The SMART Power-on hours of Intel 535 never increased

[MTsai33]

Hi,

I have an Intel 535 480GB drive (SSDSC2BW480H6), with firmware RG21. I found that the SMART attribute 0x09 "Power-on hours" stick to zero and never increased. In contrast, my other Intel driver functioned properly on this value, and the precision is down to milliseconds. How to fix this problem? Thanks.

Drive information provided by smartctl:

$ sudo smartctl -cA /dev/sdb smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [x86_64-linux-4.15.0-43-generic] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org   === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION === General SMART Values: Offline data collection status: (0x05) Offline data collection activity was aborted by an interrupting command from host. Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled. Self-test execution status: ( 16) The self-test routine was aborted by the host. Total time to complete Offline data collection: ( 5860) seconds. Offline data collection capabilities: (0x7f) SMART execute Offline immediate. Auto Offline data collection on/off support. Abort Offline collection upon new command. Offline surface scan supported. Self-test supported. Conveyance Self-test supported. Selective Self-test supported. SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering power-saving mode. Supports SMART auto save timer. Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported. General Purpose Logging supported. Short self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes. Extended self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 58) minutes. Conveyance self-test routine recommended polling time: ( 4) minutes. SCT capabilities: (0x0025) SCT Status supported. SCT Data Table supported.   SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10 Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds: ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE 5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 9 Power_On_Hours_and_Msec 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0h+00m+00.000s 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 8 170 Available_Reservd_Space 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0 171 Program_Fail_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 172 Erase_Fail_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 174 Unexpect_Power_Loss_Ct 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 5 183 SATA_Downshift_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 184 End-to-End_Error 0x0033 100 100 090 Pre-fail Always - 0 187 Uncorrectable_Error_Cnt 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0032 037 100 000 Old_age Always - 37 (Min/Max 31/41) 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 5 199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 225 Host_Writes_32MiB 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 548 226 Workld_Media_Wear_Indic 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 65535 227 Workld_Host_Reads_Perc 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 46 228 Workload_Minutes 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 65535 232 Available_Reservd_Space 0x0033 100 100 010 Pre-fail Always - 0 233 Media_Wearout_Indicator 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0 241 Host_Writes_32MiB 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 548 242 Host_Reads_32MiB 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 306 249 NAND_Writes_1GiB 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 14

[MTsai33]

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for your reply. After a few days of using, I found that the 535's "Power on hours" value is not precise. The 480GB 535 drive increased its value every two or three hours, and the 120GB 535 drive got increased every 5 hours or more. In contrast, my other two 530 drives works normally on this value, no matter one of them had been updated to the special DCV2 firmware. I'm not sure whether it is caused by firmware update or not. That's why I asked you the behavior of firmware RG21.

Also, I'm curious about why you don't suggested to update the firmware to RG2V (or DCV2 for Intel 530). I chose to update since I got a 8x~10x write amplification before, and Intel's staff had mentioned this solution in many threads [1][2]. So, is there any concern about firmware update? (e.g., data retention, data protection, etc.)

[1] https://forums.intel.com/s/question/0D70P000006UpVdSAK/intel-ssd-530-nand-write-problem

[2] https://forums.intel.com/s/question/0D70P0000068ddiSAA/extreme-wearout-nandwrites1gib-on-intel-ssdsc...

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, MTsai33.

Good day,

Thank you for the response.

There is no particular reason for me to recommend you to install that firmware (RG2V) if you are not being affected by the Write amplification, you can stay with the RG21 which is the latest version provided via Intel SSD Toolbox and Intel Firmware Update Tool; the RG2V is a special release to fix a particular issue.and there is also no harm in installing it.

Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to verify.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, MTsai33.

Good day,

I wanted to follow up on your ticket to check if you still need assistance.

Please let me know if there is anything else.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, MTsai33.

This message is to follow up on your ticket to check if there is anything else.

If you require any type of assistance from Intel, you can always contact us back.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel