tell you what, see your picture of your drive - - click on dropdown box at top left of info-tool and select your other drive (your burner), so we get your firmware version. i managed to see the other 2 pics by copy/pasting part of the links you supoplied, into internet explorer.. EDIT- Doh!, it didnt work for me. Hopefully you got the gist and can post a new pic of the dvd burner
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=138100 - "ATAPI DVD DD 2X16X4X16" is the device name for BenQ bulk/OEM drives, so looks like this drive is a bulk/OEM version of the Benq 1620 http://www.cdrinfo.com/Forum/tm.asp?m=108078&mpage=1&key=𚙙 - this says this same sort of thing http://www.cdrinfo.com/forum/tm.asp?m=108971&mpage=1&key=𚦰 - good things being said about your drive, and more info re firmware changing/crossflashing (to morph the drive into a Benq) http://dvdpro.club.st/firmware/BENQ_FW.htm - If you wanted to make this drive (from now on) appear as a Benq drive instead of what's i guess an anonymous sort of drive (only downside to this would be that it might void your warranty) ....so all that we need to figure out is whether your dvd burner's firmware is out of date, and whether there's any benefit in morphing your drive to become a Benq 1620 (i would have thought this is a good idea). ....plus the question of what media to recommend. I am pretty sure Verbatim is a good bet. It seems this drive can use both - and + formats, and i think it may be a Dual Layer burner. Your photo should confirm. Sorry i'm not more specific on some of this, i haven't used one of these drives, but am searching out as much info for you instead..
Oh man this image shack thingi is gettin the better of me (something else to add to the list) im really thankful for you tryin to sort me out but i guess some things arent ment to be. Again here are the letters and number bits and bobs of the screen you asked for regards <img src="http://img180.echo.cx/img180/6816/nextnero6vd.jpg" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us" /> <a href="http://img180.echo.cx/my.php?image=nextnero6vd.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img180.echo.cx/img180/6816/nextnero6vd.th.jpg" border="0" /></a>
almost !. the img has to be in lowercase... the format of the other lines should be like the first, but the 'IMG' has to be lowercase i mean..
ok, i got a peek at that first screenshot. Firmware revision of your burner is G7N9. So... if i look at one of the links i gave you earlier on - http://www.cdrinfo.com/Forum/tm.asp?m=108078&mpage=1&key=�� - there's this snippet And if i look on another link above - http://dvdpro.club.st/firmware/BENQ_FW.htm - the latest 'bulk' firmware, ie the logical update for your burner is 'G7V9' - or if you morph your drive into a Benq 1620, the latest 'Benq 1620' firmware is 'B7V9' Hango on - there's no readmes for either of those, plus it seems there's a Benq 1620 and a 1620A....so now i'm stumped, so will ask someone who has a Benq 1620 to advise...... PS - don't worry if the whole post is too detailed (it is!!), it will help me or others in the future as it can be referred to again maybe..
Hi all, got your pm creaky. I have a benq 1620 retail and the latest f/w update is B7V9 as stated by creaky. I'm not sure about crossflashing the oem model to retail f/w but here's a good place to find out. http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=92 I did a lot of crossflashing on a lite-on LDW-451S and the lite-on I have now is actually a SOHW-1633S crossflashed to a SOHW-1653S with led fix. After sony got with lite-on, the lite-on drive led was like sony's (solid green-read, blinking green-write). The led fix is some modified f/w that changes the led back to the lite-on way (green-read, red-burn, orange-dead drive). This can't be done to 1673 or 1693 drives because they no longer use a multi-color led only green. Oops, got a bit of subject and probably didn't help. Whatever you do get away from that media CMC Magnetics causes more problems than any other media there is. Memorex is famous for buying from CMC and my sig says it all. Mort
OK, cheers mort. @shivermc, i gotta turn in for the night and am in London tomorrow, so see if you can get the rest of your pics posted so some of the guys can help out. As to the firmware, it would be prudent to upgrade to G7V9 for now as yours sounds quite out of date, therefore your burner will not necessarily be very good as using or recognising any new media you might buy. I personally would buy some Verbatim 8speed [bold]datalifeplus[/bold] discs. Don't know whether to suggest -R or +R discs - over to you on that one. But let one of the guys explain what's involved with the firmware as it can render the drive unusable if you lose power while its upgrading etc. The links for pretty much everything that's needed is further up the post. Good luck and i'll checkthe post either first thing tomorrow or in the evening sometime.
