https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-980-pro-ssd-failures-firmware-update?utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_content=tomsguide&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR2VGXDde2zFN_A3lGle6M2WhlhTI4h-XNgZg4BbcuJTj3MpWco2Kj6dCIM
 
Over the past few months, there have been numerous reports of Samsung 980 Pro SSD failures, with many complaints originating from China. We never heard an official statement from Samsung on the matter, but custom PC builder Puget Systems definitely took notice after it "received a surprising number of reports of failing Samsung drives." Puget worked with Samsung to identify the problem, and now Samsung has issued new firmware for affected 980 Pro SSDs.

According to Puget, the failures traced back to the 3B2QGXA7 firmware and primarily affect 2TB versions of the 980 Pro (although lower capacities are not entirely immune). Puget doesn't detail the cause of the failures, but Reddit user reports suggest that the SSDs report a S.M.A.R.T. value of 0E (media and integrity error) or greater in CrystalMark or AIDA64. In addition, an 03 value (available spare) lower than 100 percent may also be reported. It's recommended to use the Samsung SSD Magician software to scan the drive for errors if the 03 or 0E value is out of spec.

"The newest one is one of the 2TB ones. Over 2000 errors already," reported user RaXelliX on Reddit. "And the middle one 2TB has already failed with over 32,000 errors and is locked to read only mode. I fully expect the two others to fail soon too."

"Bought a 2TB 980 Pro in February of this year and installed it a few months later in May. Manufactured August 2021," added Meme_Attack in a separate Reddit thread. "Lasted a grand total of 4 months before I noticed Media Errors ballooning from 300 to 6,000+ after a full Samsung Magician scan. Also found 9 red blocks through the same scan. Lost 5% of available spare, drive's at 95% as I speak. 4.1 TB written. Super careful and light use." 
 
So, what happens if your drive reports abnormal 0E or 03 values? Well, it usually means that your 980 Pro is on a one-way ticket to an early death. According to Puget, the most common issue that users face is that the SSD goes into read-only mode. Given that most users have their OS installed on the SSD, read-only access makes the boot drive unusable. Unfortunately, once your 980 Pro goes into this failure state, there is no way to recover your data, even with the firmware update.

However, the new firmware update from Samsung will prevent the failures from occurring in the first place if your drive is still functioning. So, if you have a 980 Pro running the 3B2QGXA7 firmware, you'll want to update to the newest firmware (5B2QGXA7) using the Samsung SSD Magician software(opens in new tab) ASAP. It should be noted that 980 Pro SSDs running the 4B2QGXA7 or 5B2QGXA7 firmware are not affected by this issue.

Puget Systems customers who have already experienced a Samsung 980 Pro SSD failure or have problems using the Samsung SSD Magician software can contact the company for guidance. All other 980 Pro users would need to reach out to their respective system builder or contact Samsung directly(opens in new tab) if the SSD was bought from a third party.
 
Anyone with a Samsung 980 Pro should take action ASAP in my personal opinion. 

I find this to be a bit suspicious. Either there was some sort of sabotage, or a cost cutting venture going on with either Samsung, Puget or the supplier/manufacturing in CNY. Every single one of my 980 Pro drives ordered directly from Newegg was Made In Korea. Good to know, send any of the CNY mfg chips back immediately.

yaymz

oldfresh
I find this to be a bit suspicious. Either there was some sort of sabotage, or a cost cutting venture going on with either Samsung, Puget or the supplier/manufacturing in CNY. Every single one of my 980 Pro drives ordered directly from Newegg was Made In Korea. Good to know, send any of the CNY mfg chips back immediately.

I'm not sure that the affected SSD's were necessarily MFG'd in China.  The article just says that reports initially came from China.  Best to probably just check the firmware version and update if needed. 

It looks like the impacted batches were VN and CNY origin during 8/21 dates. The first drives I got were on the 4B2QGXA7 firmware, but everything after the 8/21 date on the KR batch was on the 5B2QGXA7 firmware so there was no need to update since then. I would also not be surprised if Puget users were not aware of the Samsung Magician software to update their firmware. I'll check the firmware on the 990 Pro when that comes in in the Magician software, but would just return them if they were a batch from a known origin with mfg issues.

Nereus
 
I have several 980 Pro m.2 drives, although only 500GB or 1TB versions, but zero issues with any of them. Also a 990 Pro 1TB which I have not used yet. I'll check for firmware updates to be sure. 32,000 reports is a lot, although relative to the many millions of these drives they sell, it's a small percentage (not trying to make excuses though).
 
edit: I have the 3B2QGXA7 firmware   ..updating now.
 

That is frightening lol. I think I would turn ice cold if I saw the drive was on the botched firmware. You seem to be handling it well Can you run a diagnostic scan after the update? Do you have any info on the impacted drive mfg origin and date?

Hoggle

Nereus
I have several 980 Pro m.2 drives, although only 500GB or 1TB versions, but zero issues with any of them. Also a 990 Pro 1TB which I have not used yet. I'll check for firmware updates to be sure. 32,000 reports is a lot, although relative to the many millions of these drives they sell, it's a small percentage (not trying to make excuses though).
 
edit: I have the 3B2QGXA7 firmware   ..updating now.

When it comes to my data one failure is too many. It’s scary for me since I often try to pick the same brand on drives but now I am wondering if I shouldn’t mix things up in case a firmware issue was to instead of one line effect multiple products from a brand. I would have thought two 980’s with one mirroring would be an effective data backup but this really makes me question that.

Yup same concerns. My usual setup is a primary o/s drive (usually 500GB m.2), larger second m.2 drive for games / scratch disc etc., then 2 drives in raid1 for data and files I don't want to lose. I also do manual backups of that data drive every few weeks on an external drive.
 
My new build will have a 1TB primary drive (990 Pro m.2) which will include games - hoping that will be enough space, and then 2 x 2.5" 870 EVO SSDs in raid1 for data. I'm still considering having a 2nd m.2 drive for games instead of all of it on the 990 Pro, since I'll have a spare 980 Pro m.2...
 
I've used a number of different brands over the years, but Samsung have proven most reliable SSDs, and WD Blacks for mech drives, although I don't use mechanical drives anymore. I've only had one WD drive fail on me - it was a 2TB WD Black.
 
 

Luckily for me both my Samsung 980 Pro's were already using the 5B2QGXA7 firmware.  A 500GB and a 1TB models.

Articles are saying that a new firmware has been released to fix this problem.
 
I finally figured out that I updated to version 5B2QGXA7 February of 2022 with a new version of Samsung Magician.
I even found Reddit posts where others said they did the same thing a year ago and wanted to know what was new.
 
WTH is going on? This firmware is a year old.

tsmooth
BEWARE:
 
I have a 980 Pro 2TB and I did the firmware update last night which claimed to work successfully and I used the computer a bit after installing and rebooting. Came home from work this afternoon to a bricked "readonly" drive. The firmware is not fully fixing the issue or perhaps once some threshold of the issue is hit, even though it's working, it will still fail. Can't wait to have fun getting this replaced :(
 
Good luck to the rest of you with these drives.

Hopefully this is not a widespread phenomenon since going read only would not many anyone happy. Samsung has always been a great SSD brand but now I am starting to consider other brands more not just because of the price difference but because of the fear of reliability.