The Firmware Page

Hello everybody. I own a Dell Inspiron 9300 with a Sony DVD+-RW DW-Q58A UDS2. Since for many months it has been working slowly, I finally decided to upgrade its firmware. I read some posts over the Internet, and did the following: backed up the current flash, installed UYS3 firmware, and the upgraded it to UYS4. The first change has been the green led, that became orange. But everything started to work better: the reading speed increased a lot. After some days, though, the drive stopped reading any DVD: some seconds after inserting a disc it starts doing a repetitive mechanical sound like "t-t-kr, t-t-t..." again and again, reading nothing. I tried to go back to the initial condition: I found a UDS1 bin file over the Internet since I did an uncorrect backup, flashed the drive again, and updated it to UDS2 with what seems to be the Dell original firmware. The orange led became green again, but the drive is still unusable, making those sounds I've said.

The question: DID I BREAK MY DRIVE? The UYS3 and UYS4 firmwares I installed are from http://files.rpc1.org/index.php?act=category&id=1459 and I think should be good, but I know that firmware changes are risky. Any suggestion?

Thanks a lot.
ad2000

You crossflashed your drive with wrong firmware, so warranty is gone.
Never forget that this drive is a bad one.....

Your drive seem to be scrapped, and firmware can never heal hardware problems.

The only thing you can try is a proper cleaning.

I thought my warranty was already gone, since I bought my Dell 4 years ago.



That's why I wanted to risk.



What do you exactly mean by "scrapped"? English is not my native language.



Any suggestion?

Thanks a lot.
ad2000

Just clean it by using Isopropanol and a q-tip.

Your drive is a Liteon Slimtype DVDRW SOSW-813S clone.

Yes, I read about that. Do you mean there's something to do in particular? (i.e. install certain drivers etc.)

Thanks a lot.

Ok, I finally managed to find those things, cleaned the lens and the area around it, and magically... nothing happened. The drive keeps on making the same noises, not reading any DVD. Should I conclude that it's broken for the flash upgrade instead?

Thanks.

Then the drive is toast...

It sounds like the laser of your drive has gone ... I highly doubt the reason is the crossflash though, many people have crossflashed between the various OEM flavours of this drive without any problems ... including me.

Based on what you've said initially "Since for many months it has been working slowly", the age of the drive and the fact that cleaning the lens has not helped at all, I would say the laser of your drive was on its last legs and about to die anyway ... the crossflash was probably just the last straw ...

Ok. Thank you for your answer.

News! I found that inserting a CD (not a DVD) the drive is still working. Any idea about this fact?

Thanks a lot!