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How to upgrade your CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive/writer's firmware

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Problem: Upgrade the firmware of CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive/writer

Most CD/DVD/Blu-ray drives/writers have upgradable operating software usually called firmware stored in flash ROM (read-only memory) inside the drive itself. Upgrading this firmware to the latest version can often solve problems such as the inability to read certain kinds of discs, or errors when burning CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs.

Take great care when flashing/installing firmware - flashing/installing the wrong file (designed for another product) can kill a CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive.

You need to find out the exact model name and manufacturer of the drive. Right-click with the mousepointer on My Computer (XP) or Computer (Vista) and click Properties. Open the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button. Click the + beside DVD/CD-ROM drives to show the drives that are installed. The model name should be displayed as the title. My MSI M662 laptop PC shows Philips DVD-RAM SDVD8821, so it is made by Philips. If the manufacturer is not apparent, Googling the model number should provide that information.

When you know the manufacturer and model number, you need to find the firmware update. The best source is the drive manufacturer's website. Philips only sells drives to PC manufacturers not to the market, so I have to get updates from the PC manufacturer's website, which is MSI in my case.

Download the firmware update file. Most of the time, the download is a small file with an .exe extension that you click on to install. When you open it, it should present a simple user interface. If the update is contained in a zip file (a file with a .zip extension), it is very important that you unzip every file to a folder (preferably created to contain them) before running the update or it may fail. If it fails you can render the drive useless. All of the files have to be together in a folder. You must not install firmware from inside a zip program such as WinZip, because all of the files won't be accessible. The manufacturer's website should provide specific instructions on how to update the firmware. Instructions can also be provided as text files that come with the zipped download. Some manufacturers, such as Samsung, included a PDF file on how to install the firmware update. (A PDF file (a file with a .pdf extension) requires a reader such as the free Foxit.)

Note that it is extremely important that your computer remains on and doesn't freeze up during the update process. If you are updating a laptop, you should have the battery attached and charged in case of a power failureand you should close all other unnecessary programs before starting the update, such as anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall and any other protection that can interrupt the process. Norton (Symantec) and McAfee security software interrupts the process, because it assumes that a security issue is involved in every action. Such an update should not be installed during a thunderstorm because if your computer shuts down due to a power interruption while the update is installing, the drive can be rendered useless.

How to update the firmware on any hardware in your computer -

http://www.ehow.com/how_2225435_update-firmware-any-hardware-computer.html

Note that some brand-name drive companies purchase their drives from several manufacturers. For examle, if you have a Creative and Iomega drive, these two companies actually purchase their drives from various manufacturers and are not good at producing firmware updates.

DVDINF Pro - is a free utility that provides all the details you might want to know about an installed DVD drive, including the driver and version of firmware being used. -

http://www.dvdinfopro.com/

The Firmware Page - Update Your CD/DVD Drive Firmware. Most users know that they can update their BIOS but not many know that they can also update the firmware of (most) CD/DVD and Blu-ray drives. This site has full details plus some handy tips for overcoming the region locking on your DVD drive. -

http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php