The Firmware Page

Hi. I replaced the dying Matshita drv so ordered a replacement off of Ebay. i was told it was new, but it still has yet to properly burn a full CD or DVD without errors. the firmware is

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-868:
Firmware Revision: KB19
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: To show the available burn speeds,
insert a disc and choose View > Refresh

Matshita memory dump doesn't run, even when sudo'd
using Lion 10.7.4
DVD info X doesn't run either, as Rosetta is depracated in LION

I'm hoping there's an update that fixes the burning, as i'm trying to rule out a hardware error,
but will be buying a non-matshita drive if i still get cannot burn discs. trying several -Rs..

Mark

Which firmware is on the old drive?

I dont know i'm afraid, it was the same make however.

Just look on the sticker on top of the drive....

Hey Chef
Yes, it is a Matshita Super 868A, Model UJ868A 678-1451C p08523bsd3xka dec 2008
firmware not mentioned on the drive.
.. is that info any use Chef ?

Thanks
Mark

Hi .. seems my last reply fell into the bit bucket somewhere...
anyway.. the old drive doesn't mention the actual firmware rev, but the info off
the sticker n the (original, non working) drive reads:

SUPER 868A 678-1 451C PO8523BSD3XKA
MANUFACTURED DECEMBER 2008 U

any use ?

Mark

Hi Mark,

the post(s) were on hold because you have not 10 posts yet.
No real idea as of yet what firmware could be on that drive.
Its IDE/ATAPI, right?! So correct the firmware should be important to make the drive work.

The UJ868A is a superslim slot-type SATA drive.

@Mark
1) I'm not aware of any newer firmware than KB19 for these drives ...
2) What DVDs (what's their MID) are you trying to burn? MatSHITa drives are notoriously picky about media, not to mention that finding good quality media nowadays is a bit of a challenge anyway ...
3) ala42s Matshita tools do not work with any Mac OS higher than 10.6.4 ... you'll either have to do it in Windows via Bootcamp, or downgrade your OS or use the other MatshitaFlasher0.6 application posted here: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=46116&start=500 (the 7th post down).
4) You can replace the UJ-868A with an LG GS23N or similar ...

Ahh. i thought i was losing the plot, i'm sure i remembered typing a reply
Yes, no real way of interrogating the thing as i dont have a slim SATA lead so that i could hook it up to the
desktop linux machine & interrogate it, and i dont want to open the mac back up again, as i'm still a little
nervous about upsetting these expensive machines. (unless finally fitting a known perfect optical drive)
I'm researching if a generic SATA DVD-R (or at least, non-Matshita) drive will fit in instead, electrically it will,
but am yet uncertain whether mounting points / apple weirdness will stand in my way.
As CVS says yes, it is ATAPI interface, with a generic laptop optical SATA interface. so any
physically similar drive may fit and hopefully work Chef.
Thanks.. Chef
Thanks also CVS
Mark UK

Thanks cvs for the headsup!

In this case it really should work right away.

Maybe its a dud and came DOA. Do you trust the seller?
Was it a company or an individual?

he was an individual, Chef. I've been reading up for a week or two, seems some Apple users are thinking it was a (firmware) update from Apple that caused it, the majority of which were Matshita failures with similar results,
it seems a little fishy, i like a good conspiracy, but i dont see *any* vendor doing this intentionally or accidentally
- then refusing a fix, for whatever reasons.
I just think it was a batch of poor hardware, as i see elsewhere on this site the phrase ' notorious Matshita ' mentioned..

Mark

Yeah, lately Apple moved from Matshita to LG and Optiarc drives in their latest computers, it has its purpose.

Interestingly by that time, that what you can call support from matshita kinda improved, what a coincidence.....

I've been reading still more, i ordered a (brand new) generic non-Apple SATA drive for less than £6.00 - i'm not expecting it to work immediately, if at all, days of research later and no-one, and i mean no-one anywhere on the web, that i have found yet, has answered catergorically, if a generic device will work. plenty of people asking, no real answers, so i guess i'll find out this week. Many folks swap the optical drive out of Macbooks to install secondary hard drives on the very same SATA port the internal optical drives use, so its generic enough to work that, so i'm 50/50 that the new sata-atapi drive will work. my main concerns are the physical 'mounting points' which look, as far as i can tell, are similar or the same... one forum mentioned with a new (non Apple) optical drive - it may need a 'flash' from Apple, so i will be interested to see if Apple only allows certain optical drives, but 'any' HD on the port.. such a firmware-block, if one exists, would seem innapropriate, monopolistic and spiteful but i shall report back, if anyone is interested,.
Mark UK

The interface won't be a problem - as long as you're replacing it with another SATA interface drive obviously. The size/type of the drive will be a problem though. You can only use slot-type superslim (9.5mm) drives. The standard size slot-type ones (12.5mm) will not fit inside a MacBook Pro (Aluminium/Unibody type).

As I said earlier, the LG GS20N/GS22N/GS23N drive series (and probably the GS21N DELL OEM version too) will fit and work just fine (some MacBook Pro models come fitted with one of these drives instead of a Matshita drive, so they are 'Apple native'). These drives can also be easily region patched using MCSE. Later LG GSxxN drive generations such as the GS31N also used by Apple in some of their MacBook Pros (or the equivalent DELL OEM GS30N flavour) and probably other similar types from other manufacturers will probably also physically fit just fine as long as they are the slot-type and 9.5mm in size (superslim) variety.