Re: SanDisk P4 16GB firmware 8.13

[Grant Grundler]

+chromium-os-dev

On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 12:06 PM, Jeff Kent <je...@jkent.net> wrote:

Hi Grant,

I hope you don't mind me emailing you directly.  I'm a hardware hacker and early CR48 test pilot; my CR48 is still kickin' after a screen replacement and hinge/lid plastic repair.

Hi Jeff,

I don't mind...but I'm going to include a public maling list so others can find the same warnings. :)

 

I have contacted SanDisk directly about the P4 SSD firmware, and they pointed me back to Google for support.  I would very much like to get ahold of the 8.13 firmware, if at all possible, for the SanDisk SSD P4 16GB so I can use TRIM.

I never got either 8.10 or 8.13 firmware from SanDisk.  I can ask again but am not optmistic I'll be able redistribute this.  Perhaps using hdparm someone could download the 8.10 firmware from their SanDisk "SSD P4 3AX2" 16GB device and post it here for you.  I think updating to 8.10 should be "good enough" for your purposes.

As already noted in the bug, I will remind that updating to 8.13 Firmware requires using SanDisk's proprietary and unreleased tool.  In other words, we can not perform this update. :(  I was told the internal data structures changed so much between 8.10 and 8.13, it's not possible to update using any normally available tools.

After trying unsuccessfully to get TRIM working, I discovered the updated firmware via this bug:  https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=200023  I understand I would be applying the firmware at my own risk and that my SSD may or may not not come out alive.

Thank you for acknowledging the risks.  Fortunately the SSD is replaceable and not technically difficult to replace. I'm sure there are plenty broken CR48s (or any ChromeBook released in 2010 or 2011) that have a working SanDisk P4 16GB SSD with 8.13 already installed. My advice is to start looking for one of those.

I know hdparm works to update "Sandisk P5" (aka U100 model) firmware. I suspect hdparm might be able to update firmware on "Sandisk P4" but I'm not certain of that.

cheers,

grant

Thanks and have a great day,

Jeff Kent