The Firmware Page

no, not for BP10

And further, can anyone recommend a replacement DVD-writer or an external DVD-writer which can be so patched?

externals, liteon, or you can buy a drive and put it in an enclosure, you can get pioneer,liteon,nec drives, have to be careful you get a good enclosure

Is it the same as with an external HDD - in other words, do I just by an ordinary full-size DVD writer (in one of those brands) and then get an external USB 2.0 or FireWire enclosure and put the DVD writer into it?

you can, you can but liteon usb models, as well as some others, but you would need to check if there was RPC1, would either get a USB Liteon, or a drive and a good enclosure

Can anyone recommend a *specific* Liteon, with specific patch and specific drive enclosure? I'd be very grateful - not too techie, me.

DH-20A3H/P series are good, plus you can patch read speed to around 19.3x , other than that there is the 20A4H/P series, the H series gives you lightscribe.

if you can get it the DX-20A3P is the external model liteon.

also which i quite like the look of is the LG GSA-E50N

If I buy the Lite-On external, where do I find the patch, please, and how do I install it?

(I'm using a Mac running OS X, but if necessary can use a neighbour's PC for the installation.)

for RPC1, use LtnRPC

I just installed the dell Firmware update on my Boot-camp partition and then did the RPC2 Auto Reset patch with MCSE. And it works great!!!! I had to reboot my computer in Windows XP to complete the installation of the new drive, but now my DVD drive in unlocked and I can work with disk from Region 1,2 and 3. In both WINDOWS and OSX 10.5.4. I haven't tried PAL yet but the disks that I have been using are all NTSC. So if you use Boot-camp and have a working version of Windows, I recommend you do it from there. Works quickly and no problems with various software I have tested it on.

HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-S10N:

Firmware Revision: A101
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Generic Drive Support)
Profile Path: None
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, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

thanks nidle for this good info

Can this ONLY be performed via BootCamp or can one do it in VMWare or the like?

Just wondering, I didn't see an answer.

feedback has been from bootcamp, but i would think, as long as you have the windows environment, then it should work

OK Good News for Folks with BP10!

This was me before:-

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N:
Model: HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N
Revision: BP10

I flashed from Bootcamp/Vista to the standard Dell Firmware Mentioned above. Rebooted, then used MSCE to patch the firmware to autoreset, then flashed and rebooted once more.

Back in OS X I now look like this:-
Model: HL-DT-ST DVD+/-RW GSA-S10N
Revision: A101

However the Autoreset works after a reboot DVD Player asks me to set the region to 2 from 1 and the DVD plays.. Not checked burning etc as yet but as I never do that on the road it did not worry me.

It worked for me so it SHOULD work for you..

Best of Luck

Mr C

thanks for the feedback, the autoreset patch, has no affect on the burning, so this will not be affected

RE: OK Good News for Folks with BP10!

MR C. Would you care to be more specific ... I am running windows xp in virtual machine.

My black macbook drive is as follows:
HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N:

Firmware Revision: BP10
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, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

Is it the same deal ... if so what are the exact steps (or reference to them..) sorry for my ignorance

download the A101 Firmware, and then use MCSE to patch it, then flash it to your drive

Has there been any progress in patching the riplock limitations of this drive? This unit rips at 2x tops.

I don't believe so.
Please post a screenshot from nero cd dvd speed!

I do believe so

I meant the "2x max ripspeed".

I'm on a Macbook Pro and don't have Bootcamp installed at the moment, so unfortunately I can't run it right now. However, here's the info I have from System Profiler:

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GSA-S10N:

Firmware Revision: AP12
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, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO

A while back when I did have bootcamp, I downloaded the AP12 firmware and ran it through MCSE, although there were hardly any options to do anything to the firmware.

I'm doing a rip right this second with Mac the Ripper and a 7.3gb DVD is taking roughly 50 minutes to rip.

[quote="Nidle"]I just installed the dell Firmware update on my Boot-camp partition and then did the RPC2 Auto Reset patch with MCSE. And it works great!!!! I had to reboot my computer in Windows XP to complete the installation of the new drive, but now my DVD drive in unlocked and I can work with disk from Region 1,2 and 3. In both WINDOWS and OSX 10.5.4. I haven't tried PAL yet but the disks that I have been using are all NTSC.

Have you (or anyone else) tested this with any PAL DVDs? I'm in Australia (region 4) and most of my DVDs are PAL.

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanx heapz, Jeff.

works fine with all regions

Hope this is not too dumb a question...
I've patched A101 (autoreset) with MCSE and flashed it back. I understand from reading various forum posts and FAQs that this will reset the counter upon reboot BUT I should use additional utiltiies to adjust the counters - there are the 3 counters, firmware/OS/player.

So what utilities should I use on MacOSX and how will I know if the autoreset is working? The counter displayed in the OS has not changed post flashing.

Thanx,

Jeff.