As per reports, Samsung is rolling out a new firmware update for the 990 Pro SSD that fixes the underlying cause of its rapid health decline. There are a plethora of user reports regarding the rapid health decline of the 990 Pro SSD and the 980 Pro SSD families. Samsung did fix the issue on the 980 Pro SSD with a firmware update version 5B2QGXA7, and Samsung 990 Pro SSD users were waiting for the same treatment.
A new firmware update with version number 1B2QJXD7 for the 990 Pro SSD has been released. However, the company did not provide official release notes for it. The update apparently, as per Tom's Hardware, fixes the rapid health decline issue on the 990 Pro SSD. The one downside to this latest firmware update for the 990 Pro SSD is that it doesn't reset the wear percentage counter on the SSD that has been affected by the bug.
The update doesn't reset the S.M.A.R.T values to factory defaults
If you have the SSD reporting 72 percent wear, the firmware update will fix the underlying issue and keep the number from continuing to go higher, but it doesn't make the number go back down. Notably, this could be because the bug was causing drives to deteriorate at an accelerated rate or because the drive was unable to chalk out the difference between actual wear because of normal usage and artificial wear because of the bug.
One Redditor, caixote, has also acknowledged that the wear percentage remains the same, even after applying the latest update. So, if you have a Samsung 990 Pro SSD with a high wear percentage, then there is a new firmware update that could bring a fix. If you are a Windows user, you can install Samsung's firmware updates using the Samsung Magician SSD software. In the meantime, do not hesitate to contact Samsung's customer support and attempt to get the drive repaired or replaced if it is still under warranty.
