To any afterdawners with solution, my vaio came with this type dvd rom for the reader. i found that when doing a backup this drive is the biggest bottle neck of the process. ive defrag,disk cln up, made sure dma was switched on. and narrowed it down to the drive itself it works but data transfer is slow.speeds from 3k-4k kbs when encoding ive seen other machines into the 10's with non HT procs. i was just curious if anyone has found firmware for this drive that does work. ne suggestions would be appreciated. system specs: p4 3.20w/HT 1gig ddr ram,WD 250 gig HD 200gigs free(ntfs) MCE '04 os Sp1 DL writer sony dw18a. my nero tool info states my rom drive is 40xcd,2x dvd =( btw... 8x burn speed good to go also. thanx
I also have Sony Vaio with this type DVD ROM. Mine is HL-DT-ST DVD ROM GDR8163B, just one number higher, but has similar read problem. Surpising that Sony would skimp on this one component, as everything else in my VCG-RA820G is a brand name, top notch, component. In any case a firmware upgrade , if available, might help. The origins of this ROM drive are from LG, but their website warns to use firmware upgrades for their branded drives only, not for OEM drives. Sony Vaio update site had a firmware upgrade for the Pioneer DVD burner in my computer, but not for the DVD ROM.
You can try looking here for a firmware update http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php . No help for me there though, because MY Sony Viao (lol) has a HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA 4040B and seems to have no updates. Which really sucks since almost ALL DVDs burn at 2x in this drive. BUT, one good thing i guess, hardly ever get a bad burn at this speed.
Firmware there is a "Beta" version from six months ago. I need a safe firmware upgrade for the HL-DT-ST DVD ROM GDR8163B (LG made) as this DVD ROM won't even recognize the Verbatim 8X DVD-R disks that I am trying to use (which ARE recognized by my burner).
hey malcdogg, i thought I saw a firmware upgrade for the burner at sony's website. it doesn't say anything about it increasing burns speeds though. Provides read support for 8cm DVD+RW media, what good does that do? I need a firmware upgrade as well, having trouble using these tdk 4X dvd-rw's.
Thanks militantm. Yeah I saw that firmware. It got my hopes up too. lol. It's supposed to be for my Vaios burner but it isn't. As for the 8cm DVD+RW media support, it probably just lets the drive read those mini-dvds.
