Firmware package for Samsung SM883/MZ7KH3T8HALS

[oh2ftu]

I recently received a bunch of 3.8TB samsung SSDs.
They are at firmware HXM7304Q. I was wondering if there is a newer firmware for these?
These *might* be with a $vendors$ own fw, but they report as samsung.
I've found some mentions of HXM7904Q.

Any idea where an updated package could be found - and how to flash?

 

[DarkServant]

One risky way is using hdparm to force a truncated Dell Firmware to the drive. I saw this some time ago: Samsung SSD resurrection – [mjuː]wave

Instead of exactly 1MB for the pm/sm863, its 2,5MB for the pm/sm883 i think. Latest FW from Dell seems to be HF58.
The operation is risky, and you can loose one of the drives, the last series of it's kind (2-Bit 3D-MLC NAND).


Never tried it on my SSD's, i have FW: HXM7404Q and it works.
Adding thermal-pads to the Controller (1mm), PMIC (1,5mm), DRAM (1mm), and possibly NAND (0,5mm) on both sides like a sandwich (i used an 3mm ultra-soft compressible pad on the backside of the controller, it prevents bending of the thin PCB), should not hurt for longer lifetime; but dont use force. The screws are pentalobe 5PL.
Overprovisioning the SSD via the HPA, for the increase of life-cycle and write performance: SSD Over-provisioning using hdparm - Thomas-Krenn-Wiki some is fixed via the firmware, 256 megabytes from the 4TB, the gain flattens at about 30% OP.

 

[Stephan]

Just spent an hour reading recursively the stuff you linked. Thanks... (no irony) Including the "Samsung Lost Manual" by Austrian (Schnitzel, not Kangaroo) guy called Philipp. What caught my eye were off-by-one programming errors in Samsung firmware as reported by Philipp. WTH Samsung. "It compiles, let's ship it!!"? No code commit workflow, just one guy writing software and that's it? No code audits at all, because otherwise how is that in there? Wow... never buy an SSD or SSD lineage (Micron 5x00, all Marvell) which didn't get three or more firmware updates, and updates are publicly available. Because the bugs in there will knock your socks off.

 

[DarkServant]

Finally i got the sm883 (HXM7904Q) and pm883 (HXT7904Q) firmwares....
Updatetool and FW-Files

usage: ssdmanager.exe -d <disknumber> -AF -p <path to bin file>


PS: thanks for nothing Samsung!

 

[mrpasc]

Great finding and thanks for sharing.
By any chance, does your source offer firmware for the PM863 and/or PM863a too?

 

[Cheddar Poster]

Finally i got the sm883 (HXM7904Q) and pm883 (HXT7904Q) firmwares....
Updatetool and FW-Files

How did you obtain these files, by the way? I just bought some HPE-branded PM883s and was hoping to find firmware for them.

 

[DarkServant]

By any chance, does your source offer firmware for the PM863 and/or PM863a too?

Sorry, i am looking too for these files. The other (rather risky) option is force-flash truncated dell firmware.
The one stock fw i have too is an JXTC304Q for the pm893.

How did you obtain these files, by the way? I just bought some HPE-branded PM883s and was hoping to find firmware for them.

By pure luck, after searching hours of hours over years. Several attempts trying to contact samsung which was completely hopeless.
Some i found on an FTP server (updatetool) and the firmware was on the Fujitsu server support/download site, but only the two fw's which are unmodified.
I dont know if this firmware works with branded drives.

I want to help all those people out there which are left alone with their "planet first" SSD's, and really reduce e-waste.

 

[mrpasc]

How did you obtain these files, by the way? I just bought some HPE-branded PM883s and was hoping to find firmware for them.

if you have HPE branded ones, why not use the HPE provided Firmware? Can be optained at their download site after creating an account (for free).

I want to help all those people out there which are left

You did, indeed. 6 SM883 and 4 PM883 got fresh firmware thanks to your help.

 

[Cheddar Poster]

if you have HPE branded ones, why not use the HPE provided Firmware? Can be optained at their download site after creating an account (for free).

Oh, you're right. I looked on HPE's site the other day and they only provided a .vmexe, but I must have been looking at the wrong page because there's an .rpm that I should be able to use under RHEL. (Link for reference.)

 

[Cheddar Poster]

As an update, I ended up using a different HPE firmware package (link) after searching for the disk model shown by fdisk -l, MK000960GWSSD. I was able to update from HPG1 and HPG0 to HPG3 in a few seconds by following the "Updating firmware without installing the rpm" option in the HPE instructions. Works on Ubuntu despite the instructions listing only RHEL and SLES as compatible. No HPE login needed.

 

[DarkServant]

I added some files to the share. But some FW's like the pm883: hxt7a04q or the pm983: eda5502q are from an unknown source. Use them at your own risk. I dont know how much the included encryption of the fw-files protect the contained information from modifications.

 

[mrpasc]

Please note: there are PM883 and PM983 (among others) available with different feature set: SED capable and Non-SED capable! hxt7a04q is ONLY for SED PM883, EDA5602Q is only for SED PM983. Those self encryptions versions are very seldom seen in grey market. Mostly used for NetApp HCI (assume the firmware is from their storage firmware bundle).
Do not try to flash that firmware to a non-SED drive. You will brick it!

 

[fohdeesha]

Great finding and thanks for sharing.
By any chance, does your source offer firmware for the PM863 and/or PM863a too?

here's working and tested latest fw using dell as a source for PM863a: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/pm863-fw-file.18084/#post-352553

 

[mrpasc]

Thx!

 

[DarkServant]

...added Firmware GXM5304Q for the sm863a Series

And you have to check for yourself with the compatibility, but in most cases they are SED capable "General TCG" (looks like the number in the firmware before Q has to be the same)

 

[bluestang]

...added Firmware GXM5304Q for the sm863a Series

And you have to check for yourself with the compatibility, but in most cases they are SED capable "General TCG" (looks like the number in the firmware before Q has to be the same)

So I just picked up 6 of the SM863a 480GB of eBay for some projects that need high endurance drives on the cheap. I'm doing 2.5-3.0TB writes per day to the drive. The FW on these 6 drives is GXM50M3Q (also matches the label FW) and all of them MFG'ed in 2017.

Can I assume that flashing this GXM5304Q FW to them should be fine? I don't use or need SED. Doing a little bit of research seems that the 960GB only had the GXM5304Q?

 

[ano]

honestly, never had issues with any of the FWS' on sm863 or sm863a,we have quite a lot of them

 

[bluestang]

honestly, never had issues with any of the FWS' on sm863 or sm863a,we have quite a lot of them

So just leave the FW as received then?

 

[DarkServant]

The "M" or other alphanumerical values instead of the "0" means Vendor (like Dell, HP, Lenovo and dozen others), therefore i am not sure if it works...
And the value before the Vendor is the FW-Version/Revision.

A lot of issues are rare and only happen under specific circumstances but some of them can be harmful, sadly i dont have any changelog of this model. If you look at the documents in the pm1733 & pm893 folder you got some insight that the updates are not without reason.

If possible its better to use different manufacturers in an array using the same drive class (e.g. 2 Drive Mirror with samsung pm897 & intel d3-s4620)

 

[10baggerclub]

Please note: there are PM883 and PM983 (among others) available with different feature set: SED capable and Non-SED capable! hxt7a04q is ONLY for SED PM883, EDA5602Q is only for SED PM983. Those self encryptions versions are very seldom seen in grey market. Mostly used for NetApp HCI (assume the firmware is from their storage firmware bundle).
Do not try to flash that firmware to a non-SED drive. You will brick it!

Not true... most of the PM883 on ebay are mostly SED version. If the original FW (as printed on the label) ends with 4Q, that means SED. 3Q=non-SED