Samsung 840 PRO 128GB SSD Performance Issues

[Shisho2k]

A quick note: I have AHCI setup up, and running Vista so no TRIM available. It's also using SATA3.

I just got a new one of these drives. Right away it was running rather sluggish, so I went through all the optimizations that were recommended and got it running about where it's benchmarked to be at.

After shutting it down for the night, the next day it was running incredibly slow. I toggled those settings again, and it got back up to where it was before after restarting, but even slightly lower than before.

As the night went on it got even a little slower.

Here's two screenshots of the tests. (One after booting up and having the issue, and another after reconfiguring optimizations and restarting.)

*update*
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/Shisho2k/Archived/slowerwrite_zps1ba6aa2f.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/Shisho2k/Archived/normalspeed_zpsbc8be77b.jpg

I'm not really having a lot of luck finding specific information on this type of problem, and I don't know if I'm just ignorant of something or it's just a bad drive.

Totally thankful for any advice or ideas. ^_^

 

[Dereck47]

I don't own a Samsung SSD and so I don't use the Samsung Magician software, but it appears you're reading the benchmark wrong.

It appears that the software is testing all drives in your system. The 1st screenshot shows a WDC WD3200AAJS drive (D: drive).
That is a Western Digital 320GB Caviar Blue (8MB Cache) drive.

Do you have such a drive in your system?

The 2nd screenshot shows your Samsung 840 Pro. The benchmark results show that you are getting 100.007% advertised Sequential Reads and 97.6% of advertised Sequential Writes.

Your drive appears to be in excellent condition.

 

[Shisho2k]

/facepalm

I got my screenshots mixed up and doesn't look like I have the right one. >_<

Sorry about that. I'll have to see if it happens again. It's about midway on the bars though.

 

[Shisho2k]

I don't own a Samsung SSD and so I don't use the Samsung Magician software, but it appears you're reading the benchmark wrong.

It appears that the software is testing all drives in your system. The 1st screenshot shows a WDC WD3200AAJS drive (D: drive).
That is a Western Digital 320GB Caviar Blue (8MB Cache) drive.

Do you have such a drive in your system?

The 2nd screenshot shows your Samsung 840 Pro. The benchmark results show that you are getting 100.007% advertised Sequential Reads and 97.6% of advertised Sequential Writes.

Your drive appears to be in excellent condition.

Here we go: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/Shisho2k/Archived/slowerwrite_zps1ba6aa2f.jpg

It's write speed on the bottom test seems to be about half of what it usually gets when it's running at it's best. I'm not sure of the cause though.

(And yeah, I have some old drives in this computer too, in the process of moving data to this new machine.)

 

[Xega]

I don't own a Samsung SSD and so I don't use the Samsung Magician software, but it appears you're reading the benchmark wrong.

It appears that the software is testing all drives in your system. The 1st screenshot shows a WDC WD3200AAJS drive (D: drive).
That is a Western Digital 320GB Caviar Blue (8MB Cache) drive.

Do you have such a drive in your system?

The 2nd screenshot shows your Samsung 840 Pro. The benchmark results show that you are getting 100.007% advertised Sequential Reads and 97.6% of advertised Sequential Writes.

Your drive appears to be in excellent condition.

Here we go: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/Shisho2k/Archived/slowerwrite_zps1ba6aa2f.jpg

It's write speed on the bottom test seems to be about half of what it usually gets when it's running at it's best. I'm not sure of the cause though.

(And yeah, I have some old drives in this computer too, in the process of moving data to this new machine.)

It seems that this has to do with how the drive is doing background garbage collection, I have only seen this mentioned in one review so far (Tweak town link). It seems to kick in very easily and once it is done in about 30-40 minutes of idle time the performance returns to normal. All SSDs do this but most are programmed to only do their garbage collection and other maintenance tasks when the drive is idle, Samsung seems to be doing this anytime the drive needs it. It should be something that is easily fixed with a firmware update, but I have not seen any signs of a firmware update coming soon. The latest firmware (DXM04B0Q) was supposed to address this very issue but it seems it did not. I have seen multiple people posting this issue. I was going to buy this same drive but am leaning towards the OCZ Vector now since it is the same price on Amazon currently.

To fix your performance issues log out of the computer for one hour or so and leave it on at the log in screen. This will turn off many of the services that activate HD accesses. After that log back in and run the benchmark again, the performance should be back to baseline levels.

 

[Shisho2k]

I don't own a Samsung SSD and so I don't use the Samsung Magician software, but it appears you're reading the benchmark wrong.

It appears that the software is testing all drives in your system. The 1st screenshot shows a WDC WD3200AAJS drive (D: drive).
That is a Western Digital 320GB Caviar Blue (8MB Cache) drive.

Do you have such a drive in your system?

The 2nd screenshot shows your Samsung 840 Pro. The benchmark results show that you are getting 100.007% advertised Sequential Reads and 97.6% of advertised Sequential Writes.

Your drive appears to be in excellent condition.

Here we go: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/Shisho2k/Archived/slowerwrite_zps1ba6aa2f.jpg

It's write speed on the bottom test seems to be about half of what it usually gets when it's running at it's best. I'm not sure of the cause though.

(And yeah, I have some old drives in this computer too, in the process of moving data to this new machine.)

It seems that this has to do with how the drive is doing background garbage collection, I have only seen this mentioned in one review so far (Tweak town link). It seems to kick in very easily and once it is done in about 30-40 minutes of idle time the performance returns to normal. All SSDs do this but most are programmed to only do their garbage collection and other maintenance tasks when the drive is idle, Samsung seems to be doing this anytime the drive needs it. It should be something that is easily fixed with a firmware update, but I have not seen any signs of a firmware update coming soon. The latest firmware (DXM04B0Q) was supposed to address this very issue but it seems it did not. I have seen multiple people posting this issue. I was going to buy this same drive but am leaning towards the OCZ Vector now since it is the same price on Amazon currently.

To fix your performance issues log out of the computer for one hour or so and leave it on at the log in street. This will turn off many of the services that activate HD accesses. After that log back in and run the benchmark again, the performance should be back to baseline levels.

That makes sense. Thanks Xega, good info. ^_^