Samsung Released Magician 4.6 and New EVO 840 Firmware

Samsung has released the new Magician version 4.6 software as well as the latest firmware for the EVO 840 SSD that should resolve the performance issues once and for all. But you should be aware of a couple of things before you apply the patch and update.

There are mixed feelings between both users and professionals in how far this actually is a fix or not. One thing is for certain, it will restore the performance of your drive back to the original.

First let us take a little trip back and revisit what this bug actually is, what it does, and what the previous fixes did and didn’t do. The issue was with files that were older than 6 months without being modified and those files would result in incredible slow reading speeds, at times even slower than mechanical drives.

At first the issue was ignored and when it was acknowledged, we did get a fix after a while. That first fix was called the Samsung SSD 840 EVO Performance restoration tool and it looked like it was working the way it was supposed to.

The Performance Restoration tool restored the performance back to the old and most users were happy, but not for that long. The issue resurfaced again about half a year later with users reporting of new slow downs. Thanks to the internet with forums, Reddit, and technology sites such as us reporting and investigating the issue, Samsung couldn’t just ignore it.

They took their thinking caps back on and came up with the current fix, a new firmware and a new Magician software with refresh function.

The update is being released as a staged rollout, meaning that the servers limit the amount of possible downloads and you might get a timeout or message that no new firmware is available. This is a normal way to release firmware for such a crucial component as a storage drive. It makes sure that any possible new bugs only affect a small percentage of users before it can be fixed, or the download halted again. The new firmware is the EXT0DB6Q where you currently probably run either the B or C version.

So why is this both a fix and not a fix at the same time you may ask. As it is, it isn’t a fix at all. But it keeps an eye on the symptoms and refreshes the files when it happens and on a schedule. It doesn’t actually fix the issue, it only puts a temporary band-aid on it. You will get the performance back that the drive should have, but you’ll also put extra wear and tear on your drive with regular refreshing processes.

The common rule is as always: if it works fine for you and you don’t notice speed drops, just leave it. If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it. If you do wish to apply the new fix, then head right on over to Samsung’s official download site and grab the Samsung Magician 4.6 software. The new firmware can be downloaded through the Magician tool.