[smartmontools-support] Samsung HD502IJ new firmware causes i/o error while querying Device Statistics log

[Viktor Štujber]

I have an old SAMSUNG SpinPoint F1 DT (model: HD502IJ). I updated it 
from 1AA01112 to 1AA01117 using a sketchy Dell firmware bundle that has 
been reported to mis-identify and mis-patch other drive models. The 
update seems to work, but now when I query extended info (-ax), the last 
few steps encounter an i/o error and the HDD stops responding to all 
subsequent queries ("Read Device Identity failed: Input/output error") 
until a single read/write operation is done. Then it's possible to query 
it again. Querying the non-extended info works fine.

In the diff between an old and new listing, I see the following:

  0x01           SL  R/O      1  Summary SMART error log
  0x02           SL  R/O      2  Comprehensive SMART error log
  0x03       GPL     R/O      2  Ext. Comprehensive SMART error log
+0x04       GPL     R/O      2  Device Statistics log
  0x06           SL  R/O      1  SMART self-test log
  0x07       GPL     R/O      2  Extended self-test log
  0x09           SL  R/W      1  Selective self-test log
  0x10       GPL     R/O      1  NCQ Command Error log
  0x11       GPL     R/O      1  SATA Phy Event Counters log
+0x21       GPL     R/O      2  Write stream error log
+0x22       GPL     R/O      2  Read stream error log
  0x80-0x9f  GPL,SL  R/W     16  Host vendor specific log
  0xe0       GPL,SL  R/W      1  SCT Command/Status
  0xe1       GPL,SL  R/W      1  SCT Data Transfer

-Device Statistics (GP/SMART Log 0x04) not supported
+ATA_READ_LOG_EXT (addr=0x04:0x00, page=0, n=1) failed: Input/output error
+Read Device Statistics page 0x00 failed

At this point I don't know if this is a generic vs branded firmware 
inconsistency, or if the new firmware lies about its capabilitties, or 
if the drive needs some particular compatibility settings to query it 
properly, or if the actual i/o error occurs at some preceding 
non-displayed operation. I figured I should ask before I start trying 
random things.