Samsung’s top-of-the-line NVMe SSD (Solid-State Drive), the 990 Pro, has been hit by a health-harming pandemic that has led many frustrated users to turn to the Internet for help as their expensive SSD’s health scores drop quickly.
Due to a drop in capacity, the 1TB and 2TB SSDs would no longer be fully functional. Several users have already reported this without necessarily filling the whole disc.
While the M.2 solid-state drives are reporting rapid degradation, some users have been sending their 990 Pros back to Samsung. And for the older 980 Pro, Samsung is reportedly recommending owners update to the latest firmware.
“Stands behind the quality of its SSDs, including the new NVMe M.2 SSD 990 PRO,” the company said in a statement. However, it admitted that it was aware of some examples of health decline and pledged to look into them.
The issue was first reported by Neowin writer Robbie Khan, whose recently released 990 Pro 2TB module dropped to 94% health status at just over 4TB of written data. Robbie Khan also posted the findings on Reddit, which was met with owners voicing similar issues.
As per the reports from ‘The Verge’, Robbie Khan decided to file a ticket with Samsung to get this resolved. Details sent to the company included the health and read/write values of the drive using CrystalDiskInfo (a program that can read the SMART data embedded in most hard disks). The drive was sent to Samsung RMA but was subsequently returned by the company which also claimed about finding no defects.
After the Neowin article came out, Samsung RMA offered to replace and test the SSD, but it was already returned to the store. Other owners are experiencing similar cases, including ExtremeTech writer Ryan Whitwam, whose 1TB Samsung 990 Pro dropped to 93% health at just over 2TB of written data.
A Twitter user claimed that the individual’s 2TB 990 Pro is down to only 64% health with just over 2TB of written data.
One moderator on Samsung’s community page did, however, hint that a fix is coming soon. But, unfortunately, the company hasn’t made an official statement or released any further information about the 990-Pro problem.
AlwinS responded to a user who claimed their health had declined over two months, “The development department coworkers have already noticed the behaviour. We are looking into the suspicious activity and will let you know if we find anything. We’re sorry if using the Samsung 990 PRO causes you any discomfort.”
DavidB, another forum administrator, says that a possible problem has been found because Samsung’s experts made the error happen “under certain conditions of use.”
DavidB added, “Samsung is anticipated to release a software upgrade in February to address the issue.”
Even though many people are disappointed that such a well-known brand let them down, the turnaround time for this specific issue is expected to be around a month from notification to patch.
News of SSD failure comes at a time when Samsung witnesses an almost 69 drop in quarterly operating profits as its memory chip business took a hit due to falling prices stemming from oversupply and falling demand.