SAMSUNG 256 gb SSD Firmware Update for Windows 7 TRIM?

Hi Rowan,

I did the same thing as you and got my drive firmware updated to finally support TRIM. But I haven't seen a huge increase in the CrystalDiskMark test. Not back to new standard at least, but an incremental increase though.

The windows experience score has gone back up to 7,3 which is good, but I still dont feel I an getting all that I should out of the TRIM function.

What is your experience?

How can I make sure TRIM is actually working in the background?

And what about the Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver (according to this post) Do I need to update that as well?

This will be me signing off guys.

The new firmware is there for those with VBM19 onwards. For those of us unlucky ones, there are earlier threads on how to get a replacement drive. Mine came today - which I flashed to latest VBM25, system is rebuilt and now hasTRIM, plus I installed Intel RST. Stats are better, will see whether an overnight idle improves even further.

Mixed feeling on the forums - DELL input has been shocking (aka absent), but the feedback from you guys with similar problems I think has helped all of us find ways through this. Cheers for that.

TT

- R

My last post was also removed because, apparently, mysteriously, it also violated the terms of service.  Yet still no response from Dell about the technical issues we are discussing.  Origin PC next time.

Hi T-

Upon enabling Trim, my  WEI jumped to 7.3 and the ssd now benchmark reported about a 15% gain in overall performance.

There are ways to find out if your TRIM is working, see: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=86403

With regard to RST, I'm not sure it will boost ur performance anymore. I intend to run an SSD bench every week or so just to monitor performance. IF it does drop, I will considered RST, but until then, I assume there's nothing more to do.... IF you do install RST, let me know what your experience is. Would be interesting to see what happens to the WEI and an SSD bench!

Regards

Ro

Hi Rob

Many thanks for starting and keeping the forum going. Which RST did you download exactly? could you please send me the link...

Has the RST helped at all?

Thanks, Ro

The RST is needed to pass the trim command to your ssd, the old matrix storage manager will not pass the trim command sent by windows 7 to your ssd.

Does anyone know whether the new ssd firmware will execute the trim command sent by windows 7 or if the new firmware operates a background garbage collection?

I previously had fw - VBM24D1Q which confirmed by samsung had background garbage collection which operated when the system was idle and did not execute the trim command set by windows 7. Crystal disk info showed the drive had trim with this old fw.

I now have the new fw - VBM25D1Q and crystal disk info also confirms trim but i don't know whether it still operated the idle background garbage collection or whether it now executes the trim command sent by windows 7?

Any advise will be much appreciated.

James

Help! Okay, so I'm a bit of a newbie and I'm improving this computer for someone. I've seen the new firmware updates...which one do I need? It seems that none of them apply to VBM19D1Q.

And do I have to do all that 'boot from USB' stuff if I want to do the firmware update? Why can't I just run the update like all other updates?

Thanks, I'm just scared to mess up this computer. The CDI:

Also, I thought I uninstalled the old Matrix Storage Manager, but for some reason during startup there's a screen that still says it...any clue why?

I have a problem: I followed everything Rowan said with the bootable USB drive, etc. I successfully installed the new firmware. Now, however, after  it was installed, I turned off the computer, removed the USB stick, and went to reconfigure my BIOS (AHCI back to IRRT, Diskette at top of boot order, etc). I closed the BIOS configuration to start the computer, only to get "No boot sector on Internal HDD (IRRT)...No bootable devices"

What do I do?!?! 

Apologies for slow replys - I've unsubscribed from email alerts, so only check back in occasionally.

• RowanSA - you need Intel RST 9.6 (link I used below). I did the update from the VBM24 on the replacement disk DELL sent first, then restored my system, then ran the Intel installer. Needed a double reboot to fully install, aside from that  was very easy

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=2101&DwnldID=18859&lang=eng

• vanrijnthewalrus- screenshot says you are n VBM191DQ. From memory, the new VBM25 can be applied to update this version, I think it's only VBM151DQ that physically can't be updated. Just make sure you have 2 copies of a full disk backup before you start.

Oh - and just saw your later post:

I have a problem: I followed everything Rowan said with the bootable USB drive, etc. I successfully installed the new firmware. Now, however, after  it was installed, I turned off the computer, removed the USB stick, and went to reconfigure my BIOS (AHCI back to IRRT, Diskette at top of boot order, etc). I closed the BIOS configuration to start the computer, only to get "No boot sector on Internal HDD (IRRT)...No bootable devices"

Boy I hope you took those 2 backups!

That's exactly what should happen after the upgrade - your HDD has been wiped by the upgrade, so you now need to recover/restore your backup as appropriate to whatever tool you backed up with.  Once that is done, you should be whole again and reboot.

Is anyone else as appalled as I am about Dell's writeup on purely stylistic and grammatical grounds:

"This FW is for optimize (sic) SSD performance"

“DEVICE MUST BE PLUGGED IN AT ALL TIMES DURING THE FIRMWARE UPDATE PROCESS OR ELSE DEVICE MAY BE PERMANENTLY DAMAGED AND RENDERED INOPERABLE.? (sic)"

It is one thing to reproduce Samsung's writeup almost verbatim. Quite another to transcribe it into English not even as good as their's. This is not the way a world-class company is supposed to communicate to it's customers.

Hello everyone :)

I have the Samsung SSD PM800 256GB installed on my computer. The firmware is VBM24D1Q.

Should I upgrade the firmware to the one listed on Dell's support site? Will there be any optimisation done on my SSD?

Another qn, should I decide to upgrade the firmware, how would I be able to restore my computer back to factory state? Currently the image is on my computer under Dell DataSafe Local Backup Basic Edition, if I proceed to upgrade the firmware, I would lose this image. How can I go about doing it?

Thanks!

God I'm terrible at this whole forum thing...

Anyway, I have this same SSD (taken out of a Dell) in my Lenovo Thinkpad W510 with firmware VBM19D1Q.  Does anybody know if this same process suggested by Rowan will work for me as well, or is it specifically for Dells?

i have the 'bad drive,'  the VBM15D1Q.  if anyone has any suggestions, or details of what i should do, please friend me so that we may discuss further.