Storage Solutions Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD Failure - Anyone Else Facing This Issue?

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panther

Forerunner
Hello everyone,

I hope you're all doing well. I wanted to share my experience with the Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD and seek some input from the community regarding a recent issue I've encountered.

I purchased the Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD about three months ago, and it was performing brilliantly.had the latest firmware installed, and it was working seamlessly. However, just a few days ago, my SSD suddenly failed.

I've tried various troubleshooting steps, including checking the connections, ,and even using different Slot, but nothing seems to work. It's incredibly frustrating, especially considering that it's a high-end SSD and has not been subjected to any physical damage or extreme conditions.

I've already reached out to Samsung's customer support, and they are in the process of assisting me with the issue. However, I wanted to ask if anyone else in this community has faced a similar problem with their Samsung 980 Pro SSD, especially with the latest firmware version installed. I'm curious if this is a widespread issue or just an isolated case.

If you've encountered a similar problem with your Samsung 980 Pro SSD, please share your experience and let me know if you were able to resolve it or if Samsung provided you with a replacement or refund. I'm eager to know how Samsung has been handling such issues and what kind of support and replacement options they offer. Your insights and experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your input, and I hope we can gather some valuable information and solutions to help those who might be dealing with this unfortunate situation.
 
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I've had 3 or 4 Samsung SSDs, most of them were SATA and I think one was NVMe/M.2. They all became slow, either out of the box or over time, I got replacements for them a few times from my dealer without issues and did not ask for a refund, these were all bought offline from my long term dealer so that may have played a part in getting hassle free replacements. These issues concerned me though there was no failure of the drives so I have stopped buying Samsung SSDs. I don't recommend them. Of course others may have different thoughts. I did not directly deal with Samsung.
 
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panther said:
Hello everyone,

I hope you're all doing well. I wanted to share my experience with the Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD and seek some input from the community regarding a recent issue I've encountered.

I purchased the Samsung 980 Pro 1TB SSD about three months ago, and it was performing brilliantly.had the latest firmware installed, and it was working seamlessly. However, just a few days ago, my SSD suddenly failed.

I've tried various troubleshooting steps, including checking the connections, ,and even using different Slot, but nothing seems to work. It's incredibly frustrating, especially considering that it's a high-end SSD and has not been subjected to any physical damage or extreme conditions.

I've already reached out to Samsung's customer support, and they are in the process of assisting me with the issue. However, I wanted to ask if anyone else in this community has faced a similar problem with their Samsung 980 Pro SSD, especially with the latest firmware version installed. I'm curious if this is a widespread issue or just an isolated case.

If you've encountered a similar problem with your Samsung 980 Pro SSD, please share your experience and let me know if you were able to resolve it or if Samsung provided you with a replacement or refund. I'm eager to know how Samsung has been handling such issues and what kind of support and replacement options they offer. Your insights and experiences would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your input, and I hope we can gather some valuable information and solutions to help those who might be dealing with this unfortunate situation.
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I believe this was one of the SKUs affected by bad firmware, maybe a year or so back? But if you had flashed the latest firmware already that issue should've been fixed for you.

www.pcgamer.com

An error in Samsung's 980 Pro firmware is causing SSDs to die. I'd check your drive right now tbh

Update or say goodbye to your Samsung SSD. If only that was the only issue affecting its drives today, but...
www.pcgamer.com www.pcgamer.com
www.tomshardware.com

Samsung Issues Fix for Dying 980 Pro SSDs

Download the firmware fix ASAP if your 980 Pro is affected
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com
 
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I've had a 1TB 970 EVO fail a few months ago, it didn't die completely as yours did but the system reported a failed SMART report and Samsung's own software marked it as dead. I haven't RMA'ed it yet since there's still some years left in warranty. As far as I know, the 970 EVO didn't have the firmware issues that the other models did so it's all a bit strange.
 
Electronics fail no matter how reputed a brand is. My Sabrent 1TB TLC failed in about a year whereas my Kingston 240GB QLC is chugging along after 6 years, and even older Samsung Evo 840 120GB is doing fine as well
 
rsaeon said:
I've had a 1TB 970 EVO fail a few months ago, it didn't die completely as yours did but the system reported a failed SMART report and Samsung's own software marked it as dead. I haven't RMA'ed it yet since there's still some years left in warranty. As far as I know, the 970 EVO didn't have the firmware issues that the other models did so it's all a bit strange.
Click to expand...
I have two 970 Evo+ drives at the moment. The newer one (Manufactured in 2023) still uses the original Phoenix controller and the other (Manufactured in 2021) has an Elpis controller from the 980 Pro.
It seems that during COVID, they swapped some components (might be limited to some batches as the recently manufactured drive still uses the original controller). You can refer to this Reddit thread for more details.

Some personal observations:
- The firmware of both drives are up to date in Samsung Magician but displayed versions are different (Ref attached pic).
- The Phoenix based 970 Evo+ runs hotter. The observed temps are similar to a PM981a (OEM equivalent of 970 Evo+ and also Phoenix based).
- Some are reporting that the Elpis based 970 Evo+ runs hotter but that's not true in my case (Both at idle as a boot drive and under sustained write).
- The Elpis based 970 Evo+ benchmarks are practically identical to a 980 Pro installed in a PCIe Gen3 slot. It has a nearly 3x larger write cache but after it fills, the write speed is like 40% slower compared to Phoenix based drive.
- The Elpis based drive was bought used and had a small number of media integrity errors. After I updated the firmware, the error count did not increase and it has been rock solid for about 10 months now.

I am suspecting that the Elpis based 970 Evo+ units which shared components and firmware code with the 980 Pro might have also been affected.
 

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panther said:
Update:

Samsung is not even answering about refund and to make matter worse no word on data recovery.

Pathetic support.
Click to expand...
Data recovery is never provided by disk manufacturer unless explicitly stated in the product description like seagate does nowadays for its portable drives. Replacement is always the first option & many times the only option if the same/equivalent model is still in production.

rsaeon said:
I've had a 1TB 970 EVO fail a few months ago, it didn't die completely as yours did but the system reported a failed SMART report and Samsung's own software marked it as dead. I haven't RMA'ed it yet since there's still some years left in warranty. As far as I know, the 970 EVO didn't have the firmware issues that the other models did so it's all a bit strange.
Click to expand...
Were you regularly checking its temps via software like crystaldiskinfo? It is quite easy for 970 evo plus to reach 60-70C temps under load & in not so good/avg airflow environment.
 
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panther said:
It also failed
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DOA? Two ssd to fail in such short time! Let us know where you installed these drives? Was is new drive that you received, manufacturing date on sticker would help to know the batch.
Regardless, hope you get a refund at this point, but I don't think it would be easy without a fight. The only time I got any refund from Samsung was to return the product to the retailer, cause the service center were only providing replacement option after two weeks worth of back and forths...
 
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panther said:
Update:

Received a new Samsung 980 Pro 1TB, and guess what? It also failed. I hope they will give me a refund this time.
Click to expand...
You will not get refund unless extremely lucky, best you can get is a credit note from samsung. Also, two drive failures in such short time is not normal so like mentioned above do check where you are installing these drives & if possible change the location (like nvme slot on mobo) or check with some other brand cheap ssd whether it works fine for some days/weeks in that same slot where these drives failed.
 
panther said:
Update:

Received a new Samsung 980 Pro 1TB, and guess what? It also failed. I hope they will give me a refund this time.
Click to expand...
You haven't mentioned the source from where you bought it.
What are your system specs and whats your use case scenario.

I have same drive and since past 2 yrs haven't upgraded its firmware, in fact I have never upgraded firmware of any of my ssds or hdds as most of the such updates have resulted in a disaster as per reviews. And cannot risk with data at any cost!
 
guest_999 said:
You will not get refund unless extremely lucky, best you can get is a credit note from samsung. Also, two drive failures in such short time is not normal so like mentioned above do check where you are installing these drives & if possible change the location (like nvme slot on mobo) or check with some other brand cheap ssd whether it works fine for some days/weeks in that same slot where these drives failed.
Click to expand...
I have already mention in my original post that i have tested the drive extensively,changing slots and etc. Plus the drive also failed on the Service's center PC. So it is the Drive not my PC.
nRiTeCh said:
You haven't mentioned the source from where you bought it.
What are your system specs and whats your use case scenario.

I have same drive and since past 2 yrs haven't upgraded its firmware, in fact I have never upgraded firmware of any of my ssds or hdds as most of the such updates have resulted in a disaster as per reviews. And cannot risk with data at any cost!
Click to expand...
Purchased from Amazon.in

AMD 3700x Ryzen
Gigabyte X570 Aorus pro
Alucard1729 said:
DOA? Two ssd to fail in such short time! Let us know where you installed these drives? Was is new drive that you received, manufacturing date on sticker would help to know the batch.
Regardless, hope you get a refund at this point, but I don't think it would be easy without a fight. The only time I got any refund from Samsung was to return the product to the retailer, cause the service center were only providing replacement option after two weeks worth of back and forths...
Click to expand...
Purchased drive Date: Oct 2023

Replacement Drive Date May 2023

Both from same batch :(
 
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Update:

After a month of asking about refund CS is replying with similar Answer and need more time. My money is stuck and my data gone.

Thinking about taking a Legal approach. But i just cannot take A giant Corporate Like Samsung to court.
 
panther said:
Update:

After a month of asking about refund CS is replying with similar Answer and need more time. My money is stuck and my data gone.

Thinking about taking a Legal approach. But i just cannot take A giant Corporate Like Samsung to court.
Click to expand...
did you try to file a complaint in consumer court regarding this?
 
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panther said:
Thinking about taking a Legal approach. But i just cannot take A giant Corporate Like Samsung to court.
Click to expand...
You don't need to, just file a complaint in consumer court & if you are lucky maybe samsung won't even bother sending someone to represent them judging it will cost them more (because they are such giant corporate so can't just send anyone but an expensive lawyer to represent themselves) & case will be decided in your favour by default (happened to someone recently where after amazon did not send anyone to represent them for 2 years in a case involving amazonpay card cashback the customer was awarded the victory even though there was no real legal basis because cashback/reward points are not something you can "buy" so you can't be a "customer" in this regard unlike card txn failure/reversal etc).
 
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panther said:
Although i am aware of Consumer Court, i am worried about other expenseve like lawyer and etc in that amount i could buy a entire new PC.
Click to expand...
you can file an online complaint that is free, if it goes to court then you might need a lawyer.
mostly these companies don't even appear in court and the judgment is made ex parte (without opposition) so yeah if you want then go ahead

this yt vid will answer all your major queries for starters -
 
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