Pioneer BDC-202 bad firmware?

MrFusion · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:20 am **Posts:** 5

Hi there.

I'm having some trouble with my Pioneer BDC-202 blu-ray drive.

I downloaded the 1.07 firmware update from Pioneer's website and tried to apply it. However, the updater program hanged

After an hour or so of waiting I finally decided to reboot my PC.

Now the drive hangs the computer when burning (keeps writing lead-in forever) and produces BSODs when reading discs.

I tried to run the firmware updater again but it says "FW is already latest". Then I tried using the DVRFlash utility with the "S1003581.107" firmware included in Pioneer's "BDC202_FW107EU.EXE".

DVRFlash produces the following info:

Code:

Commandline:
  DVRFlash -v G:


Drive Information:
   Description : PIONEER BD-ROM  BDC-202
  Firmware Rev : 1.07
 Firmware Date : 08/05/29
  Manufacturer : PIONEER
Drive is in normal mode.

Additional Drive Information:
 Serial Number : GGDL020809WL
Interface Type : SAT
DVR generation : 1003
   Kernel type : ID58
   Normal type : ID58
Kernel version : 0001

        Status : RPC-2 (region locked)
        Region : 4
       Changes : 4 region changes remaining
                 4 vendor resets remaining
                 state is 'Region set'

When using command

Code:

DVRFlash -f G: S1003581.107

DVRFlash outputs the same info from above and also:

Code:

File size mismatch

(and same result for -ff parameter)

What can I do to fix this? Will I need to wait until Pioneer releases the next FW version (like 1.08)?
Is there some way of overwriting the firmware?
Maybe downgrading to 1.04, but how?

Any ideas? [-o<

chef · **Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:45 am

Contact Pioneer support and explain them what happened en detail.

MrFusion · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:20 am **Posts:** 5

I already did that. This was the response:

Quote:

Thank you for contacting Pioneer Electronics, Inc.
The only way to write the firmware again is with a new one. In your case the drive will have to be sent to our service facilities for evaluation and correction of the problem.
To send product to our Long Beach facilities for Evaluation/Service you will need to follow these instructions:
1]. On the outside of the package please include the following address:
a} PIONEER ELECTRONICS SERVICE
ATTN: Industrial Service /BDR Service
1925 EAST DOMINGUEZ ST.
LONG BEACH CA 90810
2]. On the inside attach to the unit the following:
a} A letter with your return address.
b} Your Telephone number and contact name. !! Very Important!!
c} A detailed description of the problem/defect.
d} A copy, not the original, of the purchase receipt
e} For status please contact 1-800-872-4159 and let us know the Telephone number used.
3]. If you are shipping the unit using the original carton, please "Double Box" it for better protection.
4]. Use UPS or any other shipper who can give you a "Tracking Number".

Thank You,

Reinaldo
Customer Service Representative

It is not possible for me to return the drive. I'm fairly convinced there's a way to fix it myself

Puma · **Posted:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:22 pm

have a read of the thread below

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=44372

MrFusion · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:20 am **Posts:** 5

Thanks for the quick response. Yes, I had read that post already.

Just in case, here are more details. My BDC-202 is the only drive on a Marvell* 88SE6145 SATA RAID controller (secondary SATA controller from Intel D975XBX2, not configured for RAID) and was working fine before the failed flashing.

jpmad4it's problem was that he couldn't upgrade the firmware (because of a weird model mismatch). My problem is that the flashing went wrong and now the drive does not work correctly (although windows detects it correctly and without any errors in device manager)

I also tried using Pioneer's BDC-S02 1.07 firmware, but the utility rejected the upgrade because "Model name of kernel is not matched" (And that's right, because my drive really is a BDC-202, right?).

What's weird is that I bought my drive at a retail store, with box and everything, but the model is BDC-202 and not BDC-S02, as jpmad4it suggests that would be for a retail drive:

jpmad4it wrote:

The PIO_ADV signature is applied for the "retail" version, BDC-S02 / S02BK, but around 3 months ago I discovered that our factory had also applied this signature to "some" of the regular BDC-202 / 202BK "bulk/OEM" models during mass production.

I hope that Pioneer releases a new firmware soon [-o<

, maybe that'll fix this (by completely overwriting the firmware to the new one, is that right?)

Puma · **Posted:** Thu Oct 23, 2008 10:52 am

hav you tried unstailling all the drivers for the sata controllers and also unistall the drive also via device manager, restart and try, a simple firmware flash, doesn't seem will help you in this case

MrFusion · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:20 am **Posts:** 5

Sorry, the problem here is that Pioneer's flasher doesn't want to overwrite same-versioned firmwares.
Just in case, I did what you suggested, but the Pioneer FW utility's answer is still the same.

Maybe I also need a kernel file for DVRFlash to work properly? Or maybe the firmware that Pioneer releases is somehow 'encrypted', so it's useless to DVRFlash, and I need an 'unencrypted' one? :-k

(Isn't that what the Dangerous Brothers do, besides releasing patched firmwares?)

ala42 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:45 am

DVRFlash does not support your drive. Also I do not think the drive is not flashed correctly. Pioneer drive build a checksum over the firmware at startup and if that fails, the drive gets into failsafe mode and identifies with 0000 in the revision code. Your drive identifies with 1.07, so the firmware upgrade worked fine.
My guess is you have some driver problem. Try your drive in a different PC or boot from a bootable cd.

MrFusion · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 5:20 am **Posts:** 5

Finally I had some time to test the drive on another machine. Interestingly, it worked.

I tested the drive back on my computer. It could read CDs and DVDs just fine, but gave BSODs when trying to burn anything or reading a Blu-ray disc.

So now I proceeded to reinstall Windows Vista. Installed the newest drivers from Intel (for Marvell SATA controller).

And then... It worked!! =D>

I'm so happy 8-)

My BD-ROM is not dead!

Thank you guys for the support. Mission complete :wink:

chef · **Posted:** Sun Nov 16, 2008 4:43 pm

Congrats, you did the right thing!

Especially with SATA drives the mobo/chipüset drivers & setup are very important!

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Pioneer BDC-202 bad firmware?

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