Samsung 990 Pro 1TB Failed To Update Firmware (4B2QJXD7)

[MK300]

I'm trying to update my SSD to the latest firmware using Samsung Magician, but I can't get it to work after trying almost every trick in the book. (Currently on Version: 3B2QJXD7 trying to update to Version: 4B2QJXD7)

I have rebooted multiple times, tried 3 different Wifi networks, and stopped all other programs from running. Nothing seems to work.

Magician simply won't download the update, and it won't tell me why. It simply says "Failed to update".

I am aware that the update can be downloaded separately and installed using Linux "the hard way", but frankly I shouldn't have to do that, and i've never done it before so i'm not comfortable with it. 

It seems like the only solution is to uninstall Samsung Magician and not bother updating the firmware? 

[Members_FFY6SKL]

I have the exact same issue.  Almost 3 months after your otoñal post and there is no solution from samsung. 

[15Degrees]

I am using two 990 pro 1TB drives in my machine. I won't be updating from 3B2QJXD7. Both drives work fine and I really can't be arsed with breaking my machine for the limited benefits an update "might" bring which I suspect are zero!

[Graaf Dirk III]

There is some more circumstantial evidence that the problem of denial to update the firmware has something to do with the Intel RST VMD Managed Controller. I found the Samsung NVMe™ Driver Installation Guide (March 2020, version 3.3) which specifies that the correct installation of the driver can be verified by checking the Windows Device Manager. Under "Storage controllers" should be displayed: "Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller" and "Samsung NVMe Controller".

Hiowever, my Windows Device Manager shows under "Storage controllers": "Microsoft Storage Spaces Controller", "Intel RST VMD Controller A77F" and 2 times "Intel RST VMD Managed Controller 09AB". It is obscure for me why the Managed Controller is mentioned twice, but everything (two 990 Pro SSD installed wih updated firmware 4B2QJXD7) works fine now.

 The Samsung NVMe driver is already 4 years old. The BIOS setting in a "modern" computer (2023) for enabling the VMD controller suggests that it is set allready before Windows starts. This may be an explanation for the failure of Samsung Magician to update, because it works under Windows presuming the absence of a Intel VMD controller.

[Akka]

I had the same problem and have been able to get it to work.

I had two nvme.2 drives, one was non-Samsung product, I removed that one and ran the firmware update with just the Samsung 990pro installed and it worked fine. I suspect the Samsung Magician cancels the firmware update if it detects a non-samsung drive. 

Note I only had to remove one of the drives because the 990pro suffered a major failure crashed my laptop and disappeared from the system until i restarted the computer which made my 990 the D drive...

[userYiHn7iNsqc]

I had this issue  I updated my motherboard Bios to the most recent version and then it worked.  Hope this helps

[enjihn]

It seems that Intel Rapid Storage Technology is the main culprit for a lot of people. I've been having this same issue. Updated BIOS and everything else you can think of. Just now only finding out about the Intel RST causing this issue for a lot of us, and I find that insane. Can Samsung really not find a way to update their own firmware in their own application when Intel RST is enabled? Seems insane that if your computer already had that on or if you enabled it that WOOPS NO MORE SAMSUNG UPDATES FOR YOU!! lol

So asinine. Disabling Intel RST isn't some quick easy fix. You have to completely reinstall Windows afterwards. The USB stick into AHCI mode from BIOS should work and I'm going to end up doing that soon, but that is absurd that a lot of people have to do that. 

[userKgKN2LDBEp]

Very, very similar issue here, and seven pages deep into the thread still no resolution on my end - but at least I think I narrowed it down and isolated what it is on my system.

Intel Rapid Storage Technology.

I can disable this in my BIOS (Asus Z390) by simply clicking on the "On / Off" toggle and then F10 to save changes and exit, but when I do, BSoD with an Inaccessible Boot Device.  Change it back, works fine.

I think that's an artefact of my MB and processor being a bit older (i7-8700K) and before VMD was a thing, it was still RST and if I open Device Manager > Storage Controllers it's listed as "Intel(R) Chipset SATA/PCIe RST Premium Controller."  The tell from inside Samsung Magician is when I go to either of my NVMe drives - the 970 EVO or 990 Pro - Interface shows as "N/A" and "Unable to get the information" on the Drive Details page.

So do I potentially hose my home PC configuration and make it unusable by trying to alter the Intel RST to AHCI controller and break and rebuild the drive controllers, or deal with the warmer-than nominal 3B2QJXD7 firmware? Decisions, decisions.

Also of note, the firmware can be downloaded as an ISO and then burned to a USB drive from this URL: https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/support/tools/

For now, I'm going to suppress the notification that there is a firmware update, but hopefully one o' us figures something out soon.