New Firmware for Sony 500A / 500AX / UL / ULX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sidneysides]

Free Firmware Upgrade
DRU-500A, DRU-500AX, DRX-500UL, and DRX-500ULX


http://sony.storagesupport.com/freeupgrade/

Allows your Dual RW drive to record at 4X on 4X compatible DVD+R media.
Improves reading and writing performance and reliability.
Reduces vibration noise for the discs with unbalance or eccentricity.

Firmware Version 2.0E

Will let u know if it cures 4x probs

[Bob W]

Thanks I will give it a go. I have nothing to lose since my 500A won't record at 4x on any DVD-R.

[sidneysides]

I DON'T BELIEVE IT..

Still recording at 2x on my Ritek go4.

[SaSi]

Not to worry...

Quite a few letters in the alphabet until we reach Z

They will probably fix it by then.

Or we will have thrown away the drive as obsolete.

By the way, I am blessed. I can't find any 4x media where I live. So I don't have a problem, right?

(Just trying to make me feel better over this )

[ptmurphy]

OK, I'm confused. I thought the last firmware was 1.0g.

Is the 1.0E a downgrade? Old firmware?

[sidneysides]

It's 2 (two).0e not 1.0e

[ptmurphy]

Thanks! I guess I need glasses!

[shinboy]

I just tried the new firmware 2.0e. I usually use rated 1x dvd-r that is able to write at 2x after the update the lead data disc that are rated at 1x are no longer able to write at 2x so I'm going back to the 1.0g firmware.

I have a question to the people using 4x disc. Are you not able to burn at dvd-r at 4x is it due to just the firmware or is it due to the computer setup? I know that sony is sensitive to how your puta is setup they want you to use the newest updates, dma mode and want your ide configuration to setup in a certain way.

[Bob W]

I just tried the new firmware 2.0e. I usually use rated 1x dvd-r that is able to write at 2x after the update the lead data disc that are rated at 1x are no longer able to write at 2x so I'm going back to the 1.0g firmware.

I have a question to the people using 4x disc. Are you not able to burn at dvd-r at 4x is it due to just the firmware or is it due to the computer setup? I know that sony is sensitive to how your puta is setup they want you to use the newest updates, dma mode and want your ide configuration to setup in a certain way.

I can answer that question. My Sony DRU500A firmware version 1.0d would burn any brand 4x DVD-R until I updated the firmware to 1.0g. Going back to 1.0d didn't help as it would just do 4x for 10% of the disc then drop back to 2x and it doesn't matter what brand of 4x DVD-R media I use the drive no longer will do 4x. I bought a Pioneer 105 which does 4x on any brand media I throw at it.

[mrbass]

I'm going insane 500ax. First 3 outta 6 burned at 4X. Now I can't get it to burn at 4X. Funny thing is (I ain't laughing) is if I do a test it'll show it's writing at 4X. Then I'll abort the test and try to burn and 30mins...suck. Well I've tried with regular ATAPI cable. UDMA Cable. Primary slave, Primary Master. This really sucks the bigone. I have 200 Ritek 4X G04 which I'm questioning why didn't I just save $140 and burn at 2X instead which I'm doing now.

I'm gonna give this firmware a try cuz I ain't got nothing to lose except more and more frustration with sony.

[Bob W]

I'm going insane 500ax. First 3 outta 6 burned at 4X. Now I can't get it to burn at 4X. Funny thing is (I ain't laughing) is if I do a test it'll show it's writing at 4X. Then I'll abort the test and try to burn and 30mins...suck. Well I've tried with regular ATAPI cable. UDMA Cable. Primary slave, Primary Master. This really sucks the bigone. I have 200 Ritek 4X G04 which I'm questioning why didn't I just save $140 and burn at 2X instead which I'm doing now.

I'm gonna give this firmware a try cuz I ain't got nothing to lose except more and more frustration with sony.

Welcome to the club. I had a full set of hair when I bought my Sony. BTW I also tried all and every trick I know plus a few that were suggested here but in the end I still had a crippled burner and 200+ expensive 4x media discs. That's why I bought the Pioneer.

[mrbass]

well I've had it for about 2 weeks so I guess circuity city is a 30 day thing...hmm decisions. Ok well the firmware update so far is crap. 2X still...gonna throw it back on it's old channel (secondary master) all by itself and give it a try (after 30 mins that is...lol). Gonna order me some rogaine to.

[defense]

mrbass & bob w, I get a kick out of these posts. Talk about worrying about stuff that doesn't deserve time wasted worrying about...this takes the cake. Here's my suggestion to you both.

Try and have a LITTLE bit of patience. Go out and buy some 2x media and KEEP those 4x disks around...they won't be evaporating any time soon..nor will they expire. Sony sooner or later WILL come out with a firmware revision that will continuously burn at 4x. I personally ONLY burn at 2x, and refuse to burn at 4x, but that's me.

The Sony burners are clearly the best in terms of quality and accomlishing the job without erros, while the other things, such as burn speed should be far from an issue because it will soon be resolved.

[mrbass]

Sony is on my hate list. I just spent nearly $400 on 200 4X dvd-r discs and could've paid almost half that. I don't have money up the ying yang to go out and spend $100 more.

This is what gets me ...I put it on it's own channel...used the ide cable that came with the drive. On secondary slave it only did PIO mode....maybe cuz I changed bios ..can't remember...anyway. I test burned three .iso dvd-5 with dvddecrypter in test mode. 2 till 10% and theird one to 25%. All reported 4X burning. As soon as I go for the real burn (Sony @#%#%%&*@^$#^) turns it down to 2X. I was up till 3AM last night trying to solve this crapola. I may just have to return this thing if I can't figure it out. Anyway got any forum suggestions to try out? I'm tried clubfreakers, cdrlab, doom9 for answers but this is outta control.

edit: oh yeah burn at 2X..dude I ain't got time. To me I'm more than willing to pay the extra price of 4X media...but give me what I paid for. My friend once had an article published in Omni Magazine like 14 years ago. It was about how in the future would all would be addicted to time capsules. And there'd be time capsule dealers supplying the addiction.

[Bob W]

I think I'm going to install a hand crank on my Sony to help speed it up.

[mrbass]

ok well unchecking bufferunderrun does jack squat. Still at 2X. Not that bufferunderrun worked in the first place cuz if I do anything disk intestive other than lite surfing than it'll waste the dvd-r regardless. Going go search for any sony forums. Hope they exist.

[mrbass]

I'm not giving up yet...still ain't midnight yet. Here's a few things I've tried but no luck still burning at 2X
-upgrading firmware to 2.0e
-update my sis ide driver win2k sp3
-put dru500ax on promise ide controller but it was like in PIO cuz CPU usage was thru the roof
-dru500ax on primary slave, secondary master...hmm guess I should try primary slave just for the hell of it.
-checked my aspi. It said I had two 4.71 and two 4.60..so I installed forceaspi which put 4.60 across the board. Ok maybe I'll try 4.71 across the board

[Bob W]

I'm not giving up yet...still ain't midnight yet. Here's a few things I've tried but no luck still burning at 2X
-upgrading firmware to 2.0e
-update my sis ide driver win2k sp3
-put dru500ax on promise ide controller but it was like in PIO cuz CPU usage was thru the roof
-dru500ax on primary slave, secondary master...hmm guess I should try primary slave just for the hell of it.
-checked my aspi. It said I had two 4.71 and two 4.60..so I installed forceaspi which put 4.60 across the board. Ok maybe I'll try 4.71 across the board

Save your self and give it up. I already tried all that and was ready to put the Sony in the toilet. I have learned for the billionth time "If it ain't broke don't fix it".

[mrbass]

hmmm here's a thread on this 4X issue
gonna read thru it and try out any suggestions...another 3AM ..my boss is gonna kill me.
http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=9390

[mrbass]

ok screw all that bullcrap...this is absolutely 100% a political battle between Ritek and Sony about royalty payments for dvd media. Sony is purposely trying to screw us the consumer and we are suffering cuz of it. I flashed my sony dru500ax with firmware 1.0d got off of sonydru500a.com and voila 4X. Had it at 2.0e previous and before that 2.0c...nothing but 2X with Ritek 4X media. So screw sony and release a freakin firmware without the politics.

[Bob W]

ok screw all that bullcrap...this is absolutely 100% a political battle between Ritek and Sony about royalty payments for dvd media. Sony is purposely trying to screw us the consumer and we are suffering cuz of it. I flashed my sony dru500ax with firmware 1.0d got off of sonydru500a.com and voila 4X. Had it at 2.0e previous and before that 2.0c...nothing but 2X with Ritek 4X media. So screw sony and release a freakin firmware without the politics.

Going back to 1.0d didn't do it for me. The burner just starts out at 4x for about 10% of the burn then drops back to 2x and that's on three different 4x DVD-R media brands.

[mrbass]

I just burned 2 dvd-rs riteks at 4X...both took 12 mins (3.6GB iso).
I'm probably gonna be up burning like a christmas boy tonight. I wasted about 5 or 6 hours tonight on this crap and when I was burning 2X it reminded me back in 1997 when I bought a smart-on 2X cd burner for $329 at costco. I had to search for a week for a casio watch that had a timer (nowadays they all have timers) so I could set it to 40mins and then come back and pop in a new cd. I feel like I just got a 4X cd burner that can burn in 20mins...yee haw!

[chopper20]

Don't know if this helps but the new upgrade says "Allows your Dual RW drive to record at 4X on 4X compatible DVD+R media.
It does not say anything about dvd-r

[mrbass]

Well where is the 4X DVD+R media? On rima.com all I see is $150 for 2.4X DVD+R media. Once I run out of these 200 dvd-r depending on the price I will probably be flashing different firmware every month or so. Who knows. Anyway just finished my 3rd dvd-r burn at 4X duration 15:09 3.98GB.

[Bob W]

Well where is the 4X DVD+R media? On rima.com all I see is $150 for 2.4X DVD+R media. Once I run out of these 200 dvd-r depending on the price I will probably be flashing different firmware every month or so. Who knows. Anyway just finished my 3rd dvd-r burn at 4X duration 15:09 3.98GB.

Where did you get your 1.0d file? Maybe I have a bad file.

[mrbass]

http://www.sonydru500a.com
I think I'm on my 6th dvd-r...4X....this is better than sex at 2:04AM.

Might as well tell you how I have it currently setup ...not that it makes a difference. It's definitely the firmware.

pri master = hd
pri slave = lite-on dvd-rom
sec master = dru500ax
sec slave = nothing

using ATA133 cable....any ide cable will do I'm sure. Since it only supports UDMA 2 or 33MB/sec. This is on win2k sp3.

[shinboy]

I think the problem is Win Xp I know this drive don't like it. For me I'm using win2k and have no problems at all and the drive is set on Secondary slave with a tdk cdrw on master both drive on DMA mode.
I think that's important cuz if I set it in PIO mode it uses 60-80% cpu utilization. So anyone have problems try using win2k.

[Bob W]

I think the problem is Win Xp I know this drive don't like it. For me I'm using win2k and have no problems at all and the drive is set on Secondary slave with a tdk cdrw on master both drive on DMA mode.
I think that's important cuz if I set it in PIO mode it uses 60-80% cpu utilization. So anyone have problems try using win2k.

I moved my drive from a winXP box to my Win2000 pro system still no 4x DVD-R burning.

[Jester700]

Mrbass,
Thank you for your IC7 guide. It's a great reference. Having said that, no WAY is 4x burning better than sex at 2:04am. You need another woman...

And I fail to see the problem for people in spending for some 2x media until the firmware is really good with 4x. After all, you have the $$$ to buy 200 DVDs at over $10 a pop, right?

[sidneysides]

What are the disadvantages to downgrading my AX to 1.0d? I will get Riteks at 4x, but what about G03 and other types of media? Are they not as good with this firmware?
Will I invalidate my warranty as it came shipped with 2.0c?