August | 2024 | JC-LAN.org

I had a PC system based on an ASRock Z97 chipset motherboard with a Haswell generation i7 processor and integrated graphics. Before considering the system stable, I was attempting to do a stress test using the latest version of UBCD (version V5.3.9 at the time of this writing). For these tests, I used Rufus to burn the ISO to a USB disk.

As expected, when booting from the thumbdrive, I had to select the non-UEFI version, otherwise the system would kick back to the boot menu.

Once loaded into UBCD, I found that Prime95 as well as choosing many other options under the CPU category would fail to load. Upon selecting an option, the system would immediately black screen and then automatically restart. However the Memory -> Memtest86 option worked fine and was completely stable.

I tried many things to resolve the issue such as resetting all BIOS options to default, a different thumb drive, different processor (i5, another Devil’s Canyon Haswell) and a different power supply. None of these fixed it.

As another test I booted the system into Windows 10 and it looped Prime95 without a problem, so I kept digging.

During my research, I stumbled upon a support thread on the UBCD forums, specifically this post:

https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=11119#p11119

All of the tests that were failing were due to depending on CPUstress, which is launched by syslinux. This includes:

CPUburn
CPU Burn-in
CPUinfo
Intel Optimized LINPACK Benchmark
Mersenne Prime Test (prime95)
Stress
StressCPU
System Stability Tester

On the otherhand, the options that were functional included:

CPUID
x86test
Intel Processor Frequency ID
Intel Process Identification Utility

A workaround for the failing tests is to first select the desired test, press tab key and then change the first part of the commandt from:

/ubcd/boot/cpustress/bzImage

to:

/pmagic/bzImage

Then press enter. This managed to get the CPU test loaded (in this case Mersenne Prime test), however the USB keyboard stopped working and I couldn’t answer the prompts to begin the test. I immediately plugged in a PS/2 keyboard and was able to get it working that way.

Another workaround I discovered was installing a dedicated video card. With the GPU installed, everything worked as expected without modifying the boot loader.

However if you don’t have a discrete GPU available, the final fix I found a workaround in the BIOS.

My motherboard had an option to set the amount of memory to dedicate to the integrated graphics processor built into the CPU (Advanced -> Chipset Configuration -> Share Memory). By default this option is set to Auto. The fix is to set it to a specific value that is between 32MB and 128MB. Setting it to 256MB would fail in the same way as Auto.

Once that is set, reboot, boot up UBCD and try the CPU test again!

You may find updating the firmware on an enterprise class Samsung PM863a SSD difficult. In this case I had a specific part number of MZ7LM3T8HMLP-00003.

The first step is to check the label on the drive and look for the version of F/W.

In my case I had GXT5003Q. The second to last digit of the firmware is important because the number 3 represents a non SED model while a number 4 represents an SED model (Self Encrypting Drive).

The next step is to boot up Windows based system with the drive installed. I found that Samsung Magician didn’t support the drive and simply shows “N/A.” I also tried an older command line application called SSDManager, but received the error: Detect Security Vulnerablility.

What finally worked with this drive was the application Samsung DC Toolkit. The software is available at the link below, (near the bottom of the page) and under the section Samsung SSD Toolkit for Data center:

https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/support/tools/

There are 2 published versions of the software. For a PM863a drive, you will need version 2.x per the documentation:

Samsung SSD DC Toolkit Version 2.1 is designed to work with Samsung SSD products including PM863, PM863a, SM863, SM863a, PM963 non-customized, 860 DCT, 883 DCT, 983 DCT, 983 DCT M.2 and 983 ZET. This software is not compatible with other manufacturers’ SSDs.

For this guide, I used version 2.1.W.Q.0 of Samsung DC Toolkit. A direct link is below:
https://semiconductor.samsung.com/resources/software-resources/Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe

Save this toolkit executable to a convenient location. It is portable and does not need to be installed.

Open a command prompt with Administrator privileges. Then navigate to the location of the download. Run the executable via the command line and you should be presented with something similar to:

Allowed Operations:
————————————————————————————————
-L [ –list ] Shows disks attached to the system
-I [ –info ] Displays the disk details
-ID [ –identify ] Shows Identify Informations
-F [ –firmware-update ] Updates firmware to specified disk
-E [ –erase ] Securely Erases all data from specified disk
-S [ –smart ] Shows SMART values of specified disk
-M [ –setmax ] Perform SetMax related operations on specified disk
-X [ –sct ] Executes SCT Commands on specified disk
-V [ –vendor-utility ] Execute Vendor Unique command on specified disk
-NG [ –nvme-get-log-pages ] Display Log Pages on specified NVMe disk
-NF [ –nvme-format-namespace ] Execute format command on specified NVMe disk
-NM [ –nvme-management-namespace ] Execute management command on specified NVMe disk
-ND [ –nvme-firmware-download ] Updates firmware to specified NVMe disk
-NC [ –nvme-firmware-commit ] Commit the firmware image on specified NVMe disk
-NV [ –nvme-vendor-utility ] Execute Vendor Unique command on specified NVMe disk
-HM [ –health-monitor ] Execute Health Monitor feature.
-C [ –command-history ] Shows history of the previously executed commands
-H [ –help ] Shows detailed help
————————————————————————————————

The first step is to run it again, but add the list option -L to generate a list of all available disks. The output should be similar to the below:

Make note of the drive number in the list. In the example above, there was only a single drive in the machine so the drive number was assigned 0.

The next step is to download the appropriate firmware. The SED and non SED firmwares are both available at the link below (GXT5103Q_nonSED.bin and GXT5404Q.bin). Since the drive in my possession was a non SED model, I used the latest number 3 firmware available: GXT5103Q.

https://c.gmx.net/@324567863383819227/SlDWEtrmRueJ4nCqdGfOsQ/1186031158467499200

Save the firmware to the same location as the toolkit executable.

To upgrade the firmware, we will be using the -F option. If you run the toolkit executable with just this flag, you will see something similar to the below:

————————————————————————————————
Usage:
Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe -d [diskindex] -F [ –firmware-update ] [parameter-list]

Example:
Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe –disk 1 –firmware-update –fwpackage-path /path/dsrdenc
[or] Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe -d 1 -F -p /path/dsrdenc
Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe –disk 1 –firmware-update –fwpackage-path /path/dsrdenc
[or] Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe -d 1 -F -p /path/dsrdenc
Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe –disk 1 –firmware-update –fwpackage-path /path/dsrdenc
[or] Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe -d 1 -F -p /path/dsrdenc
Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe –disk 1 –firmware-update –fwpackage-path /path/dsrdenc –force
[or] Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe -d 1 -F -p /path/dsrdenc –force
Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe –disk A –firmware-update –fwpackage-path /path/dsrdenc –source “ABCD1234” (–force)
[or] Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe -d A -F -p /path/dsrdenc -s “ABCD1234” (–force)

Sub Options:
-d [ –disk ] Disk-Number of the disk or A to select all supported disks to update firmware on.
-p [ –fwpackage-path ] Path to the FW binary file.
–force [ –force ] Enables the user to perform Firmware Download without prompting for any confirmations.
-s [ –source ] source firmware revision, use with option ‘A'(update multiple devices at ones).
A [ A ] updating all SATA devices(except primary device) to specific target firmware, use character ‘A’ instead of disk number.
————————————————————————————————

Here we can see we need 2 additional sub options for the firmware update, -d and -p. This will allow us to specify which disk number (from our previous list output) and also the location of the firmware (downloaded earlier).

Perform the firmware upgrade on the drive. In this example, I used:

Samsung_SSD_DC_Toolkit_for_Windows_V2.1.exe -F -p GXT5103Q_nonSED.bin -d 0

Proceed by providing a yes confirmation.

If the flash was successful, you should see an output similar to the below:

————————————————————————————————
[[ WARNING ]]

Please Note that Firmware Update may format the disk and you will lose your data.
Please Ensure that data backup is taken before proceeding to Firmware Update.
If you are sure then only proceed, otherwise restart the application after taking a backup.
Continue Firmware Update ? [ yes ]: yes
————————————————————————————————
[F/W Update] Disk is Updated with the New Firmware.
————————————————————————————————
[F/W Update] Success
————————————————————————————————

Power cycle the machine, and you should now be running the latest firmware!

Notes:
If you try to flash an SED firmware on a non SED drive (or vice versa), then the firmware update will fail and you will receive this error:

————————————————————————————————
[ERROR] Firmware Update Failed Due to a failure in device interaction.
————————————————————————————————
[F/W Update] Failure
————————————————————————————————

References:
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/firmware-package-for-samsung-sm883-mz7kh3t8hals.37154/

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/pm863-fw-file.18084/

https://c.gmx.net/@324567863383819227/SlDWEtrmRueJ4nCqdGfOsQ/ROOT

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Monthly Archives: August 2024

Selecting a CPU test in Ultimate Boot CD instantly reboots the system

Samsung PM863a SSD Flashing [ERROR] Firmware Update Failed Due to a failure in device interaction.