Pioneer DVDR-104 downgrade firmware from 1.41

[wulf109]

I was running firmware 1.30 but I decided to upgrade to 1.41 because it would permit 2x burning. Very big mistake,with 1.41 none of my media was recognized. I had an unesable drive. I tried to go back to 1.30,but soon discovered you can't downgrade from 1.41.
I found a file on "The Firmware Page" that said it would permit downgrade from 1.33. Since my drive was "dead" I decided to try this special upgrade.exe. I extracted my 1.30 firware to a directory on my HD. Then copied the special upgrade.exe into that directory. 1.30 used a flasher called flash.exe,I deleted that and renamed the special upgrade.exe to flash.exe. Double-clicked the .bat file and the upgrade went as normal.
The upgrade was very slow,as the website had warned,it took nearly one hour but when complete I was back to 1.30 firmware. I re-flashed it to 1.30 again to be sure I had a clean 1.30 install.
The special upgrade showed a counter of some kind,I'm guessing it was eraseing the 1.41 one line of code at a time.

[Tommyknocker]

Interesting. Since I upgraded to 1.41, any DVD-RW I burn will only play in my burner, not in my DVD-ROM, and certainly not in my DVD player. Gives me pause.

[jtommyj]

That's interesting. Been using 1.41 since it came out and my FujiFilm -RW's and CompUSA-RW's work fine. Both play in my Philips 711 and Toshiba 3950 and my Lite-On xjs-166s ROM. And they got quite a work out before I got my Lite-On 411s that burns +RW @ 4x. Saves me 45 minutes to preview my project.

Tom

[wulf109]

Are your drives recognizing DVD-R disks? You both talk about DVD-RW.
From reading firmware forums 1.41 seems very erratic,some people report no problems,others like me report a "dead" drive.
When I had 1.41 I tested only -R,sorry I didn't check -RW.
Also my 104 is a DVR-104SA which I've come to find out is a "grey" market item,intended for sale in Japon only by a company called Sotec.
Which is why I get the unmatched kernel message when I try to flash.
This may account for why mine died.
I bought it from ESbuycom who neglected to mention they sell "grey-market' items. They claimed it was a genuine Pioneer.

[Tommyknocker]

I never had a DVD-R problem, just DVD-RW. I was a little hesitant, as there is very little data on Samsung S229 with DVD-RW. My player likes the DVD-Rs, but neither it nor my DVD-ROM likes the DVD-RWs my 104 makes.

[jtommyj]

I had absolutely no problems with DVD-R either. I've used CompUSA 1x (Princo), Khypermedia 2x with the TDK code, Maxell 2x, Fujifilm 4x @2x, and Ritek G04's with no issues.

[spiderman2k1]

I upgrade it 1.30 no problem then upgrade to 1.41 no problem's.