The Firmware Page

Hi there,

I was recently given an older Gateway Solo 2500 laptop. The CDROM was flashed with an update from Gateway's website, but appears to be incompatible with the drive. According to their tech support it has a 24X CDROM in it and their firmware update is not compatible with the 24X drive. They don't seem to have the original firmware for this drive and won't or can't tell me the manufacturer of the drive either. Anyone know what drive this is (without tearing the laptop open to find out) and where to find the firmware for it?

Use Discinfo and post the output here.

Machine has WIN98SE on it. I installed ASPI to update and verified with ASPICHK. When I try to run DiscInfo I get the error message "No devices to populate list..." Now what?

CMOS does recognize some type of CDROM is there.....

Then try it in another Laptop or connecting to a normal computer by using a ide 2.5">3.5" adaptor.

Also, there should be a sticker on top of the drive with all info on it.

Okay, pulled apart the machine and pulled the CDROM. It is a model no. UJDA110L. A google search calls this a PANASONIC UJDA110 Matsushita CD-Rom Drive - 5500659 / UJDA110L. This is the exact part no on the top of the drive......so, is there an available firmware to restore this drive to original condition? Thanks for your help so far.

Sorry, there doesn't seem to be firmware available for this drive.

Where exactly have you found the update from Gateway?

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/mydl.asp?tab=MY&os=Windows%2098SE

According to the model number and the google search, it is a 20X drive (not the 24X speed the Gateway tech claimed) and the firmware update on Gateway's website should have worked. My really old Toshiba Satellite Pro (kids computer) just died and I pulled the CDROM from it to check in the Gateway Solo....works fine. So the machine is okay and worse case senario, I'm stuck with a slower CD. It would have been better if their firmware update had worked right. Of course, the drive was having issues anyway, so maybe it was its time to go.....

Does the firmware on your drive mathc the other one in any way?
I cannot find any UJDA110 firmware through search there.

Gateway doesn't list the firmware update by drive model...they just list the firmware based on computer model (which seems really stupid). Since you can damage the drive with the wrong firmware, you'd think they'd make sure the exact drive info was there for the update. Either that, or they want to sell more drives. Oh well.....