Samsung Updates the Firmware of SSD 830 Series, Fixes BSOD Issue
by Kristian Vättö on January 23, 2012 4:38 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- SSDs
- Samsung
- Samsung SSD 830
This seems to be a month of SSD firmware updates. Less than two weeks ago, Crucial released a firmware update to fix the issue that caused BSODs after 5184 hours of operation. Today, OCZ released a firmware update for Octane that improved its random write performance. Samsung also joins the chorus and they have released a firmware update, or actually two updates, for their SSD 830 Series
The first update, named as CXM02B1Q, was actually released two weeks ago. Its release went mostly unnoticed due to CES, hence we never saw it until today. The release notes state that the update fixes a BSOD or hang issue when waking the computer up from hibernation mode. The 830 Series has generally been said to be one of the most reliable SATA 6Gb/s SSDs, and while this issue doesn't seem to be widespread, it's still an issue that affected some users. Samsung also claims that the update fixes partition issues with some enclosures and laptops.
The second update, CXM03B1Q, was released last Thursday and it's identical to the earlier update, but with improved compatibility and stability of the update tool. You can download the latest firmware for the Samsung 830, and as usual we recommend backing up critical data before flashing.
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Squuiid - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
Oh, wow. you're right, thank you Kristian. That IS dumb.Burnt ISO with Magician rather that downloading the ISO direct from Samsung and it does indeed work.
Coup27 - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
Are you sure? When I updated to CXM02B1Q I downloaded the ISO and burned it to CD-RW using CDBurnerXP and it worked fine. I haven't done CXM03B1Q yet but I would be suprised if this didn't work the same way or there would be no need to release a seperate ISO as Magician will download the firmware for you.Kristian Vättö - Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - link
At least before I've heard Mac users saying that the firmware can only be updated in Windows, and that's what Samsung's instructions state too. However, the latest update has a mention of updated USB/CD ISO so maybe this latest update is indeed OS-independent.I was also a bit surprised when I heard you need Magician to burn the ISO, it should be a normal ISO anyway. Any Mac user willing to try and report back?
Coup27 - Saturday, February 11, 2012 - link
As my above post says, I updated CXM02B1Q using the downloadable ISO, CDBurnerXP and a CD and it worked fine.I have just done the exact same thing with CXM03B1Q.
I think the confusion has arised because when the 830 was released the Magician had an internal firmware update procedure screen, but there were no ISO's on the website beause there had not been a firmware update. As soon as CXM02B1Q came out, it appeared as an ISO and as a firmware file you could use within Magician. Same goes for CXM03B1Q.
To the user below who's characters were all jarbled, it does say in the release notes that the firmware updater will be scrambled by nVidia GFX cards. As it works fine on iGPU's and AMD cards, I would point the finger more in nVidia's direction.
jdaien4783 - Friday, March 2, 2012 - link
I wonder if one of you guys can help me out. I tried burning the ISO using magician and also using CDBurnerXP. Each time after I boot from the CD I get this error message:A:\>cd samsung\dsrd
A:\SAMSUNG\DSRD>DSRDGU10.exe
Error TNT.20033: Can't enable address line 20
A:\SAMSUNG\DSRD>
I have a 2010 13'' Macbook Pro. Do any of you know what I am doing wrong? Do I need to format the SSD to a certain format for the update to work?
stefanradev - Tuesday, April 3, 2012 - link
Coup, how you updated on Mac or on Windows ? When I look at your post, you are using the ISO and ISO is for Windows and not for DOS booting.It will be nice when you explain step by step how you realized that which will be a very big help to all Mac users.
I also tried with the DOS, but same error on line 20.
mutatio - Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - link
I used IMG Burn in W7 and it booted and flashed without issue, but I'm using non-Mac self-built hardware.mak011689 - Thursday, July 12, 2012 - link
Hello! I cant get OSX installed on this drive to install bootcamp. Did you install osx on another drive then hook this SSD up with a usb cable?? ughh very frustrating. ive been trying to update it hooked usb to a windows comp cant figure it out.magnetar - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
Yes, like mine, that statement is from the Release Notes for the CXM03B1Q firmware update, when performed via the .iso file boot disk method. "Some characters" should be all characters, as the screen was virtually unreadable. I could barely make out 1% of it, and the Release notes suggest entering 'Y' three times to start the update if you can't read the screen. That was with a EVGA GT240 card, hardly exotic and really about as basic as you can get (I'm not a gamer.)I had to use the boot disk method, as my three 830's are in RAID 0, and so cannot be recognized by the Samsung Magician software that has a firmware update option. Changed to AHCI mode and booted from the disk, tried to do it basically blind, and I was able to update all three SSDs. If you're updating multiple SSDs, let the update program proceed at it's own pace, you'll hopefully be able to tell as I did when to enter 'y' when it was needed for each SSD. Otherwise these are great SSDs, this is the first glitch of any kind I have had since I installed them, I really did not need the update to solve an issue. Just FYI, and go with the Samsung Magician software firmware update method if you can, and READ the Release Notes file.
EddyKilowatt - Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - link
Since many of us bought Samsung SSDs due to perceived higher reliability, it's a shame to see them screwing up by releasing buggy updates like this.I wonder how common the BSOD or whatever problem is that this update tries to "fix". I must say that I'm kind of tempted to wait for CXM04.