Pioneer Writers/Recorder problems with New DVD 4X/2X Media

[RAAGAAman]

Please see CDR-info Article.
http://www.cdr-info.com/Sections/News/Details.asp?RelatedID=2760
It seems if you use the New High speed Disks without a F/W upgrade you could have some problems.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/hs/

RG

[BJ_M]

thanks for the info

[mp3superfreak]

Thanks for the info...

Upgrade to FW was very easy. Only took a minute to upgrade my DVR-104. It had FW version 1.30, the upgrade is 1.31. Pioneer also has a firmware checker that will tell you what drive you have and the firmware version installed.

It is also located:

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/hs/

[tumbar]

Thanks for the "heads up" ! I'm now running 1.32

I've been running with version 1.20, thats what came on my burner, looks like I've missed a couple updates.

Does anyone know what the previous updates were and if I should expect to notice anything different? Anything to look for?

thanks again

[BJ_M]

according to cdr/dvd firmware forum you didnt miss anything ... whatsoever

[lattedfw]

I hope someone can help me out here:

I have a DVR-103 (a Cendyne but appears to be a 103 in every way including logos and the box it came in).

I attempted to flash to 1.90 (the version for DVR-103) off of www.pioneerelectronics/hs

I get an error message:
/// DVD-ROM/DVD-RW Firmware Upgrade Utility Ver1.12E

Current Revision>> PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-103 0000 00/00/00
Processing 100% --> Complete
Now internal rebooting with new firmware....
Failed to move to the normal mode.
Upgrade program is terminated by occuring an error.

It appears it has removed all previous firmware since the first time I tried it, it said it was at 1.65.

The issue seems to be with rebooting the drive itself. The lights are on on the front, but it is non-responsive.

This is in a Dell P-4 1.7GHz. The device manager shows:
Location: Bus Number 0, Target ID 1, LUN 0

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[IremainAMisterE]

I tried to install the new firmware and it's not working for me.
I have the 1.20 firmware currently that came with my DVR-104 drive. This is what happens.
1. I download the exe file
2. Open it up and let it install in C:/DVRA04\FW132(i have a 104)
3. DOS window opens and says DVD-Rom/DVD-RW Firmware Upgrade Utility Ver1.12E. Another little grey box comes up and says UPGDVD and reads 1 Target Device is Found. Do You Want to Upgrade All Drives?
4. I press Yes and i get Model Name of Kernel Part Not Matched
5. Then it says Ending Because of Reoccuring Error. And Closes?
----------------------------------------------------------------
P.S. I even just tried installing it again and when it says Do you want to upgrade all drives i pressed NO. It then read do you want to upgrade your firmware to versions 1.32. And that my current version is 1.20. I pressed yes and same thing occured, model name of kernel part not matched?????!?
So what am i doing wrong here? This is the first time im installing a firmware update and i really don't wanna ruin my new drive. Im also running XP Pro. Pioneer's instructions page is down and not working?

Any advice?

[Burner27]

P.S. I even just tried installing it again and when it says Do you want to upgrade all drives i pressed NO.

Why do you press NO? The program is designed to only find THAT drive and nothing else. I pressed YES to that question I had no issues upgrading.

[BJ_M]

reports are that some very early versions of 104's dont upgrade .. but the jury is still out .. contrary to pioneer instructions a upgrade on 104's on a firewire bus didnt work either .. it just hung the machine ... butthe drive still works .. will pull them and upgrade through windows on another machine w/ ide

[lattedfw]

I figured out my problem. It was a DMA/PIO issue. Once I managed to switch the drive into PIO mode, it updated and rebooted itself without any trouble.

A secondary problem I had was no 'advanced settings' tab on the controller in Win2K's device manager. It showed two Ultra ATA controllers (no IDE). I uninstalled one Ultra ATA controller, had Windows search for new hardware. It added two IDE controllers, one of which had a conflict with the primary Ultra ATA (I disabled that new IDE). The second IDE controller is where the DVR-103 is located, so I was able to access the Advanced Settings tab and change the access mode.

[RAAGAAman]

IremainAMisterE wrote:
It then read do you want to upgrade your firmware to versions 1.32. And that my current version is 1.20. I pressed yes and same thing occured, model name of kernel part not matched?????!?

Did you buy this drive or did it come with your system?
If it came with a Compaq or Apple system you will need to get a OEM
F/W upgrade. They have a different Kernel which prevents Cross F/W exchanges.

RG

[BJ_M]

OEM drive and other firmware here including new region free : http://kickme.to/dvd105s

[BJ_M]

some more news here http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/27163.html

no fix for linux owners or apple yet ..

[IremainAMisterE]

Nah,none of this crap works!

I bought my Pioneer DVR-104 from ESBuy. I bought the package with the software. It also says on their site that their 104 version are NOT OEM drives and are infact retail Pioneer drives. They even got links for Pioneer and when i spoke to the guy from Pioneer last week, and he even knew what ESBuy was.

I even just tried installing the universal firmware version 1.31, which supposedly makes your drive a "true" Pioneer DVR. When i tried to install this one, i got the same thing....Model name of kernel does not match.

I guess im gonna have to call Pioneer again tomorrow.

[BASSOFeeSH]

I was getting that exact same error with my bare drive(Ebay, & has the 'MA') on the end.

First install the older "universal" firmware. It's the one in two seperate files that requires you to create a boot disk.

After that update is done, you can then use Pioneer's own upgrade to make it 1.32.

Hooray, now my drive is a 'real' 104!

[IremainAMisterE]

Good lookin out BASSOFeeSH

The only thing that sucks now is that i don't have a floppy disk handy.
I haven't used one of those in like 4 years!

Anyways, i hope i don't have any trouble. I read that this "flashes" the drive or something. But i guess as long as i follow the directions during installation, i shouldn't have a problem.

Thanx again, Later -M

[IremainAMisterE]

Oh yea baby! I finally got it to work and now i have a "true" Pioneer DVR-104 and firmware 1.32!

[chips034]

Yeh i just seen this on the screensavers tonight,i have a cendyne drive that uses that 104 drive so i guess it will work..