If you have a Samsung 980 Pro in your gaming PC, it's time to update it. Worse yet, if it is your Windows boot drive, your entire system may one day just stop booting.

The problem was discovered by system builder Puget Systems (open in new tab) (via NordicHardware (open in new tab)), which says, "Despite being historically one of the most reliable parts, Samsung drives , We have received an alarming number of reports of defects, especially in the 2TB version of the 980 Pro."

It further states that working with Samsung itself, it has confirmed that the firmware that the 980 Pro SSDs were shipped with is the cause of these failures and needs to be updated as soon as possible.

The drive is suddenly locked into read-only mode and cannot be written to, rendering the SSD virtually completely unusable; the OS is constantly performing read/write operations as part of the general process, meaning the system will not boot.

According to Puget Systems, this problem is especially occurring with the 2TB version of the drive, but Samsung "recommends updating the firmware on all 980 Pro drives to the latest version (5B2QGXA7) to prevent the problem from occurring."

The firmware update is simply an in-place upgrade and should retain all current data, but it is prudent to back up the firmware if possible, just in case.

The firmware version affected is 3B2QGXA7, but Puget Systems claims that drives running 4B2QGXA7 firmware are fine, even if Samsung recommends a more recent update.

It is not known if Samsung is in direct contact with its customers, as nothing is currently listed in the Samsung newsroom itself, but Puget Systems is reportedly in e-mail contact with all potentially affected customers today.

The fix is simple: download the Samsung SSD Magician software from the SSD support site (opens in a new tab), and once installed, simply open the application and go to the update tab and update the firmware from there. It's easy; your SSD will not die.

Samsung is not having a great time with SSDs right now; not only is the 980 Pro in danger of imminent death if it is not updated, but there are numerous reports of new 990 Pro drives suffering from poor health (opens in new tab). 980 Pro. The same SSD Magician software that can save the day has users reporting problems with the rapidly declining health of their new SSD drives (opens in new tab).

However, Samsung seems to refuse to take responsibility for this problem, and drives sent back to the manufacturer have been returned with the claim that no defects were found. Basically, it was just bad luck.

After the initial report was picked up by various forums and publications, Samsung's RMA department contacted the original Neowin contributor to replace the drive and reproduce the problem.

However, based on reactions in various forums and social networks, it appears that this is not an isolated incident, and we can expect another firmware update alert to be issued soon, probably for the 990 Pro as well.