2.5" 960GB PM963 Firmware

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

AJXCR

Active Member
Jan 20, 2017
565
96
28
35
If these are non-expander backplanes, I'd suspect something either in the SAS second path connector or the SAS pin 3 problem. I can't find high-resolution pictures of the Funtin to see what it is doing with either of those.

Appreciate the response!

I haven't focused on the backplanes or other hardware much because the issue occurs on two completely different backplanes/motherboards/chassis, and only with the PM963's. Intel 750's, P3700's, & Samsung PM951's seem to function normally. Early on (before I foolishly flashed all 12 drives with what was supposed to be the latest PM963 firmware), two of the twelve PM963's had the original firmware loaded and did not exhibit the firmware crash on reset..
 

Terry Kennedy

Well-Known Member
Jun 25, 2015
1,140
594
113
New York City
www.glaver.org
I haven't focused on the backplanes or other hardware much because the issue occurs on two completely different backplanes/motherboards/chassis, and only with the PM963's. Intel 750's, P3700's, & Samsung PM951's seem to function normally.
All of the pictures I've seen of the Funtin adapter show no active components - the SSD socket just connects directly to the PCIe data lanes. Since you say the drives work on that adapter, it must be something with how the backplanes either connect to the drives or to the motherboard.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TedB

AJXCR

Active Member
Jan 20, 2017
565
96
28
35
All of the pictures I've seen of the Funtin adapter show no active components - the SSD socket just connects directly to the PCIe data lanes. Since you say the drives work on that adapter, it must be something with how the backplanes either connect to the drives or to the motherboard.
Terry, that's sort of the direction I've been pursuing.. reading some of the white papers floating around about about NVMe, it would appear that drives are actually issued "shutdown commands". I'm wondering if this command (or similar) is received differently when passed through a backplane (plx switch/re-timer/etc) rather than directly from the motherboard..
 

nkw

Active Member
Aug 28, 2017
136
48
28
Terry, that's sort of the direction I've been pursuing.. reading some of the white papers floating around about about NVMe, it would appear that drives are actually issued "shutdown commands". I'm wondering if this command (or similar) is received differently when passed through a backplane (plx switch/re-timer/etc) rather than directly from the motherboard..
Sounds like you need one of these:

http://cdn.teledynelecroy.com/files/pdf/pci-express-family-datasheet.pdf

I'm guessing they are pricey. ;)
 

AJXCR

Active Member
Jan 20, 2017
565
96
28
35
Just an update.. I went out on a limb and purchased a brand new PM963 from www.WiredZone.com which has exactly the same problem. After going back and fourth with WiredZone for approximately a week now, they tell me that the drive is a retail product, fully supported by Samsung, and not something they can help me with.

Samsung, however, says that the drive is not a retail product, was pulled out of an OEM system, and is under no circumstances eligible for Samsung support. They suggest that I determine the manufacturer of the machine the drive was pulled from and contact the manufacturer of that machine. When questioned about WiredZone insisting that the drives are a retail product, Samsung simply gave me a verbal shoulder shrug.

Now I'm pretty frustrated.
 

Evan

Well-Known Member
Jan 6, 2016
3,346
598
113
Around in circles, Super frustrating. Samsung is really trying hard not to help it seems.
Makes you wonder if they know the issue and don’t have a fix....
 

AJXCR

Active Member
Jan 20, 2017
565
96
28
35
:( Ask for a return from wiredzone?
I suppose that is an option, but I've now purchased a retail product from a reputable vendor/dealer (I've always had excellent experiences with wiredzone in the past) and am entitled to a copy of the firmware.

When I was trying to get support for (supposedly- although no proof has been provided) oem drives I could understand the resistance. Now that I've purchased the product new through normal and customary channels, I want someone to step up to the plate and take responsibility.
 

AJXCR

Active Member
Jan 20, 2017
565
96
28
35
Around in circles, Super frustrating. Samsung is really trying hard not to help it seems.
Makes you wonder if they know the issue and don’t have a fix....
Yes it does. Extremely shady attitude by both the vendor and the manufacturer.
 

AJXCR

Active Member
Jan 20, 2017
565
96
28
35
Around in circles, Super frustrating. Samsung is really trying hard not to help it seems.
Makes you wonder if they know the issue and don’t have a fix....
At the same time, I know that firmware revision CXV80W1Q does not have this problem... so there is definitely a fix out there
 

Terry Kennedy

Well-Known Member
Jun 25, 2015
1,140
594
113
New York City
www.glaver.org
Around in circles, Super frustrating. Samsung is really trying hard not to help it seems.
Samsung could avoid a lot of confusion by just labeling their drives appropriately - print the OEM name and "Contact your system vendor for all support questions" on the drive label. This applies to both models that have a retail and an OEM version as well as models that are OEM-only.

I'd cut Wiredzone a bit of slack. Although I've never dealt with them, other vendors that don't do enough volume to purchase directly from manufacturers have also had problems when their "authorized distributor" shipped them non-retail (or downright fake) products. Of course, if they don't make things right, then we should all know about that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Robert Townley

Miki

New Member
May 31, 2019
8
0
1
Hi everyone, I have a PM983 3.84TB M.2, specifically model MZ1LB3T8HMLA-00007. A week ago I got the ERRORMOD status, discussed in this thread and otherwise very rarely on the Internet.

Do you have any insights into what this error is about, is there any way I can recover my data with no risk of loss? I see Craig's advise for "nvme subsystem-reset" but would that erase my SSD.

Any insights much appreciated, thanks!!
 

yelley

New Member
Jan 13, 2021
3
9
3
Hello All,

Just my 2cents to this (old) subject.
I've come across a similar situation on a PM863a Samsung SSD 3,8TB with a Firmware version 'ERRORMOD' and a size reported of 1GB.
I use a HP Z840 with LSI controller to attach the SSD.

The SSD could not be used and is not recognized by the standard tools form Samsung, like Magician v 6.21.

However, I could find an older version of this software, V2 and 32 bits, at:
Enterprise SSD Products | Download | Samsung V-NAND SSD

With this version you have the ability using the following flags in a command window as Administrator

c:\Users\admin\Downloads>Samsung_Magician_DC_Windows_32bit.exe -L
================================================================================================
Samsung(R) SSD Magician DC Version 2.0
Copyright (C) 2015 SAMSUNG Electronics Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.
================================================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Disk | Model | Serial | Firmware | Capacity | Drive | Total Bytes |
| Number | | Number | | | Health | Written |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 2 |SAMSUNG MZ7LM3T8HMLP-000AZ |Serialnr |ERRORMOD | 0 GB | POOR | 0.00 TB |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

c:\Users\admin\Downloads>.\Samsung_Magician_DC_Windows_64bit.exe -V
================================================================================================
Samsung(R) SSD Magician DC Version 2.0
Copyright (C) 2015 SAMSUNG Electronics Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.
================================================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Usage:

magician -d [diskindex] -V [ --vendor-utility ] [parameter-list]
Example:
magician --disk 1 --vendor-utility --FAlog-dump [or]
magician -d 1 -V -fa
magician --disk 1 --vendor-utility --PLP-log [or]
magician -d 1 -V -p
magician --disk 1 --vendor-utility --Escape [or]
magician -d 1 -V -e
magician --disk 1 --vendor-utility --DSLR [or]
magician -d 1 -V -dslr

-d [ --disk ] Disk-Number of the disk to execute Vendor Utility command
-fa [ --FAlog-dump ] Enables the user to extract the log data from a coreview block of the
SSD
-p [ --PLP-log ] Enables the user to extract the PLP log data from a coreview block of the
SSD
-e [ --Escape ] Attempts to escape the device from the ERROR MODE state
-dslr [ --DSLR ] Extracts DSLR from the SSD

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

c:\Users\admin\Downloads>Samsung_Magician_DC_Windows_32bit.exe -d 2 -V -e
================================================================================================
Samsung(R) SSD Magician DC Version 2.0
Copyright (C) 2015 SAMSUNG Electronics Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.
================================================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disk Number: 2 | Model Name: SAMSUNG MZ7LM3T8HMLP-000AZ | Firmware Version: ERRORMOD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Successfully issued ERROR MODE escape command to the device.
It may take up to 1 minute for the device to be ready.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

after approx. 1 minute:

c:\Users\admin\Downloads>Samsung_Magician_DC_Windows_32bit.exe -L
================================================================================================
Samsung(R) SSD Magician DC Version 2.0
Copyright (C) 2015 SAMSUNG Electronics Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.
================================================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Disk | Model | Serial | Firmware | Capacity | Drive | Total Bytes |
| Number | | Number | | | Health | Written |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 2:0:1 |SAMSUNG MZ7LM3T8HMLP-000AZ |Serialnr |GXT51W3Q | 3576 GB | GOOD | 0.00 TB |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the SSD is usable again! :)


Remark: Later versions of Magician CLI command does not seem to have those -e flag anymore.
Hope this helps for others in the same situation
 
Last edited:

alexherreraz

New Member
Oct 20, 2020
11
0
1
Hello All,

Just my 2cents to this (old) subject.
I've come across a similar situation on a PM863a Samsung SSD 3,8TB with a Firmware version 'ERRORMOD' and a size reported of 1GB.
I use a HP Z840 with LSI controller to attach the SSD.

The SSD could not be used and is not recognized by the standard tools form Samsung, like Magician v 6.21.

However, I could find an older version of this software, V2 and 32 bits, at:
Enterprise SSD Products | Download | Samsung V-NAND SSD

With this version you have the ability using the following flags in a command window as Administrator

c:\Users\admin\Downloads>Samsung_Magician_DC_Windows_32bit.exe -L
================================================================================================
Samsung(R) SSD Magician DC Version 2.0
Copyright (C) 2015 SAMSUNG Electronics Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.
================================================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Disk | Model | Serial | Firmware | Capacity | Drive | Total Bytes |
| Number | | Number | | | Health | Written |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 2 |SAMSUNG MZ7LM3T8HMLP-000AZ |Serialnr |ERRORMOD | 0 GB | POOR | 0.00 TB |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

c:\Users\admin\Downloads>.\Samsung_Magician_DC_Windows_64bit.exe -V
================================================================================================
Samsung(R) SSD Magician DC Version 2.0
Copyright (C) 2015 SAMSUNG Electronics Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.
================================================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Usage:

magician -d [diskindex] -V [ --vendor-utility ] [parameter-list]
Example:
magician --disk 1 --vendor-utility --FAlog-dump [or]
magician -d 1 -V -fa
magician --disk 1 --vendor-utility --PLP-log [or]
magician -d 1 -V -p
magician --disk 1 --vendor-utility --Escape [or]
magician -d 1 -V -e
magician --disk 1 --vendor-utility --DSLR [or]
magician -d 1 -V -dslr

-d [ --disk ] Disk-Number of the disk to execute Vendor Utility command
-fa [ --FAlog-dump ] Enables the user to extract the log data from a coreview block of the
SSD
-p [ --PLP-log ] Enables the user to extract the PLP log data from a coreview block of the
SSD
-e [ --Escape ] Attempts to escape the device from the ERROR MODE state
-dslr [ --DSLR ] Extracts DSLR from the SSD

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

c:\Users\admin\Downloads>Samsung_Magician_DC_Windows_32bit.exe -d 2 -V -e
================================================================================================
Samsung(R) SSD Magician DC Version 2.0
Copyright (C) 2015 SAMSUNG Electronics Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.
================================================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disk Number: 2 | Model Name: SAMSUNG MZ7LM3T8HMLP-000AZ | Firmware Version: ERRORMOD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Successfully issued ERROR MODE escape command to the device.
It may take up to 1 minute for the device to be ready.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

after approx. 1 minute:

c:\Users\admin\Downloads>Samsung_Magician_DC_Windows_32bit.exe -L
================================================================================================
Samsung(R) SSD Magician DC Version 2.0
Copyright (C) 2015 SAMSUNG Electronics Co. Ltd. All rights reserved.
================================================================================================
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Disk | Model | Serial | Firmware | Capacity | Drive | Total Bytes |
| Number | | Number | | | Health | Written |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 2:0:1 |SAMSUNG MZ7LM3T8HMLP-000AZ |Serialnr |GXT51W3Q | 3576 GB | GOOD | 0.00 TB |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And the SSD is usable again! :)


Remark: Later versions of Magician CLI command does not seem to have those -e flag anymore.
Hope this helps for others in the same situation
I been spending hours on this and couldn´t Make it!! when i try to list the Disk it says:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Disk | Model | Serial | Firmware | Capacity | Drive | Total Bytes |
| Number | | Number | | | Health | Written |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
No Samsung SSD found!

I´m using a USB M.2 Adapter by Asus, is that a problem? please help!
 

alexherreraz

New Member
Oct 20, 2020
11
0
1
The usb adapter probably hides the ssd and causes the problem.
For firmware updates always try the "most direct" connection you can get.
thanks a lot!! i´ll try to connect it to my motherboard and i´ll write you tomorrow with an update

Cheers!
 

alexherreraz

New Member
Oct 20, 2020
11
0
1
I just dont get it, CrystalDisk recognices the M.2 Drive, but Magician is not working, do you have any idea what might be?

1631779157938.png
 

i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
4,218
1,540
113
34
Germany
Why does it say "uasp" in the interface section? Is it still connected to the usb adapter?