How to update firmware for SSD

sometimes they seem to work or work for x number of days and weeks, but IF there is firmware READ WHAT it addresses in any case and DO check that and online forums before you buy as well (or Google for Mac related issues with the device).

Anyone that has ever been hit knows, such as Seagate 7200.11 1TB model just how bad it can be. Or iMac w/ Seagate SATA as well.

Using a Windows 7 installation (temporary), I can successfully update FW using the SSD Magician software.

Intel 6 Series Chipset:

Vendor: Intel

Product: 6 Series Chipset

Link Speed: 6 Gigabit

Negotiated Link Speed: 6 Gigabit

Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series:

Capacity: 256.06 GB (256,060,514,304 bytes)

Model: Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series

Revision: DXM04B0Q

I do not plan to keep Windows 7 long-term.

What cable did you use to connect to your windows machine??

LAFANGA wrote:

What cable did you use to connect to your windows machine??

I had to create a bootcamp installation on my MacMini, so it is an internal SATA connection.

@UAofE - Whether it is an 840 Pro or a regular 840 or 830 Samsung, the challenge remains the same. 😉

OWC uses a similar bootable ISOLinux, under which you run their firmware updater.

Linux is small enough you can boot and run it directly from the ISOLinux DVD, without having to Install a great wad of stuff. In some cases, pre-placing the firmware update files on a Hard Drive may come in handy.

Jeremy Rojas wrote:

has anyone tried using the Mac ISO posted here?

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/samsungssd/downloads.html

The ISO is identical (at least md5sums match) with the Bootable CD/DVD that SSD Magician 3.2 creates.

@Grant... the challenge is providing a BIOS equivalent to the bootable CD/DVD which allows access to hardware.

One option that I have not explored is running the bootcamp installer with Windows 7 and replacing the W7 DVD with this ISO (using 'option' key followed by alt-eject key) before the boot process actually starts, which may provide a compatible CM-BIOS environment. If someone wants to try this and report on this thread, it would help others.

Here is a UTube video which provides a visual equivalent of what I am referring to (the video refers to installing WXP on a boot-camped ML).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-odj1jbuKj4

the challenge is providing a BIOS equivalent to the bootable CD/DVD which allows access to hardware.

The solution OWC and others provides is to dismiss the GUI and get a Terminal window, then enter:

sudo <firmware_updater_application>

running as essentially Root, although a little risky if you screw up, gives you the needed Hardware access.

Jeremy Rojas wrote:

has anyone tried using the Mac ISO posted here?

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/samsungssd/downloads.html

yes i attempted it for many hours but could get no success.

Could you get the iso image to mount??

The ISO contains btdisk.img, isolinux.cfg, isolinux.bin, memdisk.

ls

btdsk.img isolinux.bin isolinux.cfg memdisk

isolinux.cfg contains

prompt 0

default BootCD

#ontimeout hd

#display BOOTMSG.TXT

#timeout 100

# FreeDOS OEM bootdisk, 360KB zip compressed

label BootCD

kernel memdisk

append initrd=BTDSK.IMG

# overloading is a nice thing. Specify FreeDOS, and if another one is present

# it gets loaded instead for my own cdrom.

label hd

localboot 0x80

label floppy

localboot 0x00

# cancel and try next boot device

label q

localboot -1

file btdsk.img

btdsk.img: x86 boot sector, FREE-DOS Beta 0.9 Bootloader KERNEL.SYS, code offset 0x3c, OEM-ID "FreeDOS ", sectors/cluster 2, root entries 240, sectors 5760 (volumes <=32 MB) , sectors/FAT 9, serial number 0xc04d1342, label: " ", FAT (12 bit)

The problem is that btdisk.img kernel is the FreeDOS kernel which has no CMS-BIOS to support that KERNEL.SYS file hence no firmware update.

Testing gives and error that Samsung support engineers say is expected. It will either give 'NO EDD-BIOS' or KERNEL.SYS not found.

The OWC BIOS contains a modified version of DOS which is different.

Jeremy,

How exactly did you burn the bootable ISO? I tried several ways yesterday (Toast and Disk Utility) and was not successful.

The image you download Samsung......DXM04B0Q_Mac.iso has an image file called BTDSK.IMG on it.

Did you burn the Samsung....iso image or the BTDSK one? I have tried both. With the Samsung image it was not visible to boot from at startup. With the BTDSK one it was available to boot but did not have the software.

Thanks for any guidance.

Regards

Dave

Hi Dave,

it was fairly straightforward. Let me start with what I used:

Samsung 840 (not the Pro) 500GB SSD

iMac 24" Early 2008 running 10.8.3 (at the time)

700MB CD-R media

I downloaded the file called: Samsung_SSD_840_DXT07B0Q_Mac.iso (no need to mount it)

dragged it into the left-most pane in the disk utility app, made sure it was highlighted and then clicked on burn.

During reboot, I simply held down the option key and the CD-R showed up as a bootable option. It boots into DOS and I really just followed these instructions verbatim:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/samsungssd/downloads/Samsun g_SSD_Firmware_Update_Utility_User_Manual_English_for_Mac_v10.pdf

good luck!

Jeremy

Jeremy,

Thanks for the detailed instructions. It is similar to what I tried but I will have another go when I get home tonight and will let you know how I get on. Let's hope the file I need for the PRO behaves the same way.

Did you do the update before you put anything on the SSD? Do you know if it affects the disc content?

Regards
Dave

Well sadly I have not been able to make a bootable CD or get a CD to boot windows. I used Disk utility to create it (although I could not drag the file to the left hand pane, I had to select it in Burn) and when I rebooted with the option key held down, then the CD was available as an option. However, when I selected it then the computer just hung. I thought that it might be that the file I have is not working as you had a different one. Thus I also tried the Samsung_SSD_840_DXT07B0Q_Mac.iso file to remove a variable but this was not bootable either.

I'm running a MacPro 2008 (3.1)

The only good thing is that looking at the SSD the firmware it shows is DXM05B0Q vs the DXM04B0Q updater so it looks as if I have a newer firmware anyway.

It is very frustrating though and shows that perhaps Samsung is not very supportive of Apple applications!

Thanks for your suggestions.

The issues with DOS/FreeDOS seem to have been fixed with the latest version of the .iso.

Tested this on a Mid 2010 MBP with an 840 Pro.

1. Go To http://www.samsung.com/us/support/ and put in the SSD name (840 Pro - 512Gb in my case).

2. Click on Downloads -> Firmware.

3. Download the ISO

4. The filename in my case is Samsung_SSD_840PRO_DXM05B0Q_Mac.iso.

5. In Disk Utility burn this .iso file to a CD-R or CD-RW or DVD (about 3MB). I have not had much luck with bootable USB. A CD-RW would save making a coaster. 😉

6. Restart your MAC and hold the ALT Key. The CD should show up as "Windows".

7. Select it.

8. It should scan your system and find the SSD and show the current version.

9. Follow the prompts and it should update the firmware.

10. A backup of your disk that you are updating is very highly recommended.

I've just retried.

I followed your link and ended here http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/MZ-7PD256BW? , clicked the download\firmware tab, downloaded the Samsung_SSD_840PRO_DXM05B0Q_Mac.iso file and burnt the CD with Apple Disk Utility.

Same result : black screen displaying "No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key".

My machine is a 2012 MacBook Pro 15' :

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook Pro

Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,1

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 2,3 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 16 GB

Boot ROM Version: MBP91.00D3.B08

SMC Version (system): 2.1f175

Serial Number (system): C2*****5Y7

Hardware UUID: 687DB7BC-4E99-5515-80A9-D633D2D4155E

I wonder what I'm doing wrong.

<edited by host>

Yes, I do see the CD in both cases.

Cmd-i on the CD icon shows exactly the same screenshot as yours.

When starting with the Alt key pressed, the CD even shows up as "Windows" as you mentioned it in a previous post.

I tried with two different downloads, from the one you provided and also from the French support site http://www.samsung.com/fr/support/model/MZ-7PD256BW-downloads just in case.

None of them worked.

I even waited for a while with the "No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key" message, just in case it would need some time to load or whatever, but nothing happened.

If I could avoid to use bootcamp and get into the hassle of installing Windows, would save me some time !

Thx for your help !