Monday, April 23, 2012

Samsung P-SSD1800 Firmware update

Update 2013: My SSD died and I replaced it with CF card. For more info check out my blog post.

Last weekend I had to work all day on my Acer Aspire One AOA110. That's roughly 12 hours of painful waiting for the slow SSD to finish the simple tasks I was doing! At some point that day I started searching on the internet for a solution to this agony and found a firmware update to my Samsung P-SSD1800 8GB SSD. The update is for 8 and 16 GB variants, so AOA150 can flash it too. I did not rush into doing it because I knew I'd lose all of my info (not that you could store a lot on 8GB :D). It wasn't till today that I flashed it and I'm impressed by the results!
Here you can see the test before the update:
Here is the same test after the update:
As you can see, burst rate is doubled, access time is nearly twice faster and the drive now keeps much stable read speed! Write speeds are not tested, as that would have destroyed all my info, but I bet they are better, too. Note before the update the drive was called P-SSD1800, where after the update it's PATA SSD - that's normal. My original FW version was ver2.Y0C. The new one is ver2.M0J. So, if for some reason you already have this version, there is no need to flash it. Ok, let's get to the flashing part!

Things you'll need:
1. A flash drive.
2. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, Rufus or other utility that can make your flash drive DOS bootable.
3. AOA110SSDFWv1.rar, containing needed files to create DOS boot disk with HP USB tool, and the firmware itself.

Steps:
1. Backup things from your SSD and flash drive as both will be erased during this operation!
2. Insert the flash drive into one of your USB ports and run the utility from 2. above.
3. Format the drive with FAT32 file system and create a DOS startup disk using the files extracted from AOA110SSDFWv1.rar
4. After the disk is created, copy all the contents of AOA110SSDFWv1.rar to it, ignoring conflicts.
5. Reboot and boot from USB flash drive.
6. You'll have two choices now - (0) Erase SSD and (1) Flash SSD FW - choose (0) Erase SSD
7. This will trigger another dialog with options (0) Erase good Block only and (1) Force Erase All block - choose (0) Erase good Block only
8. After the erase you'll get "OK SSD is erased now time for Flash" and only one option to choose - (0) Flash SSD FW. Choose it :)
9. Another dialog (and the last of that type) shows with options (0) 8GB SSD and (1) 16GB SSD - choose the one right for your SSD. In my case this is 0, as I have 8GB version.
10. After that, the main window of the flasher program will be loaded. You need to press Enter once to start the process of updating. Some lines will start showing in the right side of the window and when all is done, you'll get big green PASS in the bottom left corner of your screen.
11. After that press X on your keyboard to exit the program.
12. Reboot PC and install your OS of choice.

Here is a video (thanks Simon Holland) of the final stage of the flashing procedure

Hope you can get better results than mine ;)

Update: I got this firmware update working on 16GB model. It failed 2 times, but eventually on the 3rd time it flashed successfully. Here are the results:
Before
After
Sorry about the warning balloon - I noticed it too late to test again. As you can see here we don't have such a boost, but in my opinion the SSD is feeling better with the new firmware ;)

Other posts related to Acer Aspire One:
Replace SSD with Compact Flash card on Acer Aspire One ZG5
Aspire One AOA110/AOA150 BIOS mod - a disaster and a solution
Save precious pixels by using thin scrollbars
ReactOS on Acer Aspire One (installation without CD)
Chromium OS on Acer Aspire One
MenuetOS/KolibriOS on Acer Aspire One
EasyPeasy on Aser Aspire One
Darkness Beyond Limits

32 comments :

  1. how long does it take to flash the ssd?

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  2. Can't thank you enough for this. My aspire one 8G SSD has been broken for about a year so I've been running it off a usb stick. Used the firmware upgrade and it's fixed.
    It hung first time, so I ran and selected force erase all block and it rebuilt the drive. I'm now running XP on it.
    Thanks again
    Carrotts

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  3. Updated with screenshots from 16GB model.

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  4. Thank's
    I choose in (1) Flash SSD FW
    it's work.
    Thanks for you

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  5. mate, you have NO IDEA how much this has improved this damn SSD haha

    i've switched OS about once a week since i owned the damn thing trying to find something that worked great, i cant live with Windows XP or 7 on the desktop let alone on here and up until Lucid, Ubuntu ran well but since Unity its been an epic fail for this device, i did install the latest ChromiumOS by Hexxeh build 2 days ago and it ran like a dog with 1 leg....performed the update, then re-installed Chromium OS and this thing is like a brand new netbook, Chromium runs like a dream, i do have to mention however than i have upped the RAM to 1.5Gb since the 512Mb was just AWFUL

    anyway /ramble lol

    thanks man

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  6. Interesting.
    The SSD in my AAO looks to be dead and I am looking to find a replacement, but now I think I will try to update the firmware!


    To all of you guys with speed problems:

    I have been using Micro XP 0.82 and Enhanced Write Filter (EWF) overlay, and it totally rocks!
    This setup is seriously the fastest computer I have ever tried, it boots in less than half a minute (and that's after installing lots of stuff, on clean install it's about 20 sec!).

    If you don't like MicroXP (it is lacking some stuff, but you can install it afterwards), try just EWF I promise it is still like day and night!

    EWF is a write overlay that caches all writes to the disk. it's a part of embedded XP (XPe), but can be extracted from the latest service pack for XPe and installed on any running Windows XP installation (and disabled or removed again).

    /Morten

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  7. Yes, the firmware can help with dead SSDs as it scans for dead blocks upon flashing and tells the SSD not to use them afterwards ;) My 8GB SSD is already wearing down and I used the firmware update to bring it back to life a couple of times. It works, but not for long :(

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  8. This looks so cool, I'm going to try it now on my ZG5 Netbook which has an 8GB Drive that is starting to fail.

    What is the best option to choose to try and revive the drive? I just want the software to find the bad sectors and not use them anymore.

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  9. I decided to record the procedure and upload it to YouTube so people could see in advance what to expect when doing the firmware update

    http://youtu.be/aM8oOXh5jL4

    Seems to have gone well - just hopefully reinstalling my copy of Linux Mint from a Backup - should know in another 10 minutes if it worked

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  10. I've tried both "Erase good Block" and "Force Erase All" but can't see any difference :( I see you have only 5 bad blocks - mine are 65 and counting :(

    PS: I've updated the post with your video (with credentials of course), hope you don't mind :)

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  11. if you want to see something dramatic there is a programme Called FlashFire which will really make the SSD in the Acer seem a lot faster - but it also makes it less stable - much more likely to crash windows if it's not shut down correctly. That might be worth some people trying but I would recommend imaging your netbook with AA1Backup first

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  12. I'm running Windows 8 RP and I'm pretty satisfied with the performance of the SSD. The space left is a bit tight, but I don't use the netbook for daily work, so it's good for me :)

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  13. hmm i get a wait DRQ Error[0x51]
    Not supported Flash

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  14. Can you try again? As I mentioned on the article, with the 16GB model I had to flash it three times till success. I don't remember the errors though :( If you haven't tried more that once - try a couple of times more ;)

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  15. I have 1st generation aoa-110 with 8gb samasung ssd and I am getting this error: [ERR_801]Flash ID does not match ini. Tried multiple reboots and can't get pass this error. Any help please?

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  16. Are you sure you are with Samsung SSD? I remember first generation AOA110 were with 8GB SSD manufactured by Intel, not Samsung.

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  17. I think you are right. Under product info, it says Samsung, but when I let program detect card, it says Intel/Micron. So, what happens to my ssd now?
    Is it done for good? It's not showing in BIOS anymore.

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    Replies
    1. I know this has been posted in 2012, but to fix your Intel ssd download this file: http://metal03326.blogspot.ca/2012/04/samsung-p-ssd1800-firmware-update.html (Right click - save as) and copy the file to the SSD\flash\(GIG SIZE) folder (Eg. H:\SSD\flash\8G). I fixed my ssd using this method!

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  18. Can't help you. This update is for the Samsung SSD. You can try searching for Intel firmware update. Sorry :(

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  19. Hello It is working for me Thanks :) I turned a test and I got about 5.5-7.5 MB/s. Its a big difference. I ran on FlashFire for 3 years, but I had to wait until FF write all data to the SSD for prevence system crash. Now it is OK :)
    I have questions. What about card life, or data functionality? Is this firmware safe?
    Thanks!
    (sry my bad EN :D)

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  20. I've been using the firmware for about 8 months now and I don't have any problems to report ;)

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  21. Thanks Bro, I flashed my 8Gb SSD, it said PASS. Now it says PATA. One Question will Windows 8 fit on 8gb? Also a note about Flashfire, It corrupts your windows system files, i learnt this the hard way, last week 5000miles from home in a seminar, it Died!

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  22. Yes, Windows 8 will fit on 8GB but you won't be able to use it for long, as Windows tends to eat space with time and in a couple of days you'll run out of space when installed on 8GB SSD. If you make lite version of Windows 8, then you'll have some more free space, but still - you'll run out again. You can also use NTFS compression to make the files smaller, thus freeing some more space, but you'll notice a performance hit.

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  23. Thank you for this post. Well, I was expecting my AOA110 with a P-SSD1800 8GB SSD to die at some point, and wa running tiny 7. Somehow, it did in a rather, peculiar way. It just won't boot up and at some point asks for me to do a system recovery. I've tried to reinstall tiny7 and other OS as well with no luck. Then I stumbled about this and I gave it a shot. I'm now reinstalling Tiny7 again and has now went beyond the format HDD part. I'll let you know how it goes later...

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  24. I was having problems with my AAO 150.It wasnt detecting the SSD drive so i tried flashing it and lo and behold it started working again so thats another fix for all the AAO users out there and it really works faster now maybe even double the speed before flashing.Thank you and all the best to you.

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  25. keyboard error 852 it s creap wtf
    d ont work ,it s lie

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  26. This worked great, thanks! I have an AOA110 with the 8Gb Samsung drive and Ubuntu installed. Over several months the machine was getting slower and slower, with the hard drive light coming on for extend periods all the time. Eventually, there were constant freezes of a few seconds with the hard drive light on, and the machine was pretty much unusable. I ran the utility and the machine is working like new again!

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  27. Thank you . After this up-date my Lasarus(AOA110 16Gb) is Aliiiveee. I suggest Win7 superlite v2.0.
    I added + 512 Mb of RAM (now 1,5 Gb) and everything is fine.(no Flashfire)

    Thank you .

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  28. Hi i have a question. Is it possible to wirte firmawe to this disk P-SSD1800 16gb in other notebook/laptop ? Or some method from usb to sata/ata cable ? I have few disks, but I don't have this acer laptop. I have converter from zif to 2,5 ata and then connected to "ata to usb" cable. So it is possible to write new firmware externally ?

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  29. My Intel z-p230 8G SSD failed too I downloaded AOA110SSDFWv1.rar and run the 8G SSD firmware update, but I got this error: [ERR_801]Flash ID does not match ini. But I can use [D] to detect my SSD is INTEL/MICRON, not Samsung. Then I came across the following site :- http://steamgame.ucoz.net/load/windows/windows_xp/obnovljonnaja_proshivka_ssd_dlja_netbukov_acer_aspire_one/19-1-0-76
    Обновлённая прошивка для SSD, установленного в нетбуках Acer Aspire One ZG5 модификации AOA 110. Совместима с накопителями от Samsung и от Intel. Для обновления прошивки накопителей Intel, необходимо внести изменения в файл Param.ini (приведён пример содержимого файла для SSD от Intel объёмом 8GB):

    [General Info]
    VendorName=Vendor
    ProductName=Flash Module
    ModelName=PATA SSD
    [Flash Info]
    Flh_MakeCode=INTEL/MICRON
    Flh_DeviceCode=2048
    Flh_Capacity=8192
    Flh_Number=4
    [Card Info]
    DeviceType=fixed
    SP_MPBINCode=AP2M0J.BIN
    IDEAddress=0x170
    IDEType=0xA0

    I modified PARAM.INI accordingly and BINGO it works!!! ✌️✌️✌️
    Thanks for the help!!! ❤❤❤

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