Firmware package for Samsung SM883/MZ7KH3T8HALS

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Stephan

Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
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@DarkServant Yes, to be an informed buyer and because I like stuff that lasts for 10-30 years, I went the extra mile and gauged overprovision ratios of models that interested me. Based on PCB pictures that I found on Yandex Images of all places. What happened, Google... TLC flash can only endure 3,000 or 1,000 writes. So they stuff the SSDs with 150%+ nominal capacity. Nuts. And no thanks. No wonder the datasheets are all "confidential". What yer hidin'? The switch from SMD tantalum to electrolytics also caught my eye. Maybe they were thinking, hey why make electronics that can last two decades, when all spare flash cells will be used up after 3-5 years? I also read what @10baggerclub cited from HPE changelogs and was pleased to see tame fixes only. In context of many years of service and I would guess millions of devices sold.

Edit: Do you really think thermal pads are necessary? I touched the SSDs while writing them from start to finish and they got barely "lukewarm".
 
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pimposh

hardware pimp
Nov 19, 2022
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Stephan, the reality is that these drives are used in large numbers to make money. More money than enthusiasts in home labs can usually afford.

As long as they can withstand the nominal TBW during the warranty period, they're fine. It's just business. Crazy longevity isn't really a factor here, given how fast the amount of data on DCs is growing these days.

At some point they just have to be replaced with higher capacity drives, and that's been happening for years. Why do you think the Chinese market is flooded with parted-out drives (unfortunately often with hacked TBW/SMART data) ?

Tant caps - apart from environmental policy and high prices, they have their own drawbacks. Unfortunately, they tend to lose their nominal values as a function of temperature. So using tants may not be a viable solution in XXX layer nand chip applications that just get hotter and hotter these days.

The way they (tants) break down is also a design factor that is sometimes considered. Fireballs aren't really needed for anyone running XXX drives in a row, as this could create additional DC environment problems apart from drive failure. Not to mention that tants tend to crack (drive dropped to the floor, quite often can gone dead, learned it hard way).

I do understand your perspective and fully get it. However all we can do is to choose lesser evil. Business never cared about retired equipment nor individuals.
 
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DarkServant

Member
Apr 5, 2022
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Stephan said:
Edit: Do you really think thermal pads are necessary? I touched the SSDs while writing them from start to finish and they got barely "lukewarm".
Click to expand...
Huh, not really i think, but you have to read the SMART values, because there is barely any heat transfer to the casing (0,5-1mm airspace..). I saw on the pm9a3 that they added a lot of thermal-pads (Controller, DRAM, NAND, and even the PMIC), but i think it needs a FLIR thermal imaging to really see which components get hot, and an understanding in electronics ->which i don't really have. I don't know which components are heat sensitive and which are not (accelerated ageing etc.).

In case of the Tantalum/Niobium-MnO2 whatever capacitors i thinked that they last forever plus have some self-healing properties and the electrolytic ones are specified at a few thousand hours maximum (specific circumstances?) and dry out over time. But yeah i heard about troubles of stress cracks in MLCC caps.
If the Drives are only used 3-5 years thats nice, but if used longer, i dont' know. An old sv843 (2014) or other 960gb SATA SSD's are still useful today, and even new 1TB sata drives are sold, better use the old ones instead of the new stuff if possible.
 
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noriest

New Member
Jun 17, 2023
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pimposh said:
Patience is virtue. Lately i have none. One more try though.
Download Magician DC from link i've attached to previous post. Run cmd as administrator, run magician with -L switch. Post screenshot here.
Click to expand...
What do you mean by -L switch?
 
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mr44er

Active Member
Feb 22, 2020
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-00005 is from OEM/third party, some vendor. You could try to find firmware and flasher from maybe Lenovo? Check this: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-no-firmware-found-anywhere.28389/post-383011

Samsung Magician only works with Generic/directly from Samsung aka -00000 I think?
If you don't find info or indeed it's lenovo and they don't have firmware or you can't download it without service contract, it's dead end.
 
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N

noriest

New Member
Jun 17, 2023
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mr44er said:
-00005 is from OEM/third party, some vendor. You could try to find firmware and flasher from maybe Lenovo? Check this: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-no-firmware-found-anywhere.28389/post-383011

Samsung Magician only works with Generic/directly from Samsung aka -00000 I think?
If you don't find info or indeed it's lenovo and they don't have firmware or you can't download it without service contract, it's dead end.
Click to expand...
I think it needs another device to flash it
In another Forum they use LSI controller
I just wandering if someone here is manage to fix this issues on pm883 3.8tb
 
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DarkServant

Member
Apr 5, 2022
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noriest said:
I think it needs another device to flash it
In another Forum they use LSI controller
I just wandering if someone here is manage to fix this issues on pm883 3.8tb
Click to expand...
This should work on nearly any sata controller, at least one of the three tools... DCToolkit, Magician DC or SSDManager (cmd run as admin, probably not in the system root or better another drive). If not, use a live linux and force it with hdparm.
MagicianDC has a parameter -E for trying to escape error mode, or try powercycling.
Can be a bit tricky and time consuming.

PS: Or an secret ancient etruskian bit manipulation prayer ...only works on lunar eclipse :rolleyes:
 
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cyberjock

New Member
Jul 15, 2017
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So I bought some more Samsung PM883 SSDs. The first set have a not-yet-available version (HXT7B04Q). The set I just received have HXT7904Q. In the folder shared by DarkServant, there's the obvious HXT7904Q.bin file. There's also the HXT7A04Q_NF.bin. Anyone know what the NF stands for?

I feel like I should upgrade, but I'd like to know what NF really means before I upgrade. I'd prefer not to brick my new SSDs. :p
 
T

TraderFX

New Member
Sep 10, 2023
1
0
1
DarkServant said:
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!
Click to expand...
Thank you @DarkServant for finding and posting the SM883 firmware.

I have 2 "Samsung SM883 3.84TB MZ7KH3T8HALS-00005" basically new, "Total written" only 200GB and 2GB, "Power on time" 1250 days, "Health and Performance": 100 %. Both with Firmware Version "HXM7304Q".

I performed a complete f3write and f3read tests using an (SSD Enclosure with USB-C 3.1, hdparm speed test says 410MB/s) with the results:

Average writing speed: 309.32 MB/s and 309.30 MB/s
Average reading speed: 421.27 MB/s and 421.18 MB/s

After that, I installed the New Firmware: "HXM7904Q"

# hdparm --fwdownload HXM7904Q.bin --yes-i-know-what-i-am-doing --please-destroy-my-drive /dev/sdf

And I performed again a complete f3write and f3read test with the results:

Average writing speed: 308.23 MB/s and 307.96 MB/s
Average reading speed: 412.82 MB/s and 412.36 MB/s

Seems that the new firmware decreases speed by ~1 MB/s for writing and ~9 MB/s for reading (using this enclosure with USB 3.1, maybe the SATA will be faster, but is possible to see the difference).

For me no problem since I hope the new firmware fixed some issue. My concern is to confirm that the SDDs are 100% reliable. Now, after the tests, the Total written is 8 TB, and Health/Performance is still 100%.

I hope this simple comparison before/after the firmware update can help anyone.

Thank you again.
 
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powerstroke

New Member
Sep 20, 2021
15
0
1
Does anyone know which vendor the PM983 MZ1LB1T9HALS-00AFB is from or have firmware for it? I'm ready to return these things and never buy Samsung drives again. I've never had such a difficult time trying to update the firmware on something.
 
Stephan

Stephan

Well-Known Member
Apr 21, 2017
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There is one google cache link to shopee.tw that suggestes 00AFB stands for Facebook and devices have different overprovisioning settings to extend lifespan.
 
J

John T Davis

New Member
Nov 19, 2022
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1
3
This is my first time buying used enterprise Samsung SSDs, and it might well be the last. :p DC Toolkit can see them and report TBW. (Annoyingly, smartctl doesn't seem to be able to report TBW? Is anyone else seeing that?)

I have SM 883 drives that report as MZ7LH1T9HMLT-000AZ with firmware HXT73W3Q, so they're apparently some sort of OEM version (even though they weren't sold that way). Amazon, maybe?

Total Bytes Written on one is 5.27 TB, and on the other is 3.27 TB.

If I'm looking at this spec sheet ( MZ7LH1T9HMLT(1.92TB) | SSD | Samsung Semiconductor USA ) and this calculator right, I think I got a good deal. :p

Capacity (GB)1920
Warranty (yr.)3
DWPD1.3
TBW (TB)2733.120
TBW (PB)2.733
PBW2.733
GB/day2496

Should I try to flash the HXT7904Q version of the firmware, or leave it as is?
 
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M

mr44er

Active Member
Feb 22, 2020
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The TBW is mostly not the problem, the 'maybe dead-after x-power on hours'-bug is the thing to worry about.
If the specific model is affected by this firmware. If the firmware version is different from Facebook, you probably won't get the information. If you do nothing, you have a 50/50 chance of a possible time bomb without even knowing it. Then the SSD is suddenly dead. I would risk flashing it, even if that kills the SSD. (Most of the time an unsuitable firmware file is simply rejected and nothing else happens and that's why I think this is the lower risk). Take it purely as a consideration on my part, not as a recommendation. ;)
 
J

John T Davis

New Member
Nov 19, 2022
15
1
3
mr44er said:
The TBW is mostly not the problem, the 'maybe dead-after x-power on hours'-bug is the thing to worry about.
If the specific model is affected by this firmware. If the firmware version is different from Facebook, you probably won't get the information. If you do nothing, you have a 50/50 chance of a possible time bomb without even knowing it. Then the SSD is suddenly dead. I would risk flashing it, even if that kills the SSD. (Most of the time an unsuitable firmware file is simply rejected and nothing else happens and that's why I think this is the lower risk). Take it purely as a consideration on my part, not as a recommendation. ;)
Click to expand...
I think that's a very sensible approach. Thanks for your advice. :)

I'll try flashing them this weekend.
 
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bluestang

New Member
Mar 6, 2017
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mr44er said:
The TBW is mostly not the problem, the 'maybe dead-after x-power on hours'-bug is the thing to worry about.
Click to expand...
Is this specific to just the SM883 or other Samsung SSDs as well? I have some SM863a drives I want to put in service.
 
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