Lite-On firmware upgrades

smitbret

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I've read a bit about upgrading read speeds on Lite-On CD-RWs with new firmware. Is this something that Lite-On is doing on purpose; am I upgrading to a 52x by using the firmware upgrade specifically for my 48x drive or do I need to use the firmware for a different drive?
-Brett
 

lagger

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lite-on does NOT support this, it voids your warranty you cannot just use the firmware for the 52x to make the 48x a 52x BUT you CAN do this upgrade and you CAN get all the information, instructions and help you need as well as the needed utilities for the change including flashing drives made by Lite-on and rebadged and sold by other companies (eg. Memorex drives) and instructions etc for restoring the original firmware to the drive on the forums for Lite-on <A HREF="http://www.cdfreaks.com" target="_new"> here </A>

<b><font color=blue>Of all the things I've lost in life, I miss my mind the most </b></font color=blue>
 

lhgpoobaa

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You can upgrad to new firmware for the same drive. Thats perfectly ok and doesnt void your warantee.

What does void it however is updating your firmware to that of a FASTER or different drive.

This is called 'overclocking' and is definately NOT supported by Liteon. Anything you do is your risk & responsability.

That said, its quite easy to do, and depending on the drive you have it works well.

What you need is a bootable dos floppy disk, the latest verson of mtkflash.exe and the appropriate firmware binary file.

<A HREF="http://www.cdfreaks.com" target="_new">http://www.cdfreaks.com</A> have a big overclocking thread in their forums that covers all this.

P.S. I have a Liteon 48246S (48x24x48x) that ive sucessfully updated to a 52246S (52x24x52x) unit... and it will probably upgrade to a 52x32x52x later as well.

<b><i>The Very Hungry Caterpillar</i> - George W. Bush's favorite childhood book.
Note: This book was first published a year after Mr Bush graduated from College.</b>
 

lagger

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can be run in windows:

Allow a firmware to flash ANY drive with FLASHFIX
The firmware update utility of Liteon/Jlms drives will sometime refuse to flash the drive.

E.g: It will not allow to "downgrade" the firmware or to reflash with the same firmware version and it will refuse most OEM drives.

The Flashfix utility will patch many Liteon/Jlms Windows based firmware utilities so as to allow them to flash ANY drive.
It does not change the firmware itself, just bypass the checking function of the flashing utility.

We know it works with all Ltd-165/166 firmwares and with most Liteon CDRW firmwares too!!

<font color=red>As of now it won't patch the ltd122/163 dvd range.</font color=red>

How to know for sure? If you need such a fix, just try it. If it can't patch, it will tell you!

It is very simple and quick to run but it's up to you not to do anything stupid with it!

Just make 100% sure the firmware you patch is compatible with your drive, and when you run the actual flash be absolutely sure to select the right drive.

To run Flashfix.exe have it and the firmware in the same directory, make sure the firmware is NOT Read Only, and run this command (in the command line or in a Dos box):
<b><font color=red> WARNING: The firmware you fix will "agree" to flash ANY drive on your system!</b></font color=red>

If you select a wrong drive from the drop-down menu it might damage that drive!

FLASHFIX.EXE XXXX.EXE
where XXXX is the firmware file name e.g: DS0F.EXE or CH0Z.EXE.

<b><font color=green>It will make a backup and patch the firmware.</b></font color=green>

Now you can proceed to flash your drive the normal way.


Acknowledgement: Many many thanks to Dale who wrote Flashfix and kindly made it available for all to use!


Download Flashfix here and please help us build a database by reporting your results <A HREF="http://www.mand.tmfweb.nl/flashfix.htm" target="_new"> here </A>







<b><font color=blue>Of all the things I've lost in life, I miss my mind the most </b></font color=blue>
 

lhgpoobaa

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Dec 31, 2007
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Whats the point of updating my dvd drive? (its a LTD-165H)

Can i make it a 166. is that any better?

<b><i>The Very Hungry Caterpillar</i> - George W. Bush's favorite childhood book.
Note: This book was first published a year after Mr Bush graduated from College.</b>
 

lagger

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not sure about the speed thing will check later .. for the most part certain ummm features may be enabled ... like region free which allows you yo play "backup" dvd's in the drive

<b><font color=blue>Of all the things I've lost in life, I miss my mind the most </b></font color=blue>
 

lhgpoobaa

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Heh. i just used the region free patch. it works fine.

<b><i>The Very Hungry Caterpillar</i> - George W. Bush's favorite childhood book.
Note: This book was first published a year after Mr Bush graduated from College.</b>
 

lagger

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yeah I want to get a dvd writer but am holding back for a couple of reasons .. kinda waiting for a standard format to emerge and be final and also I don't like the idea of needing an atip hider utility running so I can run my cd-r backups in the same machine... as it is I use a cdrom and a cdrw in the same machine to avoid having to do this. I suppose I could use a raid motherboard and boot from the array so I could put 3 opticals on ide 1 and ide 2 ... hmmm methinks I may have the excuse I need to upgrade my system here lol

<b><font color=blue>Of all the things I've lost in life, I miss my mind the most </b></font color=blue>
 

lhgpoobaa

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Dec 31, 2007
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Mmmm I love my epox 8k3a+ with onboard raid.
I have 4 drives, and each is on a seperate channel for maximum goodness.
Primary Master: liteon dvd
Secondary Master: Liteon 52x24x52x
Raid channel 1 Master: 800Jb boot drive
Raid channel 2 Master: d740x backup drive

<b><i>The Very Hungry Caterpillar</i> - George W. Bush's favorite childhood book.
Note: This book was first published a year after Mr Bush graduated from College.</b>