Problème avec Samsung SSD (990 PRO avec Heatsink)

[ForumBot]

I have a Windows server (2022) with two Samsung 990 Pro SSDs of 2TB. I've had some weird problems with one of them disappearing from time. What happens is that every 2 months or so, the disk in question, does not exist anymore: `diskpart` or `Get-PhysicalDisk` (in PS) simply do not list the disk anymore. The only thing to do at that time is a complete powerdown and restart, a simply restart in the OS is not sufficient.

At first I thought it was an issue with the motherboard, so I got in touch with the manufacturer and -surprise!- they told me to make sure it wasn't a problem with the disk. After some back and forth, I decided to explore a potential issue with the disks, simply to avoid the hassle of replacing the mobo and then still have the problem.

Examining the situation of the disks was not so easy, because this is Server Core installation, so no GUI, but I was able to do some analysis, which revealed a shocker: running MS's diskspd showed a completely abysmal performance **for both disks**. Both read and write are just below 50MiB/s which is way lower than the specs of the 990 Pro.

So I now have several questions:

- Are the two problems (disk disappearing from time to time) linked?

- Could the speed problem by caused by the motherboard (it is an ASRock X570S PG Riptide)?

- Could it be that the SSDs are counterfeit? And how can I check this?

- Any suggestions on further analyzing this?

Clarification:

- Server logs: nothing shows up in event viewer

- Age of the drives: they're a year old and haven't been used intensively

- Smart readings:
This is the output I got from Samsung DC Toolkit:

Disk Number: 1:c | Model Name: Samsung SSD 990 PRO with Heatsink 2TB | Firmware Version: 0B2QJXG7

Bytes
Description
Value

0
Critical Warning
0x00

2:1
Composite Temperature
0x0142

3
Available Spare
0x64

4
Available Spare Threshold
0x0A

5
Percentage Used
0x02

47:32
Data Units Read
0x000000000000000000000000011BD521

63:48
Data Units Written
0x000000000000000000000000010D94FB

79:64
Host Read Commands
0x0000000000000000000000000DD8604F

95:80
Host Write Commands
0x0000000000000000000000001282EACA

111:96
Controller Busy Time
0x00000000000000000000000000009963

127:112
Power Cycle
0x00000000000000000000000000000020

143:128
Power On Hours
0x00000000000000000000000000001F93

159:144
Unsafe Shutdowns
0x00000000000000000000000000000014

175:160
Media and Data Integrity Errors
0x00000000000000000000000000000000

191:176
Number of Error Information Log Entries
0x00000000000000000000000000000000

195:192
Warning Composite Temperature Time
0x00040880

199:196
Critical Composite Temperature Time
0x00000000

201:200
Temperature Sensor 1
0x0142

203:202
Temperature Sensor 2
0x0149

205:204
Temperature Sensor 3
0x0000

207:206
Temperature Sensor 4
0x0000

209:208
Temperature Sensor 5
0x0000

211:210
Temperature Sensor 6
0x0000

213:212
Temperature Sensor 7
0x0000

215:214
Temperature Sensor 8
0x0000

[ForumBot]

The current firmware version for Samsung SSD 990 PRO series seems to be 4B2QJXD7. And apparently firmware versions older than 1B2QJXD7 had a rather bad bug that will seriously hurt the SSD lifetime:

[https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-990-pro-health-dropping-fast](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-990-pro-health-dropping-fast)

[https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-990-pro-firmware-update-released-ssd-health](https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-990-pro-firmware-update-released-ssd-health)

[https://www.youtube.com/shorts/D7XgEfxPGuo](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/D7XgEfxPGuo)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/10jkwwh/samsung_990_pro_ssd_with_rapid_health_drops/](https://www.reddit.com/r/hardware/comments/10jkwwh/samsung_990_pro_ssd_with_rapid_health_drops/)

At least when the initial fix was provided in version 1B2QJXD7, it stopped the drive from getting worse but did not fix the degradation that was already happened before the update. The newer firmware versions may have provided more refined fixes, but unfortunately Samsung has apparently not released very much details.

As far as I understand, your firmware version 0B2QJXG7 would be the one that's affected by this bug, and it looks like your SSDs are indeed deeply degraded. You probably should update the firmware ASAP, and perhaps try and contact Samsung support for a possible RMA, as this seems to be a known issue.