The Firmware Page

That's enough for a simple check by the flasher, but it could be that other checks are buil-in too.

Are you having problems watching blu-ray movies or with blank BD-R[E] media? If the media, what brand & type are you using?

Blank Disk, i have Maxel BD-RE, BD-R and TDK DL BD but not recognize

Still no go for me.
Everything went good 'till opening WinHex. The pb is that "MATSHITABD-MLT UJ-220S 1.00 071213" is my original drive string... so I should probably match it to another one that the updater will accept, but which one...

ala42's idea is a good one though. I've given it a try, and so far (still for my UJ-220S updater) :
I assume offset 20148 'see attached pic) gives the length of the fw : 00 10 81 78

So I should just erase everything that's before the header... however, which offset is the beginning of the actual firmware ?

Hmmm...perhaps you have a software/driver problem. Can you install ImgBurn and list your upper and lower filters? What other CD/DVD/BD software do you have installed?

Using my method, were you able to get to the "good" dialog box where it begins the flash process? If not, then you need to make your string exactly as the one I did (make sure you do the number of spaces correctly and the string is NULL terminated (0x00)).

For ala42's method, you need to preserve the header and the firmware.

Keep us posted.

I don't think so... but the screen you posted a couple days ago (the one that shows the "drive is closed - please open tray") doens't mean the updater's been tricked, IMO. Actually, this is the first warning that pops up (and it's only then that I can set the breakpoint in windbg) as soon as I launch the flasher. Or maybe the scren is just wrong and you actually got past the warning and the flashing process was starting... ?

Just to be sure : the string you edited (the ELBY one from your virtual drive) was located just after the drive letter in RAM ?
In my case (1 virtual daemon tools lite virtual drive + my physical one) :
run upgrader > Processing... > disc tray is closed > attaching windbg to process and setting breakpoint > F5 > opening tray > hit f5 8 times (9th breakpoint is the last one), then skipping calls as you explained.
In Winhex, 8 occurences of "MATSHITABD". First :


several occurences at once, first describing the new fw, and the old one that's currently on my drive. Those shouldn't be edited (if i'm following what you did).

The interesting one should be :

it's located right after "G:" which is indeed the drive I'm trying to flash.

So I would need to edit the one after "G:" so that it matches a valid one that the updater would recognize. I really don't understand how you managed to use this string (with 1.00 071213) on your end, as it is not a correct Sony one... or if it is, I'm really not understanding anything anymore xD !



Got that part, but I'm not sure how to determine the exact starting offset of the firmware. I should have the length right, but how do you know which byte after the length ths fw starts ?

$30 bytes header starting with MATSHITABD, $108178 firmware length, $1081A8 bytes to be saved for header + firmware.

ok the header is always 30 bytes. And it seems correct, after the assumed length of fw i end up just at the beggining of a veyr veyr very repeting part. I'll keep this as a bin file for the moment, i'd rather succeed in doing the crossflash trick, but who know

edit : whan trying ala42's method, it ends up with a checksum error. wtf ? The length of the file is correct though...

Here's the extracted UJ-225 Q113 firmware: UpDate_UJ225_Q113.zip

Here's the extracted UJ-220 1.05 firmware: UJ-220B_for_VAIO_V105.zip

UPDATE: Don't bother to use the UJ-220 firmware bin...it generates a checksum error (thanks ala42 for the clarification on the UJ-225 being ok)

I had exactly the same file, and it gives the same checksum error

Thanks...I updated my post with a disclaimer.
Out of curiosity, have you tried adding 4 or even 8 bytes to the firmware bin file?


BTW, regarding my thinking the UJ-220 firmware updater got tricked:

1. When I run the flasher, it gives me the standard error dialog about a compatible drive not found.

2. I normally don't run the firmware updater first and then attach to it. I launch it directly from WinDbg and then set the breakpoint at the very first opportunity. I think by you attaching to it, the initial drive check is already done.

Sorry I don't actually have a UJ-220 drive here, otherwise I'd probably be able to go further with the testing.

Nop didn't try adding bytes at the end of the file... I'll do that this week-end if I got time.

The UJ-225 Q113 is fine and does not return a checksum error. The UJ-220 1.05 returns a checksum error because the header is longer than expected.

Any hints on the UJ-220's header size?

Also I updated my post above to clarify that the UJ-225 bin firmware has a good checksum...thanks!

Tried to mess around with this last week-end, still nothing so far. I'll try again when I get time, but I'm running out of idea :/ Any luck on figuring out the correct size of the header ??

Ok so i've read this thread about 10 times and I don't understand anything. I need to update my firmware since my drive is producing 6 dollar coasters out of dual layer blurays. Before I go out and buy another more modern burner which I really can't afford, I'd like to give this a try. I'm a med student so I know ABSOLUTELY nothing about programming, hex editors or basically anything that has been mentioned in this thread. Is there like an online crash course you guys would recommend to read about how to use these programs? I really want to flash my drive and maybe learn something along the way, but I need some serious help. Thanks again!

Either get reliable BD media recommended for your burner or get another, more reliable burner and try your luck.

Crap media will always stay the same: crap media.

Hello All,

Could this idea be used to flash the sony firmware into a oem UJ-220 drive? Or has someone already found a way? I can't seam to get the file length quite right.. Even if it is possible or i'm doing it wrong.

D.

thanks tqhoang, I have tested on UJ 220 UJ230 bluray drive with Sony v1.05 v1.11 firmware, all sucessful pass. but tqhoang not say right about hareware line. the first "ELBY" string and changed it to "MATSHITABD-MLT UJ-220S 1.00 071213" not work, the really line is start with commFwHeader............


I will upload the picture later.

Now I have trouble work with UJ230 firmware V1.23 from 123ware website . open firmware UJ230 V1.23 inside hareware line is UJ 240. very strange! it fail at last step.

the working commFwHeader need extract from previous firmware version like sony 220v1.04 , 230 v1.01.

I've been trying to flash the UJ-220 on my Dell XPS M1730 using both of these methods but it seems to get stuck at a second checkpoint. As hzqstrong has pointed out, there's a commonFwHeader line; my experiments show that unless that matches the string read from the drive, it will fail the first test. If I change either string to match the other (using WinDbg to edit the memory) it gets to the next stage of checking whether the door is open but then claims that my drive is unsupported.

I've seen various Sony firmwares marked UJ-220S and UJ-220B but my drive claims to be a "MATSHITA BD-RE UJ-220" with no letter at the end. Has anyone determined the meaning of these letters?

@crok: Mine as well. The UJ-220 on my M1730 enumerates as "MATSHITA_BD-RE_UJ-220___________________1.00____"


I've been trying to use ala42's method @ viewtopic.php?f=13&t=46473&start=50#p229637 , but MatshitaWinFlash dies with "fatal: checksum error in file H:, expected 5C37, current B0E0". tqhoang's method is a little over my head. It's a shame that this thread died.

Hello,

I just saw this thread the other day- I have a Dell XPS M1530 which has a "MatshitaBD-RE UJ-225s" (According to DiscInfo) drive, running Q310 firmware version. I bought a 25 pack of LTH BD-R discs, not knowing that my drive isn't compatible with it, so I've come here to figure out if my drive can be crossflashed to a newer firmware, and if so, will that solve my issue.

By reading through this thread, it appears that I can do this, however, I now see there are two methods (tqhoang and ala24's). Can someone point me in the right direction as to which method works best and also, the exact steps I need to take? According to Ala24's post here (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=46473&start=25#p229573), he is referencing "UpDate_UJ225_Q111.exe" but the one I got from Sony's website is UpDate_UJ225_Q113.exe. Is that okay?

Basically, I want to be sure I am following the right steps (and I am pretty technically savvy, so I don't mind using hex editors and such), so if someone can point me in the right direction, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Forget it!

Buy discs your drive supports.