Firmware Flash

[The Beef]

Hiya folkes! Is it worth me flashing, whatever needs to be flashed concerning, the Firmware for my DvD drive? Will it help matters with CloneCD? Will it help to improve the prformance? Also what is Firmware please?

Thanks

[squidgy]

I thought the only thing you'd normally want to do that for would be to turn a region fixed drive into multi region. If you really do intend to buy DVD's from all over the world, then yes, there's a point, but if you just intend to rip DVD's and turn them into DivX's, you might as well rent, but you'll find it incredibly difficult to rent DVD's that aren't region 2 in the UK anyway, you won't find libraries in the USA that are really prepared to send DVD's to you and expect them back again, so there isn't a lot of point.

(Erm, I din't really say that, of course, ripping rented DVD's is very naughty! Seriously, I've never done it, but that's mainly because I don't have the free hard disk space for it yet.)

[bouncingjohn]

Firmware is just software that's stored on an EPROM (i.e. halfway between soft and hard).

Whether it would be worth flashing anything depends on what you want to do and whether you're having problems or not. For example; flashing the BIOS will almost always give some benefit, but it can be dangerous and is probably best left alone unless a) you know what you're doing and b) you really need the upgrade (e.g. to handle a new piece of hardware).

[The Beef]

I was looking up info concerning my NEC Cd-R/RW and DvD drive, trying to find out why I'm having probs with most Cd cloning software. I noticed on another messageboard someone mentioning a flashware upgrade for my particular CD-RW model. I just wanted to know if this would help matters and improve perfomance in any way.

Hi,

Clone CD is picky/choosy on what readers/writers it is fully compatible with. Have a look at the elaborate bytes webby and see if your Rom is supported and to what extent. They sometimes give advice on solutions to get better results.

HIH... STS

[Scoobs]

beef you might find that you have the latest version all ready if your drive is new. you can find out what version you have by going to device manager / and clicking on the cdrw drive and properties then setings.

Hi,

<BUMP>

Look here Beef CLONE

STS

[The Beef]

Thanks STS but Clone Cd doesn't seem to want to work for me
In fact all the other types of CD cloning software don't seem to want to work for me. It's not fair!

[bouncingjohn]

My copy of CloneCD hasn't worked since I entered a, um, not entirely legal validation code.

Everything appears to work fine and it'll give you the fanfare at the end, but it'll just produce a coaster for you.

I've been told that it can detect some "cracks" and writes something to the BIOS of the hard drive to prevent the software working (how accurate, or indeed possible, this is I couldn't say).

[The Beef]

The software I'm trying to clone is legitemate. It was also the official Clone Cd software also. I think it's time to give up and just hope I don't lose my originals.

Hi,

Beef, PM me with your successes and failures, settings and progs used. We will try and get you sorted out.

That's If U want to of course

Will be about for most of the weekend and starting Nts Moday so be up and about most days too.

STS