New Samsung 840 Pro FIRMWARE is out.

[Brahmzy]

FYI. Need some Guinnea Pigs.

"1. Improved ''''dirty drive'''' write performance."

http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/MZ-7PD256BW

[Computurd]

interesting to see how this plays out, that is one helluva stanky drive, perhaps the best consumer drive out right now.

[hoax]

sub'ed

thanks for the heads up.

I recently purchased one, and will be installing it in the next few days.

[turbox997]

interesting to see how this plays out, that is one helluva stanky drive, perhaps the best consumer drive out right now.

Seemingly so, but only time will tell if they live up to the 830 series in reliability. As far as I know, no one on here is doing endurance testing on the 840 Pro's yet.

[chispy]

Thank you , some test before and after flash with old versus new firmware , give me a few minutes.
System used:
Asus P8Z77-V PRO , using Intel native sata 6g controller with Intel driver 11.7 ahci
3770k 4.6Ghz
16GB g.Skill DDR3 2400

Samsung 840 PRO 256GB

Runs are with nothing in the drive ( Empty Drive ) , using intel ahci driver 11.7 , after each run the drive was trim manually to a clean state.

old firmware used was DXM03B0Q
new firmware used was DXM04B0Q


old firmware:
http://imageshack.us/a/img528/8563/cristalold.jpg


new Firmware:
http://imageshack.us/a/img821/9500/cristalnew.jpg



old firmware:
http://imageshack.us/a/img39/3161/attooldr.jpg


new firmware:
http://imageshack.us/a/img713/1310/attonew.jpg


old firmware:
http://imageshack.us/a/img59/2857/assdold.jpg

new firmware:
http://imageshack.us/a/img203/5721/assdnew.jpg

old firmware:
http://imageshack.us/a/img401/3356/pcmark05old.jpg

new firmware:
http://imageshack.us/a/img402/7945/pcmark05new.jpg

[Brahmzy]

Thanks a bunch for the benches chispy - you just saved me and others a ton of time doing all of that.

Looks like if we want to split hairs, the 4k QD1 reads took a very slight hit. PCMark application loading bench confirms that as well...

Wish Samsung could be a little more descript in what they've done to the fw. If helping dirty-state write is the only tweak, so be it.

Thanks again.

[chispy]

Thanks a bunch for the benches chispy - you just saved me and others a ton of time doing all of that.

Looks like if we want to split hairs, the 4k QD1 reads took a very slight hit. PCMark application loading bench confirms that as well...

Wish Samsung could be a little more descript in what they've done to the fw. If helping dirty-state write is the only tweak, so be it.

Thanks again.

Agreed , i have retest again and getting more or less the same numbers over and over again ( the 4k QD1 reads took a very slight hit = True ) , not much of a difference from the old firmware , writes are somewhat faster by a slight margin and more consistent , very small gain in writes. But overall good firmware , i say give it a go guys :up:. I trust Samsung , my 830 ssds has been going strong since they came out without a hickup. but as you said , it would be nice to know what exactly they did on this firmware. Not bad , not bad at all.

[canthearu]

New firmware for the normal 840 as well

will have to apply that tonight

[canthearu]

New firmware has fixed the SMART counter for Total LBA Written (F1).

It is longer gets stuck at 2TB on my Samsung 840 TLC drive and seems to be counting normally.

Jury is out on performance. Will have to see after half a dozen runs of ASU.

[DooRules]

Anyone with a couple in R0 figure out how to do the update?

Magician won't see them, boot up on my two plextors (in R0) and plugin a single 840 pro, magician does not see it. Cannot initialize drive in windows, man if I have to blow away data not going to be impressed. Sure hope I am just having a Friday morning brain fart. :eek:

[Highendtoys]

Lovely, I just finished testing with the old firmware. Looks like I'm working double time today with the 840 Pro and the Plextor M5 Pro Xtreme FW.

[canthearu]

You should be able to create a bootable USB from the Samsung magician toolbox

Then you can change the system to AHCI mode, update the drives, and then switch it back to RAID.

This should not damage your data (but you would still be wise to have a backup ready just in case)

[DooRules]

It will not let me download the FW without first seeing a sammy ssd, which it doesn't. I don't have any single drives with windows installed so I am still in R0 with my two plextors.

[Brahmzy]

I've tried to create bootable USB and CDs from the Magician software and the result is once the cd or USB boot, the screen is jibberish. Like its drunk or something - the text is too blurry to make out.
I have other dos boot disk that are fine. Anybody else have this issue?
To flash raid drives, toys is correct - make boot USB, change to ahci, flash both drives, change back. But I cannot get a usable boot USB/cd to work! All my other windows boxes are configured for raid, so attaching one as a slave wouldn't work either. Hmmm. I'm not rebuilding my array for a 3rd time in 2 weeks.

[DooRules]

Ah ha, just found the FW standalone download, now I can make the bootable usb.


Magician allowed me to make a bootable usb but when I boot to it in achi mode all I got was an empty blue screen, nothing there and nothing happening.

[Brahmzy]

...all I got was an empty blue screen, nothing there and nothing happening.

That's pretty much what I'm seein' - bigtime bummer.

[DooRules]

I had a Samsung tech on the phone while I was on the command prompt that appears after the Samsung screen. I entered the command directly to flash and it gave an invalid argument error, but it said \s is a valid argument. tech said this means that there is an option in the flash missing, bottom line he said they would have to update the FW.

[Brahmzy]

LOL, so we can only update to the new FW via windows? Fine for single drives, not fine for array drives.

[DooRules]

Yeah, as it stands I would need to lose my OS to flash. He did say he would be calling me back today but I would be truly shocked if it happens. Tried manual flash in both achi and ide with smart data off in bios with no go.

[Lu(ky]

LOL, so we can only update to the new FW via windows? Fine for single drives, not fine for array drives.

If we update the drives that are in a R0 on another computer will we loose are R0? If not I will update mine on another computer tonight... But it seems like my R0 is getting better then when I started it left is fresh install with W7 updates and right side is with Steam games added including new Far Cry 3 heavy played for a while and my 4k reads and writes are getting better...

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj252/russb3n/OC%20Benchmarks/Test.jpg

[Brahmzy]

If we update the drives that are in a R0 on another computer will we loose are R0?

Normally, you can. I've done it with OCZ array drives on another comp many times. However, I think I've seen where the Magician software "knows" it's an array drive and will not recognize it (as a single slave drive drive), even when magician is running in AHCI on another box with an array drive attached as a slave. It's not the fact that Magician can't be run on a box in RAID mode - I have a box running in RAID mode with a single 840 Pro that is NOT in an array and Magician can see it fine. I may be wrong. Feel free to try it.

[Highendtoys]

The new firmware fixes my notebook power test. I wasted 24 hours trying to get it to work and it would error out every time at some point.

Nothing sucks more than running a test for 6 hours and it just say, Nah I don't read this file anymore, :banana::banana::banana::banana: off.

[DooRules]

Updated mine on a buddy's system, single drive in IDE mode. No problem that way, but hardly an ideal situation.

[Brahmzy]

Updated mine on a buddy's system, single drive in IDE mode. No problem that way, but hardly an ideal situation.
Did you use a cd/USB boot disc?

[Lu(ky]

dumb question can you update the FW on a SATA II setup?

[Brahmzy]

dumb question can you update the FW on a SATA II setup?
Yep.

[DooRules]

I just used the software. As soon as I boot up the Magician software was giving me a pop up saying new FW.

[Highendtoys]

You shouldn't have any problem updating the drive over SATA II.

[tistou77]

Hello,

I flashed my 840 Pro 128GB with the latest firmware, and write performance is lower (less than 40MB/s for Seq and 512k with Crystal Disk Mark and AS SSD). You do not have this problem that I see.
I do not understand :confused:

My config is in my signature

thanks

[chispy]

Hello,

I flashed my 840 Pro 128GB with the latest firmware, and write performance is lower (less than 40MB/s for Seq and 512k with Crystal Disk Mark and AS SSD). You do not have this problem that I see.
I do not understand :confused:

My config is in my signature

thanks

Can you provide a screenie and perhaps driver used ? normal microsoft ahci driver or Intel ahci driver ? Intel controller or asmedia sata 6 controler ? Dirty state drive or clean drive ? Drive filled 25% , 50% etc... ? we need more info , maybe we can help you out :)

Kind Regards: Angelo

[tistou77]

Hello chispy

Controleur: Intel SATA3
Driver: RST 11.7 (AHCI)
ROM (bios): RST(e) 3.5
Drive Filled: ~8%

I'll post a screenshot tomorrow
I tested with a fresh install of Windows 7 and it's always the same

Thanks for your help ;)

[DooRules]

Hey tistou77, you know there is a mod bios on the Asus forum that has the 11.6 raid rom on it...

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?26501-RIVE-3301-Patched-for-TRIM-in-RAID!&country=&status=

[tistou77]

Hello

The write performance are income "as before" with CDM and AS SSD.
I'll try the bios modded with ROM RST 11.6
This is better than the ROM RSte 3.5?

Thanks

[tistou77]

I tested the bios with ROM RST 11.6, same performance with the ROM RSTe 3.5, except for the 4k write, slightly better ;)

[chispy]

Guys i got very bad news :/ ,""""" BEWARE """" Do Not Update """"" Your Samsungs 840 Pro 256GB to the latest firmware DXM04B0Q , My 2 Samsungs 840 Pro 256GB are " Completely Dead " after flashing both drives with this latest firmware , Just like the guys from Anandtech i secured erased both drives today and Bam , Both Dead as a brick after secure erased. Drives are not recognized by any of my PCs Intel and AMD rigs. They will be RMA by samsung asap. It seems they broguht back the same bug that was on the initial pre-production firmware , exactly this is what happenned to me on both drives http://www.anandtech.com/show/6503/second-update-on-samsung-ssd-840840-pro-failures . Just a heads up my drives are only 2 weeks old and have been secured erased only 3 times. Beware. I will post more information onced the guys from Samsung tell me what its wrong with this firmware back on an email i

[DooRules]

Guess I won't be SEing them till I hear an update on this, thanks for the heads up bud.

[canthearu]

Yep, thanks for heads up

Kind of disappointed!

[Live or Die]

Don't know what happened to your drives but i flashed mine to DXM04B0Q did a secure erase as well what program did you use to secure erase your drives the Samsung software?

[jax7480]

I have 2 Samsung 840PRO's 128GB. Did the update and secure erased them from that time, 2 times. No issues at all.

[tistou77]

I never managed to run the secure erase samsung (USB key)

[chispy]

I used Samsung magician 3.2 software to secure erase , i have a few Samsungs 830 drives and have been secure erased dozen of times + and never had any issue , so in fact its not user error its a hardware or software failure guys nothing more nothing less. I have been playing with SSDs for many many years its the first time i see something like this :/. They go in the mail today for rma , my RMA just got approved. I hope nobody else have this issue ( cross fingers ).

[Alex-Ro]

I have 2 Samsung 840PRO's 128GB. Did the update and secure erased them from that time, 2 times. No issues at all.

+1,128 drive and no problems at all

[Fernando]

Guys i got very bad news :/ ,""""" BEWARE """" Do Not Update """"" Your Samsungs 840 Pro 256GB to the latest firmware DXM04B0Q , My 2 Samsungs 840 Pro 256GB are " Completely Dead " after flashing both drives with this latest firmware , Just like the guys from Anandtech i secured erased both drives today and Bam , Both Dead as a brick after secure erased.Why do you think, that the firmware update has caused the death of both SSD's?
That is why I ask again te question of Live or Die: With which tool have you done the secure erase procedure?

[UNTAMED]

- my 840 pro flash had no issues , besides a small drop in points from as ssd. 1214 to 1204 could need a few days of GC maybe.

[Brahmzy]

Well, I've got 2 of my 5 840 Pros flashed. I cannot for the life of me get one of them secure erased. I've tried in RAID mode, AHCI mode.. nothing works - always says drive is "frozen" and fails. The USB/CD boot things are absolutely worthless - on two different computers. I get jibberish on the screen with both a boot CD or USB. I have no freaking way to secure erase these things. I never had to deal with this $hit with any of my 30+ OCZ drives. ARGH.

Chispy - what method did you use to secure erase your drives? Sucks they both bombed like that - something's fishy. How'd you hose TWO drives? Tell us exactly what you did plz.

[DooRules]

Usually you just hot plug a frozen drive to see it to SE it, I take it that did not work this time.

[Brahmzy]

No amount of hot plugging (either power or data or both or letting drive sit unplugged etc.) worked.

[Live or Die]

Well, I've got 2 of my 5 840 Pros flashed. I cannot for the life of me get one of them secure erased. I've tried in RAID mode, AHCI mode.. nothing works - always says drive is "frozen" and fails. The USB/CD boot things are absolutely worthless - on two different computers. I get jibberish on the screen with both a boot CD or USB. I have no freaking way to secure erase these things. I never had to deal with this $hit with any of my 30+ OCZ drives. ARGH.

Chispy - what method did you use to secure erase your drives? Sucks they both bombed like that - something's fishy. How'd you hose TWO drives? Tell us exactly what you did plz.

The Samsung secure erase didn't work for me ether so i just used the same program I've been using for years Parted Magic, Also when i went to secure erase them i got a popup saying that these SSDs support advance secure erase would you like to run this instead i hit OK did its normal erase then i set my raid array back up installed windows and here i am.

[DooRules]

It's my understanding you do not want to be using the advanced SE, it may blow away parts of the drive needed for operation. I could be wrong but I just stick with the standard SE.

[Fernando]

It's my understanding you do not want to be using the advanced SE, it may blow away parts of the drive needed for operation. I could be wrong but I just stick with the standard SE.That is correct. It is not recommended to use the "Enhanced" Secure Erase option.
By the way: >Here< (http://www.pcworld.com/article/261702/how_to_securely_erase_your_hard_drive.html) is a description about how to do a Secure Erase of an SSD by using the tool Parted Magic.

[Live or Die]

It's my understanding you do not want to be using the advanced SE, it may blow away parts of the drive needed for operation. I could be wrong but I just stick with the standard SE.

No Doesn't matter much, the enhanced secure erase goes by what the firmware programers set for the drive, the normal one is a validated routine, So no it want harm your SSD.

More Info
Q: What is the difference between secure erase and enhanced secure erase?

A: Secure erase overwrites all user data areas with binary zeroes. Enhanced
secure erase writes predetermined data patterns (set by the manufacturer) to
all user data areas, including sectors that are no longer in use due to
reallocation. ***NOTE: the enhanced secure erase option is not supported by
all ATA drives.

[chispy]

Ok , for the guys asking what i use to secure erase the SSDs that got brick , I used Samsung magician 3.2 secure erase software from the Samsung CD that came included with my drives. I Use one of my PCs running w7x64bit on single Samsung 830 128GB in ahci mode , from there i plug one drive at a time and did it the same way i have been doing secure erase for over a year with all my Samsung SSDs drives without a single problem. When using Samsung Magician 3.2 secure erase it will tell you that the drive is in a frozen state, please unplug the power sata conector wait a couple of seconds and plug the sata conector back in , then the drive will be secure erased following Samsung Magician 3.2 instructions thats it , after it finished it says SSD secure erase completed succesfully , i turn off the pc unplug the Samsung 840 Pro 256GB , plug my seconf 840 Pro 256GB and did it the same way. After it finished secure erased as per Samsung Magician 3.2 " Succesfully " i turn off the PC. Then went on to install both drives 840 Pros on my MVE board in Raid0 and Bam drives were completely dead an not working , recognized or seen by any of my PCs , i tried single drive ide , ahci and both drives in Raid0 mode in Z77 chipset , x58 chipset , AMD A75 chipset Motherboards and none of the 2 drives were recognized or seen by any motherboard or Samsung Magician , i tried windows 7 , vista and linux , dead as a brick. I know how to secure erase an SSD guys trust mne i have been doing this for too many years , the ugly thing is that i even use the Samsung Magician Software 3.2 included with the 840 Pro SSDs following the exact same method i used and succesfully did to secure erase this same drives one day earlier and t did work flawlessly no dead SSDs , but after a third time of secure erase the Drives died , i see no reason why a drive would die like that ??? I keep thinking its a hatdware or Firmware error on this drive nothing more nothing less , its immposible to be user error. Just a heads up guys ,no biggie the warranty service its 5 years and Samsung customer support its great , so its all good my drives are been replaced by new ones thats all :)

Kind Regards: Chispy

[Live or Die]

Ok , for the guys asking what i use to secure erase the SSDs that got brick , I used Samsung magician 3.2 secure erase software from the Samsung CD that came included with my drives. I Use one of my PCs running w7x64bit on single Samsung 830 128GB in ahci mode , from there i plug one drive at a time and did it the same way i have been doing secure erase for over a year with all my Samsung SSDs drives without a single problem. When using Samsung Magician 3.2 secure erase it will tell you that the drive is in a frozen state, please unplug the power sata conector wait a couple of seconds and plug the sata conector back in , then the drive will be secure erased following Samsung Magician 3.2 instructions thats it , after it finished it says SSD secure erase completed succesfully , i turn off the pc unplug the Samsung 840 Pro 256GB , plug my seconf 840 Pro 256GB and did it the same way. After it finished secure erased as per Samsung Magician 3.2 " Succesfully " i turn off the PC. Then went on to install both drives 840 Pros on my MVE board in Raid0 and Bam drives were completely dead an not working , recognized or seen by any of my PCs , i tried single drive ide , ahci and both drives in Raid0 mode in Z77 chipset , x58 chipset , AMD A75 chipset Motherboards and none of the 2 drives were recognized or seen by any motherboard or Samsung Magician , i tried windows 7 , vista and linux , dead as a brick. I know how to secure erase an SSD guys trust mne i have been doing this for too many years , the ugly thing is that i even use the Samsung Magician Software 3.2 included with the 840 Pro SSDs following the exact same method i used and succesfully did to secure erase this same drives one day earlier and t did work flawlessly no dead SSDs , but after a third time of secure erase the Drives died , i see no reason why a drive would die like that ??? I keep thinking its a hatdware or Firmware error on this drive nothing more nothing less , its immposible to be user error. Just a heads up guys ,no biggie the warranty service its 5 years and Samsung customer support its great , so its all good my drives are been replaced by new ones thats all :)

Kind Regards: Chispy

What firmware come installed on your SSD's? Also you probably know if a secure erase doesn't execute correctly it can brick you SSD i put this down to ether your drives being ones that come with the bugged firmware or Samsung Magician Software 3.2 didn't execute the command right there for bricked your drives.

[Fernando]

@ chispy:
Thanks for your detaild report.

After it finished secure erased as per Samsung Magician 3.2 " Succesfully " i turn off the PC. Then went on to install both drives 840 Pros on my MVE board in Raid0 and Bam drives were completely dead an not working ..... i see no reason why a drive would die like that ??? I keep thinking its a hatdware or Firmware error on this drive nothing more nothing less , its immposible to be user error.It is hard to believe, that a hardware or a firmware problem has caused the total loss of your 2 SSDs: The RMA quote of Samsung's 840 PRO SSDs is very, very low (0% at my favorite German Computer hardware dealer, who has already sold more than 1.000 SSDs of this type, look >here< (http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/info/p814956_128GB-Samsung-840-Pro-Series-2-5Zoll--6-4cm--SATA-6Gb-s-MLC-Toggle--MZ-7PD128BW-.html) and >here< (http://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/info/p814955_256GB-Samsung-840-Pro-Series-2-5Zoll--6-4cm--SATA-6Gb-s-MLC-Toggle--MZ-7PD256BW-.html)).
There are only very few reports from other Samsung 840 PRO SSD owners, who ran into problems after having tried to flash the new firmware 4B0Q, but you have lost at least 2 SSD's at once this way.

[Brahmzy]

Yes, it does seem isolated, yet his methods were sound. I've done 30+ SE's on my Pros using his same methods with no issues.

Or could it be that the firmware didn't take correctly?

[hoax]

Been following the thread, sorry to hear about your drives chispy.

Unlike you guys, this is my very first SSD drive. So forgive me if this sounds extremelly stupid.

Considering my drive is still unused, I assume there is no need to SE it. But with all the reports of problems with booting from USB/CD, I am wondering how I should update the firmware.

My old rig (sig) had some issues on the sata ports, so I don't really think its a good idea to hook the ssd on this old mobo.

Installing win7 on the ssd just to access Samsung's software sounds silly. (assuming I would then have to SE the drive to update firmware)

Should I install the OS on another HDD, hook up the unused SSD and simply flash it? Then format the HDD, and re-install the OS on the SSD.

On a new system, isn't there a way to flash it without having to install win7 first? Anyone had luck booting from USB/CD yet?

Obviously I am as lost as one can be, step by step instructions would be much appreciated! If needed feel free to PM me to avoid messing up the thread, I promise not to bug anyone with a zillion questions.

[canthearu]

The firmware update isn't destructive and there is no need to secure erase afterwards.

So just install windows and run the firmware update.

[hoax]

thank you very much for the help canthearu, I really appreciate it.

will report back once I get it running.

[Live or Die]

The firmware update isn't destructive and there is no need to secure erase afterwards.

So just install windows and run the firmware update.

It be more better to update your firmware before installing windows, Also i live in Perth to HAHA .

[hoax]

It be more better to update your firmware before installing windows, Also i live in Perth to HAHA .

but how can I update before installing windows if everyone is complaining booting from USB/CD isn't working? :confused:

[Live or Die]

Plug your SSD into another system do the update then do your install.

[hoax]

thank you for your help.

unfortunately not an option, AFAIK there is only one working sata port on this mobo. I had to remove my backup drives from the system a few months back, system wouldn't even post with the second drive hooked, there is no chance I would risk testing the ssd on this old mobo. I rather not update the firmware for now if that was the only option. but considering the price tag we get to pay to import such goodies, I believe I have plenty of reasons to be absolutely pissed off right now.


edit:
way too frustrated to sleep, called samsung support, they say a new version of magician will be out by the end of the month, and it will hopefully fix the issues people are having with booting with usb/cd.

he also said basically the firmware is only needed to address some issues with TRIM, and that worst case scenario, one could wait a few more days for the new version of magician, and hopefully sort it out.

anyway, just reporting what I was told.

[Brahmzy]

Thanks for the update on the new Magician software! Can get here soon enough!

[canthearu]

It be more better to update your firmware before installing windows, Also i live in Perth to HAHA .

Not really. It isn't going to make any realistic difference (if any difference at all, the difference in performance between new/old firmware can be measured in the noise margin)

Just install windows, update firmware, and be happy.

[hoax]

Thanks again for your help canthearu! Got the system running, installed windows, updated the firmware, no issues so far :up:

Ran magician's performance benchmark and crystaldiskmark:
http://i.imgur.com/KKILL.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/D7o5m.jpg

not sure why my results look so different from chispy's drives.

I ran magician's OS Optimization and Performance Optimization. Do I need to tweak other settings?

I also can't figure out why the drive only has 142GB available, checked manually and it seems like it should be closer to 160gb available of the total 238gb, any ideas?

cheers

[Live or Die]

No theres a chance updating your SSD will corrupt your data which you get warned about when doing the update mate so its better to no take the risk and update it before.

[canthearu]

There is a chance the drive will die tomorrow as well.

But it is a negligible chance.

[canthearu]

Regarding lack of disk space, Do you have a lot of memory in your computer.

Windows will by default reserve the same amount in diskspace as you have memory for the page file, as well as the hibernation file. These are normally hidden, so it is easy to miss their usage

[canthearu]

The difference in performance is likely down to having power saving enabled on your computer hoax

[hoax]

Regarding lack of disk space, Do you have a lot of memory in your computer.

heh... correct!


The difference in performance is likely down to having power saving enabled on your computer hoax

surprise surprise...correct!

changed from balanced to high-performance, new results:

http://i.imgur.com/HtLPD.png

I really cannot thank you enough for all your help and patience canthearu, cheers!! :up::up:

[Live or Die]

There is a chance the drive will die tomorrow as well.

But it is a negligible chance.

Nope if your drive died tomorrow your just :banana::banana::banana::banana: out of luck, if you flashed your drive knowing you could lose your files and didn't back them up you shouldn't be flashing at all.

[canthearu]

Nope if your drive died tomorrow your just :banana::banana::banana::banana: out of luck, if you flashed your drive knowing you could lose your files and didn't back them up you shouldn't be flashing at all.

Who has flashed their drive and lost all their data BTW? These particular case is generally pretty well tested by the manufacturer and if there were any doubts, the manufacturer would release the update as a destructive (as OCZ does for many of their indilinx based drives)

I've never seen or heard of anyone having drive issues after a firmware update that would have been resolved with a secure erase post firmware update .... I've put the new update on the 840 i'm endurance testing and proceeded to write another 100 TiB to the drive without a hiccup. I've also done many many other SSD firmware updates without wiping and not once had a single problem.

You should still always have a backup, but wiping your drive after a firmware update is generally a waste of time and a waste of drive writes. I only thought people here were doing it to obtain best benchmarks post update.

[Live or Die]

Who has flashed their drive and lost all their data BTW? These particular case is generally pretty well tested by the manufacturer and if there were any doubts, the manufacturer would release the update as a destructive (as OCZ does for many of their indilinx based drives)

I've never seen or heard of anyone having drive issues after a firmware update that would have been resolved with a secure erase post firmware update .... I've put the new update on the 840 i'm endurance testing and proceeded to write another 100 TiB to the drive without a hiccup. I've also done many many other SSD firmware updates without wiping and not once had a single problem.

You should still always have a backup, but wiping your drive after a firmware update is generally a waste of time and a waste of drive writes. I only thought people here were doing it to obtain best benchmarks post update.

Theres only a small chance one of my drives array broke when updating my firmware.

[chispy]

Happy , earlier today the Brown truck pulled over and left me a Box :) , My brand new RMAs , 2 Samsungs 840 Pro 256GB are here. The came with the old firmware and this time i will not flash the SSDs with the new firmware , last i heard from Samsung there will be another firmware Update as well as a new Samsung magician soon. Lets see how this plays out , i will let others be the guinea pigs this time around :D. Happy mood: Santa Claus came early for me. Merry Cristmas Guys.

Kind Regards: Angelo

[Skully]

Hey guys, just picked up 2X Samsung 840 Pro 256GB drives today. Hooked them up to a spare drive.
Flashed to newest FW, DXMO4B0Q.enc dated 1/3/2013, All went quite well. Set drives up for RAID-O.
Then installed W-8, again all went well.

[lundrog]

I have three 128GB pro's that should arrive tomorrow, what do you need me to do?

[Ourasi]

Happy , earlier today the Brown truck pulled over and left me a Box :) , My brand new RMAs , 2 Samsungs 840 Pro 256GB are here. The came with the old firmware and this time i will not flash the SSDs with the new firmware , last i heard from Samsung there will be another firmware Update as well as a new Samsung magician soon. Lets see how this plays out , i will let others be the guinea pigs this time around :D. Happy mood: Santa Claus came early for me. Merry Cristmas Guys.

Kind Regards: Angelo

Updated my 128gb 840Pro to the latest firmware via magician, single on raid mode. No issues found, even after two secure erases with magician..

[Nizzen]

I have three 128GB pro's that should arrive tomorrow, what do you need me to do?

Buy a Lsi 9207 hba to get full speed :D

[lundrog]

Buy a Lsi 9207 hba to get full speed :D

I only will have two pcie 1x slots open, after my 2nd gtx 680 arrives ...

Unless I can do two 1x cards....

[Nizzen]

I only will have two pcie 1x slots open, after my 2nd gtx 680 arrives ...

Unless I can do two 1x cards....
Then buy new MB. xtreme 11 with the lsi onboard ;)

[dja2k]

I really need the USB or CD boot image to update my drives that are on Raid0. Anyone know if they are available somewhere in a hosting site or can anyone upload it to share? Thanks

dja2k