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    Samsung SSDs in Dell machines

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Nalada, Jan 20, 2011.

  1. Nalada

    Nalada Notebook Evangelist

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    I have a M1330 with 64GB Samsung SSD inside (from the outlet).
    I finally got around to looking at it a bit closer. Maybe someone else can learn and also help.

    1. There was a newer firmware update available from Dell which was not shown to me by default when I entered the Service Tag - I had to view all M1330 updates to find it.

    2. To prevent write performance degradation with time and to maximize the lifetime it is a good idea to use TRIM. This is a method for the OS to inform the SSD which blocks are completely empty of data and thus can be erased in anticipation of the next write (My understanding: A block on a SSD contains multiple sectors, so when the OS marks a file as deleted the SSD cannot know if that means the Blocks it occupies are completely free of other files. As a result, if it needs to write to that part occupied block again it would have to read it, erase it, then write. If it knows a block is completely free it can erase it in anticipation of a future write and when it is time to write it can do it quickly).
    However, TRIM is only supported by Windows 7. I am using Windows Vista.
    I learnt that SSD manufacturers often have their own utilities to do the TRIM operation on older Windows operating systems. Samsung has one called the Samsung SSD Magician Tool.

    3. The Magician tool does not recognize my Samsung disk as a Samsung disk. As a result it cannot report SMART status, upgrade the firmware, or do the TRIM. As the SSD must be a Dell OEM... is anyone aware of an equivalent utility from Dell? As I said, Dell did provide a firmware update but I don't see an equivalent of the Magician Tool.
     
    Nalada, Jan 20, 2011
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  2. ZippoMan

    ZippoMan Notebook Evangelist

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    What firmware does it have currently? You can get this info from Crystal Disk Info.
     
    ZippoMan, Jan 20, 2011
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  3. erick_e

    erick_e Notebook Geek

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    The Samsung magician does not recognize your drive because of Dell's proprietary firmware, which is why you have to use Dell's update rather than the one on Samsung website. Dell's update requires you to make a bootable disk which contains the extracted files from the update. From there you just run the DOSRD1_0.exe Make sure to read the included instructions completely and carefully to avoid losing your data.
     
    erick_e, Jan 20, 2011
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  4. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

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    Are you sure it's the newer PM800 drive, and not an older RBX drive?
     
    Commander Wolf, Jan 20, 2011
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  5. Nalada

    Nalada Notebook Evangelist

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    Thanks for the info.

    I never said it was a PM800 drive. You are right - it is the RBX series 6.
    I see from CrystalDiskInfo that it does not support TRIM.
    (I read somewhere that (some?) Samsung SSDs support auto-TRIM which runs independently of the OS so maybe it is not needed that badly.)

    It has the PSD105D15 firmware (now that I upgraded it with the Dell firmware update).

    [I am wondering if the reason that the Dell firmware differs from the Samsung original could be because of incorporation of Computrace]
     
    Nalada, Jan 20, 2011
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  6. Commander Wolf

    Commander Wolf can i haz broadwell?

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    Yeah, the RBX drives don't support TRIM. Period. They're designed to run without it, though; they might not be the fastest SSDs anymore, but I'm running three RBX drives in various systems and I've never suffered from any weird performance issues.
     
    Commander Wolf, Jan 20, 2011
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