffline data collection activity",
"was never started.",
"Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.",
"Self-test execution status: ( 245)\tSelf-test routine in progress...",
"50% of test remaining.",
"Total time to complete Offline ",
"data collection: \t\t(53956) seconds.",
"Offline data collection",
"capabilities: \t\t\t (0x53) SMART execute Offline immediate.",
"Auto Offline data collection on/off support.",
"Suspend Offline collection upon new",
"command.",
"No Offline surface scan supported.",
"Self-test supported.",
"No Conveyance Self-test supported.",
"Selective Self-test supported.",
"SMART capabilities: (0x0003)\tSaves SMART data before entering",
"power-saving mode.",
"Supports SMART auto save timer.",
"Error logging capability: (0x01)\tError logging supported.",
"General Purpose Logging supported.",
"Short self-test routine ",
"recommended polling time: \t ( 2) minutes.",
"Extended self-test routine",
"recommended polling time: \t ( 35) minutes.",
"SCT capabilities: \t (0x003d)\tSCT Status supported.",
"SCT Error Recovery Control supported.",
"SCT Feature Control supported.",
"SCT Data Table supported.",
"SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 1",
"Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:",
"ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE",
" 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0",
" 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 474",
" 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 150",
"177 Wear_Leveling_Count 0x0013 099 099 000 Pre-fail Always - 15",
"179 Used_Rsvd_Blk_Cnt_Tot 0x0013 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0",
"181 Program_Fail_Cnt_Total 0x0032 100 100 010 Old_age Always - 0",
"182 Erase_Fail_Count_Total 0x0032 100 100 010 Old_age Always - 0",
"183 Runtime_Bad_Block 0x0013 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0",
"187 Reported_Uncorrect 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0",
"190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0032 067 048 000 Old_age Always - 33",
"195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 0x001a 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0",
"199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x003e 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0",
"235 Unknown_Attribute 0x0012 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 144",
"241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0032 099 099 000 Old_age Always - 3545866112",
"SMART Error Log Version: 1",
"No Errors Logged",
"SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1",
"Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error",
"# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 13 -",
"# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 13 -",
"# 3 Offline Completed without error 00% 13 -",
"SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1",
" SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS",
" 1 0 0 Not_testing",
" 2 0 0 Not_testing",
" 3 0 0 Not_testing",
" 4 0 0 Not_testing",
" 5 0 0 Not_testing",
" 255 641696256 641761791 Read_scanning was never started",
"Selective self-test flags (0x0):",
" After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.",
"If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay."
)Pretty complete information about your drive. Probably, it is most useful just to check the health of the drive, but specific stats might be interesting too: for example, Total_LBAs_Written tells you exactly how much has been written to the drive.
For more options, see the man page for the smartctl here.
(You could probably move the smartctl item from the SMART Utility package to /usr/bin and access it through Terminal, instead of using the SMART Utility GUI.)
Yes sometimes on hard drive replacements or after migration, spotlight indexing turns on and recalibrates itself for lack of a better word and your system will run hard and hot for a bit
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FYI I have the 840 Pro 512gb as my OS drive and than a 840 500gb in my optical and been doing some heavy lifting on the OS processing hundreds of Raw files( photos) and machine has been flying fast with all cores full bore. Very nice drives. If your on the fence about the 840 Pro its the fastest drive I have used yet and I came from OWC SSD Extreme drives. So far very happy and I am a very hard user on drives. Ill go a long time going full bore on cores , ram and drives processing files.
The fans run always unless they're broke. But if it's getting as hot as you say, the fan(s) should spin up to much higher RPM's to cool it off and you should hear them quite easily. When you get iStat installed you'll be able to see them and how fast they're running as well as all of your system temperatures.
As for the battery drainage, I'm not sure about how or why it's doing that. I've read that others have experienced it, but I've not seen a solution except to say try loading OS X again.
Spotlight indexing just OS X locating all your files and folders and "learning" where they are on the HDD/SSD so when you go to search for something, it can more quickly find them and display them.
This shouldn't be an issue causing the heat because with the SSD now in place, indexing should go very much faster. It only took a few minutes to index mine after I installed my SSD. I say it shouldn't be a problem, but it's possible that it's hung up on something. You can look at this Apple Support article on re-indexing the drive.
Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes
I guess one other thing to do is take the Mac apart and double-check all your connections and make sure they're seated properly and inspect everything for damage and possible heat/burn marks anywhere, especially near the battery. Also check the outside of the case and inside to see if there is any bulging of the battery.
I'm bummed. I was all set to buy from Newegg, which listed the 840 500 GB for $299, but on the day I was going to buy they raised the price up to $330 or so. I waited a day and then saw one on Amazon through a subsidiary of Macmall for $275. I saw it at night and figured I'd buy it the following day, but I guess they were sold out over night. Lesson learned: if you see it for under $300, don't hesitate. They're going fast.
Ok, I turn on my MBP 10 minutes ago, download and install istat menu. The Sensor is at 96F, batttery was 100% charge with 10hrs remaining when it first check. The system battery indicate the same thing. Now not 10 minutes later, I am down to 98% but only 9hr and 2 minutes remaining.....?
I did open my laptop and made sure everything is connected the right way. The start up was as fast as I first put in the SSD, ~9sec. Very quiet, can't hear the fan at all. It is cool at the moment. So right now the only thing I am worry about is the battery. I am gonna did what I did last night, watch some Netflix video and seen if the temp rise and battery drops. Later~
>>>I am so confused!<<<
I had only watch a video for like less than 5 minutes! Istat is telling me I only have 3hr15min of battery remain/93%. But the system battery indicate I still have 7hr remain. They are tell me different things! Which one is accurate? Battery still drop pretty fast, but from 9hr to 3hrs watch video from less than 5 minutes is pretty scary no? Sen is at 139F.
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I am very happy with the write and read speed of my 840 non-pro, I am just worry about overheating. :\
Okay, watching Netflix or other videos will usually dramatically reduce the estimated battery remaining time as well as push your core temperatures up too.
As for the different readings on the remaining battery life, perhaps it needs calibrating. Check out the Apple Notebook Battery Guide on how to do that.
Looks like I spoke too soon - just received a newsletter from Newegg showing that the Samsung 840 500 GB has a promo code to take the price down to $279.99 for the next 24 hours. Samsung 840 Pro 500 GB has a promo code taking it down to $459.99, good for the next 48 hours.
Actually, I didn't just receive it - I placed the order first, then posted here
Looks like I spoke too soon - just received a newsletter from Newegg showing that the Samsung 840 500 GB has a promo code to take the price down to $279.99 for the next 24 hours. Samsung 840 Pro 500 GB has a promo code taking it down to $459.99, good for the next 48 hours.
Actually, I didn't just receive it - I placed the order first, then posted here
It's $449 at B&H Photo Video with free shipping. Been that price for over a week now.
They seem to be going on sale quite a bit; I assume the price will permanently come down soon enough. I've been using a 500 GB Momentus XT (hybrid SSD-HDD), but am really excited about experiencing true SSD speeds. I'm a bit nervous about the 840's relatively limited write cycles, but I think it'll be fine for my normal usage. I'll just have to remember to run things like torrents on my external drives, rather than the internal drive.
Did we ever determine if the sleep image should be disabled for SSD users?
yea, I made that mistake with being hesitant with the deals on black friday and it took until this last week to see 500gig drives for under again. I jumped on it
You really don't need to be. You'd have to write 10GiB to it daily for seven years straight before it would potentially fail.
As Hellhammer writes in this post:
As for the sleep image, the only time that happens is when you're on battery and the remaining percentage dips below 20% or so. Then the computer writes the sleep image and goes into hibernation.
Thanks for the reply! I remember seeing that image, and figured that the 500 GB model would get even more longevity. Even seven years is very decent.
Good to know about the sleep image. I remember reading some posts about it on here, but it seemed like nobody was 100% sure about how it worked. It's a big relief to know that I can keep it as is.
Any thoughts on Chameleon vs. TRIMEnabler? How about local Time Machine backups - should those be disabled? I currently have ~36 GB of "backups" on my main drive, according to the System Profiler, but it's gone as high as 140 GB before.
I use Groth's TRIM Enabler, it works well. I don't know anything about Chameleon though.
As for Time Machine, I just use an external HDD for my iMac and an external SSD for the MBP.
I use chameleon and seems to work well. What I liek about it is that it also gives the manual commands as to what it does to enable trim. I like that transparency
Starting with OS X 10.7, I believe, Apple implemented something a bit weird with Time Machine. It used to be that Time Machine wouldn't run at all if no Time Machine volume were backed up, but starting with OS X 10.7 it would save document changes to the main drive and then unload them to the Time Machine volume when the volume was connected. I believe this was also part of the "versioning" feature that was put into iWork, among other Apple software (Preview has it too, I believe).
Through a Terminal command or two it's possible to disable this and have Time Machine act as it did with OS X 10.5 and 10.6, although versioning might suffer. Usually people talk about disabling it over concerns about limited storage space on smaller SSDs, although I'm not sure why - the System Profiler and a few storage space monitors view the backups as used space, but the Finder does not, implying that the system would simply delete the backups if there were a need for it. I'm more curious about the added wear and tear of having potentially more write operations performed. Although I suppose in thinking about it, whether a version is saved or outright replaced, it's the same write operation occurring (I think).
If nobody has said anything about it then it sounds like it's a non-issue. I won't adjust it.
Thanks for the feedback! I'll give Chameleon a go.
Edit: Here is Apple's page on local snapshots. There's no information on disabling them, but now I finally know what the difference is between the pink and gray tabs in the Time Machine window! I always found those puzzling...
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Not so. Under 10.6.8, and with the AC adapter connected and the battery fully charged, I delete the sleep image at /private/var/vm, then reboot. Upon reboot, the sleep image is restored. At no time was I on battery, nor was the battery "below 20% or so", nor did I sleep or hibernate the computer.