The Samsung 840/840 Pro SSD thread

[AUSTraveler]

Mount the .iso you downloaded, then restore the image inside it to disc/USB via Disk Utility.

I got it to work by doing a complete erase (not the quick erase) of the DVD+RW media in Disk Utility. This took about an hour.

Burning the IMG image inside the ISO didn't work, but burning the ISO to the erased media did. For those having trouble, remember to hold the C key down during boot.

Thanks!

 

[balshawr]

Took a while but I got there

Swapped my 750GB HDD from 17" Macbook Pro late 2011 with the Samsung 840 Pro 512GB. I had a Windows 7 Partition on the original drive and was forced to use Winclone to keep the bootable windows partition on the SSD.

https://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=412050&stc=1&d=1368476750

I'll wait and see that the SSD doesn't break down on me then I'll use the original drive in a USB 3 enclosure as a time machine. I'm still a bit nervous the SSD will just fail any minute so will wait a while before I do this.

Thanks to everyone who posted all the stats and tips which helped me make the decision to make the change. I'm really pleased with the results - it's now instant like my iPad in terms of running apps or surfing the net.

 

[Statusquick]

Hoping someone could help me out here.

I replaced my Macbook Pro 13 inch 2009 hd with the 840 non-pro a few months ago and it worked flawless until about 3 weeks ago or so.

I then followed another thread's guide on ssd tweaks (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1505922/)
I also use Chameleon SSD Optimizer to enable Trim as suggested by another user on this very thread.

However, lately I've been having some issues when my laptop is put to sleep. The macbook 7 out of 10 times will refuse to wake and I am forced to hold the power button and reboot.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this is happening? I assume starting over with a clean install would help, but I'm trying to avoid that right now due to midterm season...

Thanks for any advice!

 

[johnnnw]

Hoping someone could help me out here.

I replaced my Macbook Pro 13 inch 2009 hd with the 840 non-pro a few months ago and it worked flawless until about 3 weeks ago or so.

I then followed another thread's guide on ssd tweaks (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1505922/)
I also use Chameleon SSD Optimizer to enable Trim as suggested by another user on this very thread.

However, lately I've been having some issues when my laptop is put to sleep. The macbook 7 out of 10 times will refuse to wake and I am forced to hold the power button and reboot.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this is happening? I assume starting over with a clean install would help, but I'm trying to avoid that right now due to midterm season...

Thanks for any advice!

Did you update the firmware when you bought it?

 

[kebs.kebs]

Perhaps Chameleon settings have made it go into deep sleep.

Set sleep mode to A

 

[Weaselboy]

Hoping someone could help me out here.

I replaced my Macbook Pro 13 inch 2009 hd with the 840 non-pro a few months ago and it worked flawless until about 3 weeks ago or so.

I then followed another thread's guide on ssd tweaks (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1505922/)
I also use Chameleon SSD Optimizer to enable Trim as suggested by another user on this very thread.

However, lately I've been having some issues when my laptop is put to sleep. The macbook 7 out of 10 times will refuse to wake and I am forced to hold the power button and reboot.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this is happening? I assume starting over with a clean install would help, but I'm trying to avoid that right now due to midterm season...

Thanks for any advice!

You could just command-r boot and reinstall the OS to undo any "tweaks" you may have done that borked things for you. A reinstall without erasing the drive will not delete your data. Backup first of course just to be safe.

 

[andy9l]

Hoping someone could help me out here.

I replaced my Macbook Pro 13 inch 2009 hd with the 840 non-pro a few months ago and it worked flawless until about 3 weeks ago or so.

I then followed another thread's guide on ssd tweaks (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1505922/)
I also use Chameleon SSD Optimizer to enable Trim as suggested by another user on this very thread.

However, lately I've been having some issues when my laptop is put to sleep. The macbook 7 out of 10 times will refuse to wake and I am forced to hold the power button and reboot.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this is happening? I assume starting over with a clean install would help, but I'm trying to avoid that right now due to midterm season...

Thanks for any advice!

Had the same problem after enabling TRIM via Terminal on my 2009 MBP. It ended up destroying the drive completely (no OS could recognise/recover it - Ubuntu, Windows, OS X). I mean, completely ruined the drive from wake.

I've since been given a replacement drive and I'm avoiding making any "useful tweaks".

 

[kooskoos1814]

Here are my results on a 120 GB Samsung 840 Series on my 2011 15'' MBP. I'm a bit on the low side for the writing speeds but it's not noticeable.

 

[johnnnw]

Here are my results on a 120 GB Samsung 840 Series on my 2011 15'' MBP. I'm a bit on the low side for the writing speeds but it's not noticeable.

That speed is actually right in line with the expectations of the 120GB 840.

 

[herchu]

Another one bricked

Had the same problem after enabling TRIM via Terminal on my 2009 MBP. It ended up destroying the drive completely (no OS could recognise/recover it - Ubuntu, Windows, OS X). I mean, completely ruined the drive from wake.

I've since been given a replacement drive and I'm avoiding making any "useful tweaks".

Add another 840 PRO 500GB to the list. Mine was bricked two days ago. I bought it from Amazon three weeks ago and I've been using TRIM Chameleon set since day one so it could be related to this but who knows...

I don't think I'm going to replace it but return it for a refund since it's still under the month period and no one is sure about these failures. Is it just a failed lot? Does it have to TRIM? If the later, how long would last until the SSD is degraded?

(Edit) MacBook 13'' alum late 2008. Mountain Lion.

 

[Lemon01]

Like I said, I think its a waste of your time, but its up to you, of course.

Did you look over your Energy Saver settings? Try a Safe Boot?

I ended up seeing if a fresh install would change anything. Installed everything back and seems to still have the same battery drain issues as before. I might be on the old firmware. Not sure if this could have a significant impact or not. Battery health still seems good, no processes or indexing of the hard drive seems to be occurring. Is anyone else having battery drain issues? Battery life was significantly better with old HDD.

 

[friely]

Ok updated today to Samsung 840 updated the firmware but Blackmagic is only read speed of 30mb/s.My mac is Macbook pro 8,1 2011 I have enabled trim but it will not show to speed of the drive please help!

 

[UBS28]

Add another 840 PRO 500GB to the list. Mine was bricked two days ago. I bought it from Amazon three weeks ago and I've been using TRIM Chameleon set since day one so it could be related to this but who knows...

I don't think I'm going to replace it but return it for a refund since it's still under the month period and no one is sure about these failures. Is it just a failed lot? Does it have to TRIM? If the later, how long would last until the SSD is degraded?

(Edit) MacBook 13'' alum late 2008. Mountain Lion.

The Samsung 840 has garbage collection, so you don't need Trim in the first place?

 

[snezy]

Long time reader, first time poster.............

I must admit, Im a tad disappointed. I didn't really know what to expect but I was hoping for a little better. (Still bucket loads faster than stock HDD tho)

2013 Mac 27" i5, 8GB, 1TB.

Rather than cracking a 1 week old machine open. Im running:

- Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD
- Seagate Goflex Thunderbolt portable adaptor
- .5M Thunderbolt cable.

Tried to enable TRIM, seem to have lost a few MB/s rather than gain anything.



As I said, much happier than standard HDD but who doesn't like to see the needle maxed out

Will prob crack out the heat gun next week I'd say.

 

[AUSTraveler]

• Without shorting the sensor, the fans were at full blast. Software fan controls didn't seem to have any effect. I then shorted the stock sensor, and it was still running high, but then the software controls worked.

Looks like my problem wasn't with the HDD sensor, but the LCD temp. I may not have seated it correctly/completely. That led to the CPU and ODD fans spinning high. Checked the connection tonight, and everything is working great without software fan controllers.

 

[occamsrazor]

Hi, have just got my hands on the Samsung 840 500GB (non-Pro) and plan to install it tomorrow in my MacBook Pro Mid-2012 (MacBookPro9,2). I also got the DVD bay drive sled, so plan to ditch the DVD and run two hard drives (not in Fusion, as separate drives - SSD for most everything, HDD for extra storage). Have read a bunch and think I have a grip on things, but could someone wiser than me kindly confirm the following:

1. Both SATA interfaces (HDD and DVD) are 6 GB/sec, so it doesn't matter which slot the SSD goes in. Given the sudden motion sensor and continued use of the HDD, it would make most sense to put the SSD in the DVD slot - is that correct?

2. I currently encrypt my HDD boot drive with Filevault 2. Any issues with doing the same for the SSD as boot drive? Any idea what kind of speed decrease I would expect over non-encrypted?

3. TRIM. Am still confused on this one. Seems like most recommend to enable, although I am somewhat concerned by some of the previous posts saying it bricked their drive. Enable or not? If I do enable, is either Trim Enabler or Chameleon SSD Optimizer preferred?

Thanks in advance!

 

[priitv8]

I had such dual-disk conf in my 2008 Unibody Pro.

1) I left HDD in its original place due to mechanically decoupled mounting (rubber buffers) of the drive provided. SSD as mechanically inert has better place in rigid-mounting caddy.
Boot disk was the SSD, no issues whatsoever.

2) No experience with File Vault, but I hardly can see any reason why would it be any worse than with HDD

3) I used Samsung 830 with Trim Enabler and never worried about bricking it. I also would not use any SSD without TRIM, because TRIM is OS's hint to SSD controller and makes it's garbage collector's life much easier.
Don't know about Chameleon, but the hat-trick Trim Enabler does is : it simply replaces a string 'APPLE SSD' in the IOAHCIBlockStorage driver with zeroes. That's it!

 

[shabbasuraj]

Just installed a 840 Pro 128GB in a customer's 2011 27" iMac 2.7.

Ran Blackmagicdesign

Write 365.7MB/s
Read 499.8 MB/s

I have not enabled TRIM. Still debating if it is needed... I keep reading conflicting reports, of the effectiveness of Samsung's garbage collection abilities.

 

[occamsrazor]

So installed the Samung 840 500GB in the optical bay of my Mid-2012 13" MBP, with the HDD in its original slot. System could see the Samsung, but initialization/formatting kept failing, giving the error "file system formatter failed".

I thought the mid-2012 models had fixed these issues of optical bay placement, but seems not. I swapped the drives back around with the SSD in original bay and HDD in optical bay - initialization worked straight away.

Currently cloning the HDD > SSD, but before I did that I did a quick Blackmagic speed test - 300MB+ writes and 500MB+ reads... nice.

PS - I used this (Amazon link) optical bay caddy and it fit pretty well.

 

[kamuix]

Just got and finished installing the 840 pro and it's awesome. I did a fresh install and slowly moving back important items. Still waiting for the optibay I ordered to install the original HD to. Didn't have much to begin with, so I just went with a reinstall. Blackmagic results are:

I decided to opt not to use any trim enablers.

 

[M0esmac]

Probably I'll be not first timer, so sorry if asking for help again, but:

I get random freezes with 840 Pro 256GB in MBP 13" i7 2.7GHz, 8GB ram. I do my stuff and everything randomly freezes, if I'm listening to music it also stops in one place and it plays it over and over again (millisecond of the song of course).

I have trim enabled, iStat shows that I still have 100GB left on that SSD.

Thanx

 

[S.B.G]

I have not enabled TRIM. Still debating if it is needed... I keep reading conflicting reports, of the effectiveness of Samsung's garbage collection abilities.

Enabling TRIM is a good idea. The garbage collection is just that. it collects or "identifies" the files marked for deletion. TRIM actually performs the clean up and deletes the files.

 

[thegoldenguy]

840 (NonPro) In 2012 Mac Pro

New to the Mac World as of 2 weeks ago so please bear with me.
Still having a few withdraw issues with the migration over to Mac
but with a little help I will make it.

2012 Mac Pro OS X Ver. 10.8.3 3.2 GHz Quad 16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3

My upgrade to the Samsung 840 (Non Pro) was quite simple Thanx to this topic. The only issue I have was a slow boot but was fixed in SP under the start up disk.

Not sure if these are the speeds I should be seeing. Even with just a non-pro. Please comment and let me know if what you see is ok. Thanx

Forgot the screen shot of the hard drive -- Both R & W were around 80 MB/s

 

[S.B.G]

New to the Mac World as of 2 weeks ago so please bear with me.
Still having a few withdraw issues with the migration over to Mac
but with a little help I will make it.

2012 Mac Pro OS X Ver. 10.8.3 3.2 GHz Quad 16 GB 1066 MHz DDR3

My upgrade to the Samsung 840 (Non Pro) was quite simple Thanx to this topic. The only issue I have was a slow boot but was fixed in SP under the start up disk.

Not sure if these are the speeds I should be seeing. Even with just a non-pro. Please comment and let me know if what you see is ok. Thanx

Forgot the screen shot of the hard drive -- Both R & W were around 80 MB/s

What kind of SATA controller does the Mac Pro have? Those speeds look like it's SATA 2 and not 3.

 

[thegoldenguy]

What kind of SATA controller does the Mac Pro have? Those speeds look like it's SATA 2 and not 3.

Help me out on this. Where do I find the info.