The Firmware Page

have you an option to turn AHCI off in the bios? try turning it off. if your system doesn't boot. change it back and post back here.

... and don't include ":"...

I didn't but I worked out how to get it there, and I disabled it, but, yeah, no booting so I changed it back.
I'm pretty much all out of ideas now. Bloody MatSHITa!!
I've written an angry letter to MatSHITa/Panasonic and I'm going to write one to the manufacturer of my laptop too (yeah it's their fault too for choosing this brand of drive for their laptops). I'm actually more than a little miffed at MatSHITa for being one of the only optical drive manufacturers to go out their way to make it IMPOSSIBLE to play perfectly legally obtained DVDs on their drive. It's one thing to make the drive region locked out of the box, but these guys have gone way above and beyond to make bloody sure it stays that way.
What grinds my gears the most is that technically the drive isn't faulty so I have no case to take it back under warranty, but anyone would have to agree that it does not perform the task for which it was designed. It was designed to play (and burn) DVDs, and it does not do that - at least not to my satisfaction.
Anyway thanks for the help and advice guys (even if it wasn't directly given to me, I did read the thread and tried all the suggestions given to others).

I doubt you gain gain something from writing those emails etc....

They chose that drive for their Laptops, right, but YOU bought their Laptop. So I dont think you can argue with that. And you cannot make them responsible for what is called RPC2.

Hi all,
Im running a Lenovo laptop (0873) on windows 7 with a matshita dvd-ram uj890AS
Tried running the dump, no dvd in and tried in safe mode but no luck

dump_matshita V. 02
//sptxSay.DeviceIoControl: x1 <1> Incorrect function.
//sptxSay x 0 0 29E <ioctl status length senseLength>

Press any key to continue...

Am I doing something wrong? Or is it not possible to make this drive region free?
Many thanks in advance.

Not sure where to post this, but I have finally successfully dumped the firmware from my MATSHITA BD-MLT UJ230AS drive.
I understand Blu-ray drives are not supported yet, but I have successfully used the flasher to make an older matshita dvd drive RPC1, so I have every faith that one day it will be possible!
If it's any help, here's a dump from my drive:
http://rapidshare.com/files/448832953/M ... 1_dump.dat

I got this drive off ebay, but it had written on it a Sony Vaio code, so that tells me it's a Sony-specific firmware.
I'm in no rush to get it to be an RPC1 drive as I can just use it as an external to play my Blu ray films, while using an internal DVD-only drive that is hacked to RPC1 to play my DVD films.
Also, to any of those of you having troubles getting the dumper and flasher to work on an AHCI system, I've discovered, accidentally, that the workaround is to remove your drive and put it in a USB caddy. The dumper and flasher can then successfully work with your drive. You can grab a caddy off ebay, but ensure you get the correct kind for your drive (check the back of your dvd drive to see if it is an IDE or a SATA connector!). Hope that information helps anyone like me who kept getting the "incorrect function" error!

I just wanted to say thank you to ben11 and ala42 for your efforts. I followed the instructions, dumped and flashed RPC-1, and it worked perfectly!

Thanks for taking the time and effort that you have to make it possible for people to use their own DVDs.

FREEDOM!!

I have a Matshita UJ890AS drive in my Acer 7745g-6384 laptop. I am getting the same error as other people with this drive (eg. this thread) when trying to dump the firmware:



Attached are the discinfo outputs (it is locked and the region is set).

I usually run linux but am using windows 7 64-bit to try to make the drive rpc1. If I change the bios mode from AHCI to IDE, I cannot boot Windows 7. However, I can boot from Hiren's BootCD into mini-WinXP in IDE mode. However, I get the same error when running MatshitaWinDump (actually it said change_vendor_mode: rc -258 instead of rc -2, otherwise the same). I tried both version 1.01 and 1.02 of MatshitaWinDump in both Windows 7 (AHCI mode) and mini-WinXP (IDE mode), same result. I read through the thread and believe I tried all of the suggested solutions.

I am very computer savvy and am happy to help in anyway to find a fix for this. I am grateful for the work you do to make this happen for people.

Thanks a lot for any help!



Detailed output from dvdinfo:

You should not boot from the drive you want to use with the flasher / for flashing.
That is the rule.

Try booting from a bootable usb stick.

Hi, I booted into MiniXP with Hiren's from my usb stick. Exact same error (with "change_vendor_mode: rc -258 tries 11"). My dvd drive was empty and closed, also tried with it open, changed the region to region 2, all the same error.

Any other ideas? Thanks!

As I've said earlier, the only way to bypass this error on a AHCI laptop is to connect the dvd drive using a USB caddy and then put it back inside the laptop when finished. I just had to do that last night on my friend's Sony Vaio laptop with a Matshita UJ-880AS drive. That shows it's not just my laptop that this can be done with. By the way, I don't know if this problem is just for dumping firmware, or if it's for both flashing and dumping (I didn't try just flashing). If anyone else has a UJ-880AS drive, I can post the original and RPC1 firmware for this drive and you can try flashing directly. Let me know if this is the case!
Sam

Looks like you're entering "E:" or even "E:\" on the command line for your drive. If so, please enter "E" only.

Hi, thanks for the reponse. I am able to change my BIOS from AHCI to IDE mode, I guess this isn't enough for this dvd drive? My laptop is still under warranty so I really don't want to open it up for this. Do you think are differences between your drive and mine as they are from different manufacturers (mine is acer)? I'd be afraid not to have a back up of the original firmware from my drive in case it doesn't work. On the other hand, I might totally be game for it just out of curiousity to see if it works!


Hi. I am just entering "E" (although I have tried "e", "e:", and "E:" as well, from both the batch file and the command line). I read the other posts and am just entering capital E without a trailing colon. The batch file adds the colon, the executable file won't work without it.

I see your point here, but I will point out that every laptop I have ever seen has only needed one sc rew taken out to remove the DVD drive. it usually has a padlock sign next to it as well. Anyone is free to take a dvd drive out and change it without voiding the warranty, just the same with a hard drive as long as it slides out without taking the whole bottom off the laptop! Have you got a discinfo report anywhere for your drive that you can post here? If the firmware version is a similar number I'd know it would work, as long as the drive model number itself matches. Otherwise the flash program would refuse to perform the flash anyway if there was a model mismatch.
Also, I will point out I've only ever by chances alone gone up to trying the UJ880AS. Never the UJ890AS. So I honestly don't know if it's just that that drive simply can't be done yet.

By the way board administrator, how is the word sc rew when joined together as one word profanity? Bit harsh to ban that word! I know it can sometimes be used the wrong way, but on a computing board, only people with innuendoes would try that...

*EDIT* I managed to get the dvd-drive out, just wrapped my [*Profanity*] with a rubber glove to prevent scratches You were right, I only needed to remove one [*Profanity*]. The only problem is my SATA/IDE to USB adapter doesn't have a power adapter for SATA dvd drives Gotta see if I can order another adapter. I'll post if I get it to work.

In the meantime, I posted the discinfo report in my first post (above), let me know if you need more info. I would love to give your firmware a try if the numbers match. Thanks!

ps. I think wrapping my "profanity" with a rubber glove is funnier than a scr ewdriver so I'm leaving it. Wrapping my profanity might be more difficult than it would be for men however...

Very well, feel free anyone else as well to download the original and RPC1 firmware files I obtained with the matshita dumper program while working with my friend's Matshita UJ880AS drive. Use Mastshitaflash to flash it if you have that same model number. I've uploaded it to my server:

http://www.samspinmedia.co.uk/rpc1/UJ880AS.zip

Sam

PS. I love that profanity comment! lol. Seems the board administrator has inadvertently encouraged that kind of language by banning words...

What is your problem regarding the forum rules and the net etiquette??

*jumps frightened, stands against the wall, puts hand against forehead to salute you*

Sorry sir, I didn't mean to offend you or anything, I just found the whole thing amusing, that's all, I couldn't help it. I only came on here to help others with their DVD drives and accidentally came across the word sc rew being banned... How can I make up for this on my service record sir? I didn't want to cause trouble... Anyway, I do have other RPC1 (and original) firmwares saved from the matshita dump program while working with 2 other Matshita drives I've come across, maybe I could contribute these as well if you like...

Here you go, two drive uploads, containing both RPC1 and originals obtained from the MatshitaDumper program:

http://www.samspinmedia.co.uk/rpc1/UJ857G.zip (Matshita UJ857G, an IDE slot-loading drive from a macbook running Windows bootcamp)

http://www.samspinmedia.co.uk/rpc1/UJ841S.zip (Matshita UJ841S, an IDE tray-loading drive I got off ebay awhile back that I use in a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop)

Posted to ensure people with AHCI problems can try flashing without having to dump first...
Sam

Ok, so I got the adapter that allows me to mount my DVD-drive as a usb device. Unfortunately, it's the exact same result, both with booting to Win7 in AHCI mode and with booting in IDE mode to Hiren's MiniXP from a USB key: no dice. It looks like something must be different for these drives that may make this tool not work for them. Thanks for the firmware dump but I think flashing a UJ880AS firmware on a UF890AS device is just asking for a brick... have you ever flashed different firmware onto a different model and have it work?

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them. Please let me know if I can provide you with more info. The drive again is a Matshita UJ890AS from an Acer Aspire 7745g laptop. The error I get is:The more detailed DiscInfo dump is a few posts back, too long to repost.

Thanks!

Seems to me that with many others having problems with the UJ890AS, is that this drive must not be supported yet! I think ala42 should update the first post and list that drive as not supported as clearly noone can get any firmware off it with any usual workaround. It looks like you'll have to get yourself a different DVD drive that can be hacked... I've been having the same problem with my UJ230AS, but I know blu-ray drives are not supported yet hence use my original drive in a caddy for blu-ray films, and an RPC1 drive as my main internal drive.
For a new drive that works I think you're looking at about 15 to 20 quid... I got myself an Optiarc AD-7590S for that price, and that drive has RPC1 firmwares available. That's the price you pay for a drive that behaves with regioned DVD's for now I'm afraid...
Sorry about the bad news
Sam

Hey,
When I drag and drop the dat file on the DVD I'm getting an "Insert a disc" Dialog box which prevents me from actually flashing the firmware.
I'm using Windows 7.

Any ideas about that?
Thanks

Flashing is no drag and drop gaming!!
I advise you to read at least post#1 in this very thread.

Yes, it appears the tools do NOT work with new Matshita drives.

I have 2 Sony Vaios with the following drives :

Matshita UJ890AS (reported earlier by me in an earlier post)
Matshita UJ8A0AS (new laptop with new Matshita drive)

The error is identical:

Windows dumper for Matshita DVD drives V1.01 by ala42, based on ben11's dump_mat
shita

Enter the drive letter of the Matshita drive to backup the firmware: D:
You have selected the source drive D:


dump_matshita V 0.1
Appear to have a matshita device MATSHITADVD-RAM UJ8A0AS 1.00
dump 1
change_vendor_mode: rc -2 tries 101
error during attempt to read memory from device \\.\D:

Press any key to continue . . .


Note that I have successfully used the tools on a UJ880AS drive with success.

I have tried many times,and cannot get this to work.Please,anyone help.Here is my dos screen.