The Firmware Page

Hello there,

after reading about all of the topics on this subject, i've decided to post my own one, since i was not able to solve my problem.

I have got a BTC BDV212B drive. It had firmware 0.36 installed.

I experienced reading problems with my drive, and decided to flash its firmware. I downloaded the last version on BTC's site, and followed with care the instructions.

The flash failed (unknown flash type message, and then "flash failed" message or thg like that). Since then, the drive's light is always on, and I can't even open it.

I have tried to recover it using several version of mtkflash (1.24, 1.38, 1.55, 1.69, 1.83, 1.83c) with several versions of the firmware (0.28, 0.33, 0.39, 0.40, 0.42, 0.43), original zone-protected ones, and also etna's. The drive was in secondary slave, and i first boot with a working drive, and changed the cable to the dead one before flashing.

Depending on the version of mtkflash used, either it freezes on the "Mtkflash by Joseph Lin..." line (with several versions), or it does not recognize the flash type (1.83), or it does recognize the flash type (1.55).

When the flash is recognized, the erasing step fails (for the first bin file... the second one seems to get installed well, but the second without the first is useless, right ?).

I read that a solution could be to put back the same fw. Version 0.36 not being released on the Internet, I remembered I had another BDV212B. It had the 0.36 version !

I made a backup of this fw, in bin and hex files, and tried to put it on the damaged drive: didn't work.

I was so flummoxed that I decided to try to flash my working drive with the mtkflash that detected correctly the flash type : it failed. The second drive is now as operational as the first one (i.e. dead).

Then, the conclusion words of my long boring topic would be : HELP PLEASE !

Thanks in advance...

It sounds like you should invest 10 bucks into a new DVD ROM drive.

Then it would be 20 bucks into 2 drives

btw: i also tried to erase the flash memory with dosflash... which also failed.

My first DVD-ROM drive was a Creative Labs DVD1241E, a clone of this BTC model. It stopped working at least 6 years ago. Firmware flashing rarely helps fix "reading problems".

Can you give us some more detail about how exactly you're flashing the drive?

Where did you get your boot disk to get you into real DOS?
Where is mtkflash.exe located and where are the two firmware files located?

But honestly, both drives are extremely old and not likely to last much longer.

Here are some details:

I tried to boot on a bootable floppy created under Windows XP Pro. I also tried with "freebot" and with DR-DOS downloaded from digi's page (using the link of your page dhc014, indeed ).

Once i've booted, i change the floppy to another one containing, on the root, the firmware files (bide00.bin and bide01.bin), and mtkflash.exe.

The commands I use are :

for the first file
for the second one

ps: i fixed "reading problems" for some dvds on a laptop dvd drive last week by flashing its firmware, and the BDV212B seems to be known to have issues to read some writable cds/dvds... I thought that could have helped.

Your methods seem sound. If you're desparate, try flashing in another computer.

Perhaps that's 'cause it was designed and manufactured before recordable CD drives were affordable and before the idea of personal Recordable DVD drives was beyond belief :p

0.43 is dated August, 2000

Well... seems like I'm an idiot... I tried flashing using another computer... And it worked... immediately.

I am seriously going to think about throwing this Asrock Mobo... Seems like the K7S8X model does not allow to recognize the right type of flash memory. On the mobo of the other computer, it is well recognized, and immediately.

Thanks to all of you for your precious help!

See ya !

ps: do i have to edit the topic title in order to mark the problem was solved?

You don't have to, but it wouldn't hurt.