The Firmware Page

I've downloaded the Patch Utility Samsung v3.4.10, the original Samsung SB02 firmware, and both the old and new flash utilities sfdnwin.exe & Tsdnwin.exe yet whenever I try to upgrade the drive with the patched firmware created with the patch utility, all I get is a message saying Flash Cmd Failed regardless of which flash utility I use.

Has anyone had any success flashing this drive before? I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I just wanna make it region free RPC1.

<Edit> The only flash utility I've had any semblance of success with is sfdnwin v3.27.11.exe which doesn't just turn up a "Flash Cmd Fail!" message straight away like all the others do. It *seems* to be working with a "Wait..." message instead, but alas it doesn't actually do anything. The progress bar never advances and it just hangs doing nothing. Eventually I just cancelled it and closed the program. It had done nothing because the drive still works fine (though without RPC1)

Cheers

And which firmware is on the drive??

It currently has the factory SB02 firmware. Came equipped with that when I bought it. I've personally never flashed it with anything.

Where does the patched firmware come from?

I made it using Patch Utility Samsung v3.4.10

Why didnt you try with MCSE first?
http://ala42.cdfreaks.com/MCSE/

Thanks, just tried it. End result is exactly the same as described above in first post. The patched firmware does not appear to be the problem. I reckon it's the flashing utility.

I've tried the following programs obtained directly from Samsung website as well as other random places on internet pertaining to making drives region free.

sfdnwin v3.25.4.exe
sfdnwin v3.25.6.exe
sfdnwin v3.27.11.exe
Tsdnwin v1.00.b.4.exe
Tsdnwin v1.02.5.exe

The only one that doesn't throw up an instant "Flash Cmd Fail!" message is sfdnwin v3.27.11.exe. That one says it's doing something, but in fact isn't. It just hangs in perpetuity until you close it.

What about the one in the database, extract the contents. Patch to RPC1 with MCSE. Then Flash. Same Problem?

http://files.rpc1.org/index.php?act=view&id=5880

Tried it, The BIN file is different according to a "compare by contents" examination and the flash utility is a different version to all the other ones I already have (v1.01.a), but yeah, the end result is exactly the same. Just throws an instant "Flash Cmd Fail!" error as soon as you try to "download" the new BIN file.

Since nothing I try with these Windows utilities seems to work, is there a DOS utility and instructions for how to use it within XP SP3 published somewhere I can try?

its likely caused by the chipset of the motherboard. Some have reported they had to use a PCI IDE card to flash it. could try an usb external enclosure.