Zitat von Fernando im Beitrag #106

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This verifies, that they don't match your specific SSD.

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@promartin does the badge on your PM981 really say MZVLB1T0HALR-00000 or is it MZVLB1T0HALR-000D1? The "D1" in EXA74D1Q indicates, you're using a Dell OEM firmware. I couldn't find any newer Dell OEM firmware for your drive. The "EXA7301Q" you found, looks like to be a Samsung firmware. Nice find!

For your drive, I've also found this (Lenovo): https://support.lenovo.com/de/de/downloads/ds119265

The compatible firmware is "4L2QEXA7_NF_ENC.bin". Firmware has been added / build around Feb 2018. You can either try flashing with your utility or using Lenovo's. If you want to try out Lenovo's utility (Samsung Re-Drive):
1. Extract fwnv28.zip and open up fwwinsd.pro in a text editor.
2. Search an replace the first two items ("SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0" and "3L2Q") in
"SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0","3L2Q","4L2Q","TINYCORE","nvmeredrive_v2_2_3_3_x86","4L2QEXA7_NF_ENC.bin","L","SAMSUNG"
to match your drives information. My wild guess is:
"SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0","EXA7","4L2Q","TINYCORE","nvmeredrive_v2_2_3_3_x86","4L2QEXA7_NF_ENC.bin","L","SAMSUNG"
3. Run fwwinsd.exe as Admin, pick your drive and click "Start Update".
4. Your PC will reboot into a Linux environment and automatically flash your drive
5. It will tell you right away, whether flash was successful or not
6. If you're stuck in a boot loop, enter BIOS and manually re-set "Windows Boot Manager" as your primary Boot device

It's very possible, Dell has implemented a firmware signature check / verification, which will make sure you can only flash Dell signed firmwares - just like my HP PM961 firmware. Other than that, I think either updating your NVMe drivers (latest is 3.1 from https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/mi...download/tools/) OR completely falling back to Microsoft's NVMe driver (by uninstalling / removing Samsung's NVMe driver) might fix your issues. Also, make sure you've setup AHCI in BIOS instead of RAID.

@tolga9009 Hi! It says MZVLB1T0HALR-000D1 as you can see on this picture:

I don't know if the Dell OEM firmware is good news or not, I'm a noob here
I found that EXA7301Q firmware on some Chinese site, when I dived deep inside the internet. So I figured I would upload it to you guys, maybe it will help you out or I don't know
I tried using fwwinsd.exe before, but it keeps saying "No new drive"


I'll try your instructions tomorrow, it seems promising!
If it'll fix my issue I don't know what I'm going to do

At your second step, you said I'll have to change
"SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0","3L2Q","4L2Q","TINYCORE","nvmeredrive_v2_2_3_3_x86","4L2QEXA7_NF_ENC.bin","L","SAMSUNG"
to match my drives information, soooo since I have a MZVLB1T0HALR-000D1 and an EXA7 firmware, I'll have to change it to
"SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0HALR-000D1","EXA7","4L2Q","TINYCORE","nvmeredrive_v2_2_3_3_x86","4L2QEXA7_NF_ENC.bin","L","SAMSUNG"
right?... I won't have to change anything else?

Also, what if Dell implemented a firmware signature check / verification on my NVMe and I won't be able to flash it? I saw something about signatures on this forum. I read something what @Fernando said here about modifying the INF files of the related 32/64bit drivers to make them compatible with the NVMe Controller of the PM981 SSDs.
And at the very first page of that thread in the second post at the "L. Samsung NVMe Drivers" section under spoiler tag I can see a lot of drivers, and I downloaded the mod+signed one just to check what it contains, and inside the .rar file I can see two folders. Certificate and Driver. Will those help me bypass the verification problem if Dell implemented a firmware signature check, or I'm completely lost?

Sorry for these questions, I'm really trying, I'm just afraid I might screw up something bad

Yes, it looks like your NVMe drive is OEM'd by Dell. Manufacturing date is Oct 2018, so I doubt there is any newer Dell firmware out there. I still think, you might have driver / Windows issues, rather than an NVMe firmware issue. The official NVMe driver (File: Samsung_NVM_Express_Driver_3.1.exe) from Samsung didn't need any manual edit in my case (PM961) - I expect it to run just as fine with the PM981. The mod+signed drivers date all the way back to 2017 (version 2.x), whereas the latest drivers are 3.1 (updated in Jan 2019).

If Dell implemented a firmware signature check, it only affects upgrading the NVMe firmware - not the NVMe driver you install in Windows. If they activated it, you won't be able to flash Lenovo / HP / Samsung firmware onto it. As these drives have not been "hacked" afaik, it's currently impossible to bypass firmware verification, in order to flash alternative firmwares. The only option left would be JTAG (and soldering), which is a whole other topic on its own (and I don't have the expertise to cover it).

Zitat

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I'm just afraid I might screw up something bad

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Unfortunately, playing around with SSD firmware is already dangerous, let alone crossflashing. I cannot guarantee anything and you should always have the possibility of hard bricking your drive in mind. Therefore, I really recommend exhausting all your other options (reinstall Windows, try Intel RST installed / uninstalled, try AHCI / RAID mode, Microsoft NVMe / Samsung NVMe drivers etc.) - your issue can probably be tracked down by the Windows event manager. My wild guess would be RAM issue or driver issue, rather than a faulty NVMe firmware.

If you still want to try out flashing the Lenovo firmware (which will most probably fail to flash, due to Dell firmware signature check, therefore not harming your NVMe): you need to edit

"SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0","3L2Q","4L2Q","TINYCORE","nvmeredrive_v2_2_3_3_x86","4L2QEXA7_NF_ENC.bin","L","SAMSUNG"

into

"PM981 NVMe Samsu","EXA7","4L2Q","TINYCORE","nvmeredrive_v2_2_3_3_x86","4L2QEXA7_NF_ENC.bin","L","SAMSUNG"

"Start Update" button will get ungrayed. Good luck!

@tolga9009
I think I tried everything, used every BIOS option that may have any effect on the boot drive but no luck. I even updated the driver to Samsung NVM Express Driver 3.1, still no luck.
The strange thing is that the Even Manager doesn't show anything strange, It says there were a critical error but that's because I restarted the computer without letting it properly shut down.

I'll try to reinstall Windows 10 now, and I'll let you know if that helped!
Thank you!

Good morining everyone, I have a problem with a ''bricked'' MZVPV256HDGL-000L7 device. The reason it got bricked is unknown to me, probably it has been seated in a not compatible MacBook Pro and therefore it doesn't work anymore. When I want to erase everything on it it says Disk Number: 0:c | Model Name: SAMSUNG MZVPV256HDGL-000L7 | Firmware Version: ERRORMOD
Is it possible to revive this module and when yes how could this be done ? Thank you very much in advance for your help.

@belcampo - maybe some help here, or this is one of the guys who sold you the drive? In this forum, lots of google results for ERRORMOD, so other threads here may help too
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.ph...00.14667/page-3

@Lost_N_BIOS Thanks, I already had read that forum, but AFAIK no 'solutions'. I had 'a little' hope someone over here might have a/the solution. I bought it about 1 year ago via Ebay, no idea who that was and regarding the possible cost of sending it back to China probably doesn't make it a 'sensible' solution to me. I think to remember that someone lost his BIOS during testing, on this forum, but was able to put the BIOS back on the then bricked device. I'll search a little further, but many thanks anyway. If I would have another/same device would a dd if=/dev/nvme0 of=/dev/nvme1 solve the problem ? In linux everything is a file, so in theory this should/could solve the problem, or am I completely wrong ?

I thought it looked like they solved it on the page I linked, or maybe next one, no? I thought at least someone solved it for a single run, but it locked again each time he rebooted after fixing.
Yes, motherboard BIOS can be fixed easily with programmer, SSD not so much. Maybe if you had another dead drive, that you know died in some other way, you could pull the FW chip off it and replace here, but even then I'm still uncertain this would solve it.
I don't know if your command would work or not?

Hey @tolga9009 @Fernando!

I just got my replacement PM981, which BEHAVES the same way! 😂
So I tried to update its firmware in a desperate attempt and it said

Firmware update was not processed because software condition is not ready to update due to some reason.
I guess it has that Dell firmware signature check?

hi buddy, can you please send me the link of firmware for the 128gb PM961 MZVLW128HEGR-000L2 128GB, because i've tried to search it but don't find it, please, i will thanl you a lot.

hi, can you please send me the Link because i can't find any firmware for this PM961

Hi, my 3.84TB PM983 M.2 specifically model MZ1LB3T8HMLA-00007 just entered into ERRORMOD firmware version and shows as an 1GB drive.

Do you have any insights about how I can recover the data? Very much aprpeciated, thanks!!

Someone might have already answered this, but I looked through this thread and found something that was as far as I've gotten so far :)

I've got a Samsung PM961 512gb (MZVLW512HMJP-00000) The Firmware is CXY7101Q and as far as I understand it, this is a Samsung original OEM (not branded) And there was someone saying something about a Firmware for 128GB version with firmware version CXY7401Q which seem to be in the same serie as mine. Anyone who could tell me how to find a later firmware for this drive and how to update my drives?