The Firmware Page

Hi, can anybody please help!!!
I have rebuilt a friends' pc but am having major problems with the samsung SW-232 CDRW. It's an Advent 3110 (MS6373/K7N420 Pro v.1 Motherboard) running XP Home. It has a samsung DVD ROM SD-616 and a Samsung CDRW SW-232.
When the drives are on the same IDE cable, sometimes both are detected, sometimes neither and sometimes just the DVD. When the DVD is detected it detects it correctly in both the BIOS and windows so I don't think this one is the problem. Because of this I currently have the DVD and the hard drive on one channel and the CDRW on the other, this set up gives me the DVD all the time but still only detects the CDRW sometimes.

When the CDRW does eventually detect, both windows and the BIOS indicate it as RICOH firmwareloader2 and in windows explorer it only shows as being a CD drive. I tried to flash it with the samsung sfdwin.exe but because it's being detected as the RICOH firmwareloader2 it wouldn't play so now I am all out of ideas.

There doesn't appear to be any good reason why it detects it when it does, the jumpers are all set correctly and I also tried using cable select, I have also tried a different IDE cable and the other IDE channel too but it still fails to detect more often than not.

Any assistance with this problem will be gratefully recieved as this is the 3rd night in a row I've been up until nearly 4am messing with it. I obviously don't want to give it back to my friend with the drives not working properly but I'm now at a loss!



Thanks in advance.

Damn!!! Just thought I'd open nero to see what it thinks, and it is not even seeing the DVD drive even though windows is.



Still at a loss, please help!!!

RICOH firmwareloader2 mean the drive is in Failsafe mode and requires proper reflashing.

Grab the latest flasher & firmware and flash the drive, restart, test again.

Wow! Cool! How did it get in there then?!
Never knew they had a "safe mode". Thanks.

When you say "proper flashing" I'm assuming you mean in DOS mode?

I've searched all over google looking for a dos level flash utility for this drive, but haven't been able to find a legitimate link anywhere.
I don't suppose you, or anybody else knows where I can grab one of those Little "flasher" utility thingies? If not where, any idea of the file name, I may get a better result when I search google.

Can I assume the .BIN file that you get when you download Sfdnwin.exe from the samsung site will work in DOS mode as well? With this download was also a text file which says

"The firmware R301 of SW-232B

** Caution: this firmware is applies to only SW-232BE or SW-232B_DOM."

The label on this drive says it's a SW-232BEA, does the extra "A" make any odds? or have I got the wrong firmware anyway?

Your help is much appreciated.

Does discinfo recognize the drive? If yes, please post the fullinfo.

If not,please post all info regarding manufacturer & OEM & drivename from the sticker on the drive.

Hi, Yes discinfo does recognise it, though it doesn't have much to say about it.

Summary
DISCINFO VERSION : 1.6.1.6
VENDOR : RICOH
MODEL : FirmwareLoader2
REVISION : 0.99
INTERFACE : SCSI 2
RPC2 SCHEME : NO

The capabilities info is greyed out so none available.

The info on the labels is as follows:

Main Label States:

Samsung CD ReWritable Model SW-232
FCC ID:A3LSW232

Barcode Label States:

SW-232BEA 6GCT502846W F/W=R300
H/W:A Ver.B May 2002

Hopefully this info will help.

I don't know how this drive ended up in "failsafe mode", the owner didn't try and flash it or anything, do you have any ideas why it might have done this?

A simple powerburst or some weakening ram/chip in the drive itself could have initiated this...
But that is not the target now.

You can find the manual here: http://www.samsungodd.com/eng/
Please try with firmware R300 from here: http://files.rpc1.org/index.php?act=download&id=4195

SW-232BEA 6GCT502846W F/W=R300 indicates that r300 must be the correct firmware.

Good Luck!