The previously problematic Samsung 980 Pro was basically using the 3B2QGXA7, and now Samsung has introduced a new 5B2QGXA7 firmware to fix the problem. The problem mainly affects the 2TB version of the 980 Pro, though some lower capacities can’t be completely avoided. According to user feedback, the SSD’s S.M.A.R.T. is showing “0E” values, even many times, which is the number of times the master has detected an unrecovered data integrity error. In addition, there are cases where the “03” value (available spare space) is below 100%.

A number of users have reported that their SSD 0E values have skyrocketed to 2000+ or even over 32,000, causing the SSD to lock up in read-only mode. Others have reported that their 980 Pro is down to 5% 03 after four months of use, but the SSD is only writing single-digit TBs of space.

According to Puget, the most common issue that users have fed back is that the SSD has gone into read-only mode. Given that most users have their operating system installed on the SSD, the read-only mode makes that boot drive unusable. Unfortunately, once your 980 Pro enters this failure state, there is no way to recover your data, even with a firmware update.

If your SSD is still usable, a new firmware update from Samsung will prevent the failure from occurring in the first place. So if you have a 980 Pro running the 3B2QGXA7 firmware, you’ll want to update to the latest firmware (5B2QGXA7) using Samsung’s SSD Magician software as soon as possible. it.com understands that 980 Pro SSDs running the 4B2QGXA7 or 5B2QGXA7 firmware are not affected by this issue.

The post Samsung launches 5B2QGXA7 firmware for 980 Pro SSDs, fixes lock-up to read-only mode appeared first on TechGoing.