The Firmware Page

Dear all,

I'm a G5 Mac user (OS 10.4.11) trying to patch my newly bought Pioneer-116D from RPC2 to RPC1. I've gone through many posts here and there, and have come to the following conclusions:
- if I were to patch my burner under OSX, I would have to use DVDFlash 2.6 (which I have).
- to use DVDFlash 2.6, I would need two appropriate kernel files (which I have not -- and have not found here nor there); thus at this point DVDFlash is useless for me.
- I might be able to flash my drive by inserting it into a Wintel machine and using MCSE (among the many threads I browsed is this one: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=44796&p=217651&hilit=pioneer+116#p217651).

Now here's my question:
- Am I right to assume that there is no other way for me to patch my drive than switching machines, doing it on a PC, and putting the drive back into my G5?
- Or is there a couple of available kernels out there that I'm not aware of?

Thank you.
ek

you need to use MCSE in a windows environment, like bootcamp,with the official firmware for the 116D, patch it to RPC1, then use DVRFlash with only the firmware within your mac to flash, no need for a kernel file in this case

Thanks a lot for the reply. Now:


Since I can't use bootcamp on a G5 and I don't really trust Virtual PC to do it, I should definitely switch machines, right?


This means that MCSE will create a file on the Wintel that I can then use within the DVDFlash folder on the G5. Correct?

ek

yeah, hook it up to a windows pc and use MCSE, if your going to do that, then you might as well, flash the drive there also, if you choose that option then DVRFlash is not needed, just unzip the 116D firmware you download, open the firmware in MCSE and tick the RPC1 box, save it as the original file name, then open the flasher in MCSE, and tick allow same to same flashing, again save as original file name, and then run that flasher to update your drive, if you want to use DVRFlash, then renaming the file is not necessary, any problems post back

I've got it -- almost:

Do you mean MCSE will extract the firmware from the drive onto the Wintel desktop --so I can check the RPC1 box later on-- or should I download it from the Net?

Option #1 sounds more realistic, right?

And thanks for your time!

ek

no you need to download it, MCSE will only patch the firmware you load into it

Patching the firmware to RPC1 and flashing it are two separate things. MCSE allows you to patch the firmware you can download from Pioneer to RPC1. MCSE runs under windows and probably in any emulator. MCSE does not need the drive to patch the firmware file, so you can patch it on any Windows PC you can access.
In a second step you can flash the patched firmware with DVRFlash on your MAC running MacOS.

As a conclusion to the whole thing, this is exactly what I did (and it worked):

- on my Mac I downloaded the newest 1.09 patcher from Pioneer, which comes as a small ".exe" file.
- on my Mac again I used StuffIt Expander to extract the firmware that I assumed would be included -- and it was.
- on a Wintel, I used MSCE to patch the original RPC2 firmware to a RPC1.
- back on the G5, I used DVDFlash to patch my Pioneer drive.

This is all thanks to Puma and ala42, to whom I'm really grateful.

Best to all,

ek.

unfortunately you cannot post an MCSE patched firmware

OK. If there's any way this can be offered to others, please let me know.
ek

Might i ask a question please. Does MCSE 1.1.0.20 work on VPC? it opens fine but when i try to load the Pioneer 109 firmware nada. nothing appears in the MCSE window at all. I am trying to follow efrands successful procedure

ekant i meant. are edit button are gone?

The Pioneer flasher package is a selfextracting .exe file, unpack it to get the firmware file.

DVR116D_FW109EU2.EXE

That is what I have. Will that extract smaller? Isn't the DVR116D_FW109EU2.EXE what you load into MCSE? I am not a Windows user so I have to ask questions. I don't mean to crosspost but the edit buttons are now gone so I couldn't erase my post in another thread.

When you start DVR116D_FW109EU2.EXE it will selfextract. You can also unpack it with winrar and probably also with other pack tools. MCSE needs the A0815001.109 firmware file.

Understood thanks

I hate to bother you guys but this procedure is all new to me from the previous ones and I want to confirm 100% before I [*Profanity*] up my drive.

Ok MCSE worked I think. I unzipped the EXE with Stuffit 13.02 on my mac and got 2 files, A0815001.109 + R116D.exe, I dragged A0815001.109 onto VPC and loaded it into MCSE , checked RPC1 and then saved it. Now I have this, A0815001_speedpatched.109, and the file is now white. Is that correct procedure to get RPC1? I dragged it off the VPC and now it is on my PPC mac. Can I ask for a stepwise after this point. Is all I need that patched 109 file? Do I need the other file that unzipped from the unpatched 109 original? I also have DVRFlash 2.60 and the Pioneer 116D is internally inside my Powermac tower. I am using OS Tiger 10.4.11. I feel so stupid having to ask. Thanks for any advice and info..

Should I rename the patched firmware to the original name before using?

hi fahrenheit, for DVRFlash, the name is not important, you can name it anything you want really, you only need the firmware file you patched, the other file, is of no use to you, so you can run DVRFlash using the speedpatched name safely

Thanks Puma very very much.

I should put DVRFlash and the 109 patched firmware in a folder on the desktop, then what? I used to be quite expert at the drive flashing when only on Macs, but I have not done it is a long while only on Macs so I just want to be certain this correct procedure and syntax:

cd Desktop/DVRFlash

Commandline:
./DVRFlash -f PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-116D A0815001_speedpatched.109

then of course the options on terminal to click.

All correct above?

should get away with just PIONEER, is that the only pioneer drive you have attached? if so, then try the flash

I appreciate the help, really.

ok Puma I see your question in the quoted part. Yes the only Pioneer attached to the machine internally or externally. I see Pioneer since it is the only one. I'll let you know what happens. thanks

In addition to what has been written about the Pioneer 116D drive, some might want or need to download both the original RPC2 and the patched RPC1 files from the following
I hope this is not contrary to rpc1.org site policy.
Best,
ek.

no patched firmware from MCSE is allowed