LG GSA-4040B A301 Firmware update

[IainStorm]

Gday guys and girls this is my first post in these forums. I have the LG GSA-4040B burner and I am very happy with it now that I have got it working at its full speed thanks to the below firmware update. I thought that I would share the link below so you can all get it if you dont know about the slightly newer software. I tested this with the shintaro blank dvd -r and princo dvd -r and I now burn at 4x fine.

http://www.lge.co.kr/open_data/GSA-4040BA301(kw).zip


P.S I posted this in the wrong forum so ive done it again here.

[urbanlegend]

I actually downloaded the above firmware from the LG Canada site under CDRW ....

I ran into a possible problem ... I installed the update and it said a few minutes however after 20 mins it said update failure and to please try again. However, after exiting the update and looking for the drive in explorer it was not found. I restarted the computer and voila the drive appeared! So it survived despite people saying if the firmware failed it would damage the drive, anyhow, I ran update again to see what if anything happened and the update said the firmware was now A301 vs before the update it A104. I tried burning two DVDs through Nero 6.0.1.9, one on DVD+RW and one on DVD+R and they both worked.

Now my question is should I re-run update or should I just leave it as is? What do the experts say?

[bluntman72]

I'd leave it alone.

[IainStorm]

urbanlegend I had the same problem when I went from a104 to a300. I left it alone and it was fine.

[DereX888]

A301 english version on canadian site
http://ca.lgservice.com/jsp/common/download.jsp?DOC_ID=KRSWL000012773&FILE_NAME=KRSWL 000012773-b1-a1.zip&ORIGINAL_NAME_b1_a1=GSA-4040BA301(ew).zip&FILE_GUBUN=B

[urbanlegend]

A301 english version on canadian site
http://ca.lgservice.com/jsp/common/download.jsp?DOC_ID=KRSWL000012773&FILE_NAME=KRSWL 000012773-b1-a1.zip&ORIGINAL_NAME_b1_a1=GSA-4040BA301(ew).zip&FILE_GUBUN=B

That is the site I downloaded it from ...

I only have one problem and this is even before the firmware upgrade and that is that with Nero it never seems to write to a DVD-R/RW disc it starts to cache and freezes right there. I have used cheap Princo discs and even Maxell (both 2x) but neither work. If I use DVD+R Maxell 4x it works perfectly and same with Verbatim DVD+RW. Any ideas?

[Colindale]

I have burnt DVD+r and DVD+RW with the latest Firmware A301, also
cheap? Princo work perfectly at 4x. all 20 so far and no coasters.

Been using Princo brand for years and don't understand why people have problems with them!.

[urbanlegend]

I have burnt DVD+r and DVD+RW with the latest Firmware A301, also
cheap? Princo work perfectly at 4x. all 20 so far and no coasters.

Been using Princo brand for years and don't understand why people have problems with them!.

Princo "-" is the problem, actually no matter what brand of the "-" they are all problems so far on the LG 4040B DVD+R/RW no problems at all whatsoever knock on wood

[B0ng]

What specific improvements are there after installing the new firmware? It doesn't seem to fix the problem of not being able to burn -R's at 4x for me.

[IainStorm]

After the new Firmware update I have no problems with Burning at x4 with any - or + media. You might want to look into the software you are useing to burn your dvds.

[Colindale]

urbanlegend

??Princo "-" is the problem,??

Strange, friend I dont seem to have a problem, people forget there
are other variables that cause problems, your hardware for instance!.


Read the DVD Writer Comments, since the A301 Firmware you should not have problem with Princo at 4x. and others.

[chill007]

I am also using the new A301 firmware with Princo DVD "-" media and it burns flawlessly @ 4X so it must be a problem with your hardware setup.

[DereX888]

well i didnt have problem with *some* 4x princos even with first fmware i had on this drive. It all depended on a batch of discs they had at the store at the moment; and because of this i am not buying 50's spindles of blanks anymore - i buy now few pcs at first, and if they all work at 4x - i go back to the store and buy more, usually you get them from same batch if go back same day. Otherwise its just waste of $ to pay for 4x and burn them at 2x

From all cheap blanks I had so far the only major problems are with Leadtek(ch?) Data 4x blanks i bought once very cheap - not even 1 out of 50 was able to burn at 4x (but they havent made any coaster at 2x either LOL

Someone asked about whats new in A301. IMHO I dont see any difference over A300, *but* I don't use any + discs at all, so maybe thats where the updates are?
A300 firmware had some improvement in speed of writing RAM discs tho I can't be 100% sure since I didnt do any tests before with A104 fware, but it seems that all DVD-RAM discs I have (mostly Maxell, Panasonic, TDKs) were written slightly faster than with old fmware.

[B0ng]

I'm using LEADDATA01 -R's and using Nero to burn them. I tried to use RecordNow MAX but for some reason my LG drive won't show up in the app. Alcohol 120% only burns images so im stuck w/ Nero.

[urbanlegend]

I am also using the new A301 firmware with Princo DVD "-" media and it burns flawlessly @ 4X so it must be a problem with your hardware setup.

I cant burn any "-" R's regardless of being 1x,2x or 4x. Do you really think the hardware setup would have something to do with the type of media I am burning on even though "+" and "RAM" are no problems I would think if my hardware setup was the problem I would have been able to burn at all.

Anyways, thanks to "-" not being able to burn I am starting to enjoy more of the "+" capabilities I have a standalone DVD Recorder which uses "-" so having "-" on this drive doesnt make that much of a difference I guess.

[urbanlegend]

An Update:

I tried using different DVD-Rs and DVD-RWs and none would work still causing Nero to freeze. I even updated to the latest ASPI....but still nothing. I finally found the reason:

In Win XP if you go to your Device Manager, IDE Controller and (considering your LG 4040B is your Secondary Master) change the Device 0 in both your Primary and Secondary IDE to PIO it will allow the DVD-Rs to work. Hope this bit of info helps anyone else out there who has this drive.....

[DereX888]

@ urbanlegend

Perhaps you should try update drivers for your mobo's bus chipset? GSA 4040b works in UDMA2, and if it work in PIO only on your system then obviously you should do some research on your motherboard/chipset configuration. It may be settings etc