The Firmware Page

I'm snookered and just plain tired. I'm having similar problems with the OADDIAG.EXE utility not seeing my SCSI optical drive, but have the right BIOS A150.

Might someone lend a quick hand to this tired one and hold my hand?

Thanks!

Sorry, this is in the wrong forum. I'll control my reader better in the future!

Hi,

you have "similar problems" like who?
Maybe its best youpost more info about your drive first.
Probably you need a(nother) OEM firmware for this drive.

Here's the topic:

Panasonic LF-D291 and BIOS A150. I see now that I posted A105 mistakenly. Never having flashed this particular drive before, I am not sure why ODDIAG.EXE doesn't work properly under Win2K w/SP4 display my SCSI drive even though it appears to display for my ATAPI DVD burner.

Thus, I'm left thinking I need a 3rd party patch utility but haven't the foggiest as to which nor how to work it if I knew. Might you point me in the right direction please?

Thanks!

Please post the output from Discinfo here, could help in this case.

You also could try flashing in SAFE MODE.

I saw 3 manners in which to save the contents of DiscInfo and this is my effort:

DISCINFO VERSION : 1.6.1.6
VENDOR : IBM
MODEL : DVRM00203
REVISION : A127
VENDOR SPECIFIC : LF-D291B04/12/01
LOADING MECHANISM : Tray
NUMBER VOL. LEVELS : 255
BUFFER SIZE : 1024KB
INTERFACE : SCSI 2
RPC2 SCHEME : YES
STATUS : Set
USER CHANGES : 4
VENDOR CHANGES : 4
CURRENT REGION : 1
ANALOG AUDIO PLAY : YES
COMPOSITE OUTPUT : YES
DIGITAL PORT-PORT1 : NO
DIGITAL PORT-PORT2 : NO
READ UPC CODE : YES
MULTISESSION READ : YES
MODE 2 FORM 1 : YES
MODE 2 FORM 2 : YES
READ ISRC CODE : YES
READ BAR CODE : YES
BUFFER UNDER-RUN : NO
MT. RAINIER : NO
CAN READ CDR : YES
CAN READ CDRW : YES
CAN READ CDRM2 : YES
CAN WRITE CDR : NO
CAN WRITE CDRW : NO
CAN TEST WRITE : NO
CAN READ DVD-ROM : YES
CAN READ DVD-R : YES
CAN READ DVD-RW : YES
CAN READ DVD-RAM : YES
CAN READ DVD+R : NO
CAN READ DVD+RW : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-R : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-RW : NO
CAN WRITE DVD-RAM : YES
CAN WRITE DVD+R : NO
CAN WRITE DVD+RW : NO

Couldn't figure out the other two but it seems that I'm prohibited from adding attachments anywhere, so there go the other two manners.

ODDIAG.EXE does NOT see my SCSI LF-D291 in either mode. And I'm guessing that is the program to use to flash my A127 BIOS to the A150 BIOS, which is why I thought I might need a 3rd party flashing utility.

Thanks for the help.

Have you tried with A130, A132 or A134 first?

Your drive is IBM OEM, so it seems.

ODDIAG.EXE will NOT work for my SCSI drive. I do recall years ago that I was able to read and write to the drive when used in another system configuration but today it chokes and refuses to reveal itself.

Is there a 3rd party flashing utility that you can suggest may work for me?

OK, what setup do you have?

What SCSI controller, how is the drive set up (SCSI ID, LUN)?

Onboard Adaptec AIC-7899 with SCSI ID # 2 on Channel A. Channel B has no peripherals and I've set the BIOS to have no LUNs.

The SCSI BIOS flash screen during boot-up shows the device properly as does the settings within the BIOS. All OK.

Win2K shows the DVD-RAM drive as a CD drive but I can access the drive with audio CD and the BART PE2 CD. DiscInfo sees the drive but ODDIAG.EXE sees only the ATAPI attached CD/DVD burner.

Also, when BART PE2 was booted by itself, the IBM burner was not visible because I had not loaded the SCSI drivers. I just noticed that when I inserted the BART PE2 CD in my booted Win2K system that the BART PE2 file management utiilty could then see the IBM burner.

An IBM level 2 tech helped me find the below out:

The FRU numbers point to a 7210 model external SCSI drive.
IBM Part Number.................04N5272
FRU # 04N5968
they were used on RS/6000 and other systems according to what I found

The drive has been in a down machine since my last posts. I'm building another box and intend to take another try at this BIOS flashing and would hope I can provide any further information that is posted here already. Does anybody what to take up the challenge? I know I've seen success stories posted about successful flashes of this drive and didn't want to give up.

I picked up this drive today and thought I would revisit the problem of being unable to update the firmware since my first post here almost a year ago. I can appreciate a lack of interest because of the age of the drive but it should suit my purposes.

Does anyone care to lend a hand yet?

Thanks!

Usually there is no rpc1 firmware for such drives and all software tools fail to work...

http://forums.nekochan.net/viewtopic.php?t=7000

Seems someone else has completed this procedure. I found this post recently and only wanting at this time to upload the manufacturer provided upgrade. I'll see what happens.

Thanks.

Well, I'm back on the hunt again. I never knew there were more than the 127 and (150 *ethereal) What gores me is that IBM is useing the present drive today in their new workstation boxesl