The Firmware Page

Chud, you're having exactly the same problems as me.

Have you noticed the latest version of firmware is larger in file size with your saved .BIN file? What's up with that?

Thanks for the details !

It appears that you did all the trials that I would personnally think of also !

I have been searching the web quite a lot these days with nothing more that what you have, sorry.


BTW, are you exeperiencing problems with your original bin file ?

Have you tried busTrace with it ? Does it hang ?

Have you tried siccos's driver in addition to your original firmware ?

Have you tried tried bytecc's firmware ? I warn you, it is an old one...

Now the question : why does your flash fail ?

I'd personnally say possibly because of the PM flash you have on your enclosure, which doesn't seem to be the same as mine : 37 instead of 39.

Maybe if you have a look at the specs of these flash...

Or perhaps because of the design of the PCB ?

What enclosure is it ?

Cheers.

nathane, the bin and hex are two different formats, the flash programmer seems to be able to read both types in but only output .bin. I was just wondering if someone who had managed to load the latest hex could save it out as a .bin for me to try to load.

I have put a pic of my PCB online if anyone is interested

http://www.arch12.dsl.pipex.com/DCP_0129.JPG
(its 800k straight from cam)

Hi,

I have a different PCB on my enclosure, definitely.

If you send me your e-mail address, I will reply with attached bin file.

Cheers.

E.

envano kindly sent me his bin file and it did not program, same error as if using hex, presumably because of my older PMC flash.

I assume we need PL-3507 programmer than can handle older Pm37LV512 PMC flash chips as well as the Pm39LV512 that people have success with.

Has anyone had any success with a Pm37 flash chip version??

Chud, I have the same PMC flash chip that you do and I have the same problem. I posted right above your post on the last page. I've tried everything you did as well and haven't found anything in my web search.

If anybody has had success with the PM37 chip please let us know. It doesn't seem like an isolated problem, now.

I saw this in the readme for the flash programmer:

--------------------------------
11/13/2003 -

1. Fixed the bus reset problem of daisy-chained HDDs on Win2000. [1394]
2. Added the ICP AP v2.1.1 support for PMC flash chips. [USB]

--------------------------------



Does anyone have ICP AP v2.1.1? It might be needed for the older PMC chips?

If you have time for a look at :

http://www.pmcflash.com

you may compare the detailed specs of both Pm37 and Pm39.

Apart from supply voltages, there may be differences in terms of programming that I haven't time to look at (sorry).

E.

I have experienced similar problems to those of nathane, chud et al:
I have an external enclosure with the PL-3507. It is revision C (03341C just as nathane's).

As for the flash chip: There's no PMC chip on the PCB which all other enclosures seem to use, and the chip in question is somewhat blackened as if it is either burnt or blackened with a magic marker. (I'm currently looking into this more closely, but it looks more like magic marker.) It is manufactured by atmel and it's the "AT49B512" 512kByte flash memory. Its datasheet can be found at http://atmel.com/dyn/products/product_card.asp?family_id=624&family_name=Flash+Memory&part_id=1743

I tried flashing using the romwriters 2.0.4, 2.1.4 and 2.1.3. The latter both behave the same. I have tried all of the firmwares mentioned in this thread with all of the romwriters. The current firmware is 2003.10.31.012. vendor id "0X02", chip id "0X2D". This is not an oxford chip. Unless they use those and print PL-3507 on them.

2.1.4 and 2.1.3 can read the ROM nicely and write to .bin files. 2.0.4 cannot read the ROM. If I try to, it just quits without error message. Writing to the ROM isn't possible with 2.1.3 and 2.1.4: Regardless of whether I turn on verification or not, I get the error message "Can't access the chip.(Be rejected!)". With version 2.0.4, it says its actually erasing the eeprom and writing to it and then tells me it encountered a verification error if verification is on. If I turn it off, the update is okay, but after the usual unplugging/powering down/up procedure, the firmware is read as the aforementioned 2003.10.31.012 again.

Unlike most others, my problem isn't with the delayed write errors, but with an LG CD/DVD burner. It writes CDs and DVDs alright, but whenever try to write in RAW mode (audio, video cds, etc.), the process stops at the lead-in. The changelog of the firmware updates had several mentions of LG drives, so I figured a firmware update would help.

Any suggestions are appreciated. nathane: What vendor's your enclosure from?

tsee- the cardboard box has "Sum Vision" as the brand name. It's the all-plastic USB2/Firewire enclosure from SVP...scroll down to {HA 4071}

http://www.blankdiscshop.co.uk/acatalog ... ion__.html

Exactly the same problems as you.

nathane: Mine's a different one. Aluminum with a plastic front and no info on a manufacturer. In case you happen to find a solution to the problem, please drop me a note at f17mp4p02@sneakemail.com. Of course, I'll also be watching this thread, but it looks like I'll force the vendor to take the case back - after all, it's obviously faulty.

Hi,

Can everyone who cannot upgrade the firmware please email Prolific asking for flash programmer and firmware, stating their PL & flash chip codes?

I have tried several times with no response, but if they have many requests they might actually get off their asses and reply to someone.

I mailed to sales@prolific.com.tw and support@prolific.com.tw , they should be received by someone as they dont bounce (I tried others that did).

Cheers

I've emailed them a couple of weeks ago and still have not gotten a response.

Their customer support is like a black hole.

I have mailed them as well. A copy went to ther postmaster just in case.

Man, I wish I had read this thread BEFORE I went and bought a Firewire enclosure, would have saved me the agony I (and you) are all sharing.

Got the ByteCC ME-720U2F and thing constantly chewed the partitions up, drive became unusable. It had 2003-10.29 firmware on it. Updated firmware to 2004-04-22 and then the 1394Test app worked fine, didn't throw any errors.. thought I was in the blue.

Nope, try to copy any large file in Windows, drive throws errors and it goes offline. Tried a few more times, then it ate the partitions again. Upgraded firmware to 2004-07-07, same problems. Tried the Max128k patch and XP KB822603 patch, still doesn't function.

Run the device under the USB2 port, runs perfect (albeit slower). This really blows.

Sent an email to sales and support at prolific, will let everyone know if I hear back myself.

Did ANYONE here ever get a non-functioning unit to work finally through firmware upgrades?

I have PL3507 chip C and I have been having a devil of a time with this Delayed Write error.

I tried the max128k driver, still got it.

I tried to update my firmware and got the "Be restricted!" error. (btw - I got it work once with the ROMWriter2.0.4.exe and I've been able to flash with ROMWriter214.exe ever since.

I tried max128k with the updated firmware

I tried the sony July 7, 2004 drivers (couldn't try this with max128k because it doesn't load).

All of these still give me the Delayed Write error message. I pass the test when I use busTrace's 1394Test app, I get the error when using an application that buffers several megs at a time and writes them to my external hard drive. For example, if I take a DVD and rip it to my hard drive, this works fine. If I take a DVD and try to compress it as it is ripped, I get the error. I will be doing some home video work in the near future and I'm worried about getting most of the way through a capture/render of my footage and having it burn out on me.

I've got the identical problem you just described.. so we're in the same boat.. so if ya figure it out let me (us) know.

No word back from Prolific either after a week and 2 emails to both their sales and support.

In an earlier post cluZo mentioned that, after upgrading the firmware, he experienced random partition crashes. As of today I can say that this isn't an isolated incident. I have lost my 80GB rendered media partition. I am currently running a data recovery utility to try to restore as much as I can, but I'm not sure how much that will be (so far the scan results aren't encouraging).

This never happened before I upgraded to the firmware posted on this forum. Since a lot of the peculiar problems seem to be happening to people with chip revision C I would advise anyone with this chip to be VERY wary. I will be attempting to re-load my old .bin to my firmware as soon as my scan is completed.

Hi,
I was just reading some posts on another forum about people having issues with other USB2/ATA bridge chipsets, namely Genesys GL811.
There seems to be similar issues with this as the pl-3507 with corruption etc. the common theme being NVidia NForce2 chipset based motherboards. I am (trying) to use my pl-3507 external on an Asus A7N8X Deluxe, are other people having issues also on NForce2 boards ?

(I personally tried mine on alternate Intel boards with similar problems (even at USB1.1), with error 'do you want to format the drive now'. On my NForce2 via firewire it just disconnects, drive letter dissapears in middle of copying files.

My pl3507 is completely useless doing anything with USB or firewire, I would advise anyone reading this board to NOT buy anything using PL-3507 f*cked up chipsets.

I've reinstalled Windows XP (XP2) and deleted the partition with the HD in the firewire box, created a 100% partition then formatted.

I don't get the problem now. Perhaps the MFT was corrupted? I haven't been getting lost partitions like the previous posters, just error messages (yet files seem fine)

Seems this PL-3507 chip is fraught with problems, not just the 128k bug. If the enclosures are passing the Bustrace test, then there's another cause for the Delayed Write errors which no one's identified yet. Anyone tried SP2 yet?

ghostdunks:
I have tested my enclosure (with a cd/dvd burner, not a harddrive) with an XP SP1 laptop and a w2k (newest SP) one. I used both USB and firewire and the problem persists. I tried attaching the drive to an ordinary IDE controller and it works flawlessly.

Furthermore, I have tested attaching it to my Gentoo and debian linux servers via USB and both result in the exact same problems that I described earlier in this thread.

I'd say it's not only the delayed write problems that the chip's ridden with. It's a complete mess. Worst of all, Prolific doesn't react on any kind of email support requests which is a damn shame.

My solution will probably be to add another small, old server with linux on it to my network just as a cd/dvd-backup burning station and put it in my desk drawer. After hours of testing and sending Prolific a detailed report, the drive enclosure is going to the darkest corner of my office. On the positive side of things, I'll be able to burn one CD when I'm away.

If, however, anybody finds a solution and/or receives a statement from Prolific, please post into this thread. I will certainly continue watching it.

How has everyone gotten the flash program? I can not get it from the Prolific site.

My box has the following designation of the PC board SI-2163UI Rev 1.2

The chips are PL-3507 03135A and the flash rom is
PMC Flash
PM39LV512-70JC

I can not get this box to work with IEEE 1394 on a laptop.

(The laptop has a fairly new install of WinXP SP2)

The hard drive is an IBM Deskstar (42 Gig)

I tried reformating the drive and failed using both USB and 1394.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

What's it report under Device Manager? Check "Disk Drives" and "DVD/CD Drives" when connected over Firewire, depending on what you've got. It should say "Proligic PL-3505 IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device"

Or should see the drive under USB devices if you've plugged over USB.

With Firewire it should still find the Prolific box, although it might not see the DVD/HD if something else is faulty. I had a wonky 3507 box- I could see "Unknown SBP-2 firewire/USB box" despite my other 3507 boxes working, but it never found my 107 drive in the faulty box.

It could be just a wonky box. Can you see the green arrow in the taskbar when you connect it?

Go to my site where there's a copy of the flash program and the firmware(not the newest, I believe someone else has got a slightly newer version, but the version I've got is usually good enough) - http://member.newsguy.com/~siccos/

I think you'll find that you won't be able to flash your chip anyway, seeing as it looks like an A revision chip..only B and C revision chips are flashable. Sorry.