More Firmware Help Needed!!!

[prnking]

ok first off thanks for the help on that last post. Next does it matter if i get the firmware for the Ricoh MP7163A or does it have to be say Ricoh MP7163A-DP. Basically are they the same drives cause i dont see the firmware for the Ricoh MP7163A-DP all i can find is the firmware for the Ricoh MP7163A. Thanks again

[ya_jai]

Have you check at http://www.cdrinfo.com You might be able to file the right firmware and also read something about this Ricoh 16x10x32.

BTW what was your original problem with this drive, again pls?

[prnking]

My original problem had to do with a medium speed error when trying to use nero 5.5.9 to make VCD's. It also happens when i try n make audio cd and disc to disc copies. Even the windows media gives me an invalid alignment specified when i try and burn cd's.( the windows media thing may be unrelated to my original problem i don't kno) But thanks for ur help and i hope i can get this shit fixed soon. BTW i've already downloaded and tried to install/upgrade my firmware and it gave me some NG***NG***NG error and I am waiting for the company to reply.

[ya_jai]

I did check all your post about this problem but I can't find what is your OS.

If you use winXP that might be your main problem becuz of its burnning engine? I have heard a lot of ppl using XP burnning engine and other burnning software having all kind of trouble.

If you use winXP, I'd suggest you to, first disable XP burnning engine (come OEM with all XP), second install/update ASPI layer (ForceASPI is okay) then re-install other burnning software you wish to use.

[prnking]

yep i use XP home edition and i dont really kno enough to remove the burning engines so ne help will be apprieciated and yes i have used the force aspi so they should be fine they say they are valid in my VCd easy program

[ya_jai]

I'm not sure, if it will work to disable burnning engine after install ASPI layer.

Here how to
open "My computer" right click on CDRW dirve (burnner drive). There you will see "Recording Tab" uncheck every options in there and that's it.

I'd suggest after you disable XP burnning engine, try to burn with NERO and if it sitll give you a probelm then you might have to uninstall and reinstall again.

NOTE it's better if you disable XP burnning engine first, then install ForceAspi layer then install burnning software.

[prnking]

Ok i think i did everything right. I unchecked the one and only box in the recording tabb. I uninstalled my nero 5.5.9. Then i dumped my old aspi and backed em up and then put in a new layer. Then i restarted like the aspi driver thing said.Then i reinstalled Nero and tried to burn the same file that worked like a week or two ago. I still got the medium speed error. This is gonna drive me crazy. Thanks for ur help again!

[ya_jai]

Let check one more thing. Do you enable DMA for that burnner drive?

Check under Control panel --> Performance and maintenance --> System --> hardware --> Device manager. Under IDE ATA/ATAPI right click on Primary or Secondary where your burnner drive connect to. Then select properties under advance tab you should see DMA if available and/or PIO Only. If you burnner dirve have PIO only then you need to change it to DMA if available. make sure you choose the right one.

Primary is where the main hard drive located. Secondary most likely use for CD-rom, CD-burner. Device 0 is master drive of that IDE, and device 1 is slave.

If DMA doesnt help or you already enable it. I admit this will be very hard to figure it out. One another thing you can do is to disable XP burning engine completly. This you will have to log in as "admin" becuz you are about to change some service. Goto Control panel -->Administrative Tools -->Component services -->Local service then look for IMAPI CD-burning COM Service, double clicks then set to Disable and restart. I'm using XP pro so it might a bit different from XP home.

[ya_jai]

test

[prnking]

Ok i tried both of the things you told me to. DMA was alredy enabled and disabling the XP burning engine completely didnt work. I still got the medium speed error in Nero. Maybe it is my firmware which I can't find a way to upgrade those people from the firmware site better get back to me soon!!! Or maybe someone from here can help ??

[ya_jai]

I have read from your other posts. You said that NERO give you only 16x (Max speed) speed to burn and you cannot choose any lower speed, is that correct? There might be something wrong with that too. You might be able to try Older version of NERO and then use with good cdr brand like Sony, Fuji).

Yes I think now you'd better wait until you get firmware update for your drive to see if it solve the problem. What is your firmware version and what is show under device name? it should be something like RW-161032, LTR1632, CRW1632 and 1.02, 1.50c, BR08 something like that check under device manager). Justlink can be Ricoh, Some of Aopen model, NEC. Artec and etc..
Be careful when you flash/upgrade new firmware to your drive, if you flash the wrong firmware on incomplaitble, you might kill your drive completely.

Sorry I can't help solve your problem

[prnking]

Ok my problem with the firmware is I downloaded and tried to install it and i got the NG error. My CD-R is called RW-161032 in the device manager. The only speed in Nero that worked for me was 16x and i'll get an older version sometime today to try out. I 'm trying to use Maxell blank Cd's they usually work fine. I'm not sure bout my firmware version but any links to good firmware sites would help a lot maybe even one with a toll free number or chat/IM for help if it doesn't work. But thanks again you've taught me a few new things bout my computer.

[ya_jai]

You can use Nero to see you Firmware Revision. Open up Nero, goto Recorder --> Choose Recorder. There you will see Firmware Revision.

With RW-161032 you drive might be an Artec with Ricoh chipset, (I'm not sure about this) and that why you had problem ungrade firmware the last time. I will search some more on this and will let you know. \

In the meantime I want you to try with older version of NERO in order to lower speed when burning. Or you can try different burning software, if for VCD/SVCD I'd suggest you create impage file (bin/cue file) with VCDeasy/TSCV then burn with burnatonce, cdrwin etc...

Here the link for BurnAtOnce software, it is small application and FREE
http://www.burnatonce.com

[prnking]

Ok i finally looked in Nero to see my firmware version it was 1.00. I also tried Nero 5.5.1 and Nero 5.5.7 neither of them worked for me. And I got burnatonce program I'm not sure what type of file it wants cause there is a bin/cue file on my cdesktop and burnatonce didn't seem to recognize it??

[ya_jai]

Burnatonce should see your cue file if your have bin file with the same name. Did you load cue file into burnatonce? I think the better way is to create new bin/cue file from your mpg file using VCDeasy or TSCV (vcdimager's gui). Set both's name to be the same like movie.bin and movie.cue or leave it at default (videocd.bin, videocd.cue).

About your problem, this past weekend I had been tested with my writher RW-241040 which I suspect it is the same manufacture as yours. I burnt different type of media at various speeds. I have found out that, my burner would show speed error when burn to CDRW (memorex 4X and 10X, TDK 10X) but burnt without a probelm with any brand of CDR (Sony 32X, Fuji 24X, Memorex (taiyo)24X, Philips 40X). The thing is this burner run under win98 and I can choose different speed (4x-24x) with NERO 5.5.9.0. So it might not be able to apply in your case.

I quite confident that your drive is Artec one but still I can't find any firmware for it just yet. I'm still working on this.

To be alternative, You might consider to chage the writer to be something more reliable and troubleless and becuz they are sold pretty cheap (after rebate) nowadays.