Robbie Khan, Editor of Neowin, recently wrote an article discussing a severe decline in performance from the Samsung 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 V-NAND SSD and the steps he took to replace the unit. Khan initiated an RMA on the unit and stated that the after-sales service Samsung uses found no issues with the unit and refused the warranty. However, Khan found that the service did little to discover a problem, which led to an even more significant problem.
Samsung States That A Six Percent Drop In Life For The Samsung 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 V-NAND SSD Is Normal After A Few Days Of Use
On January 20, 2023, Khan purchased the Samsung 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 V-NAND SSD and discovered it through the SMART data of Samsung Magician and various third-party applications. The solid-state drive had lost a percentage of the drive's health by one percent. A few days later, he checked the drive's life and found it lost four percent over those few days. Compared to another unit he purchased before the new drive exceeded 40 TB, that specific drive is still maintaining 99% health, with only a single percentage of loss during the 1.5 years he has had the drive.
However, the new SSD from Samsung was declining at a faster rate for the device, which was an issue and warranted a replacement from Samsung. While searching on the Internet, Khan found that other users experienced the same problem with the drive, which confirmed the request to contact Samsung while the device was still under warranty.
When he contacted the after-sales service, the group stated that the decline was expected, but if it continues to decline to contact and request an RMA, which is what he did after a further investigation during that time, and the drive dropped another percentage day later. Once again, he contacted the after-sales service to replace the drive, and after the time that the service had the Samsung 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 V-NAND SSD and returned it to Khan, the company stated that there were no issues with the drive itself and refused the warranty.
He also discovered that the service only formatted the drive, reset firmware, and other information wipes before returning it to him. The health was still sitting at ninety-four percent. Khan has contacted the after-sales service again to confirm that this somewhat rapid drop in health is standard for the drive, but after five days has not received an official statement from the group.
