The Firmware Page

Hello,

This is a question which I think will need a real expert to solve.

I accidentally used the firmware update for a SD-616 drive on a 612. My computer no longer recognizes the DVD drive, and attempts to reinstall the correct firmware give the error, "drive not found, or wrong model". In other words, my 612 now thinks it's a 616.

I'm concerned that I've rendered this drive permanently inoperable, unless there is some technical wizard out there who can help me put this right.

If someone can, I would be eternally grateful, and would be more than happy to reward you.

Thanks in advance,
Richard

I think you could solve it with MTKFLASH.EXE but I am not sure. Someone else that allready tryed this should give you this imformation.

Well, I've had the chance to experiment a bit more with my broken DVD drive.

When I run Setup on my computer, the BIOS does not even seem to be recognizing the drive because under IDE configuration, the drive does not appear, even though I have it connected on the 2nd IDE as the master. Presumably, this means I can't use a utility like MTKFLASH because the computer thinks there is no device connected?

MTKFLASH will blindly load to whatever IDE location that you tell it too..So if you think the drive is dead,,have a go with MTK as you got nothing to loose..

I've just done a long session with MTKFLASH. I even tried with the DVD drive as both a master and a slave, and I tried reading the flash memory as well as writing it.

Each time I run MTKFLASH, it announces itself with a line or two of text and then does nothing, until I terminate it with Ctrl-C.

I find it hard to believe that I've permanently killed a $100 piece of hardware just by running a piece of software, but it looks like I'll just have to accept it.

I opened the drive up a while ago to see if there were any chips I could replace, but everything seems to be soldered into the circuit board.

I can't understand how the people who designed the hardward and software involved could do it in such a way as to make this whole situation possible.

This is why we all have region protection. If you still have guarantie for you drive go and replace it. Just play dump and say it sudently stopped working.

Try diffrent DOS boot disks. Maybe in some mtkflash will work.

And a copy paste from main firmware page:
[quote]
This pages are only for advanced users.
Bad flashing could destroy your drive definitively.
Read carefully the installation notes of your firmware before you upgrade.
REMEMBER: This is at your own risk!!!!
[/quote]

I think that you might still be able to fix your drive.
When you ran MTKFLASH did you include all of the address info?
eg A:\MTKFLASH 4 w /a0 /b a:\bide00.bin
If you did not then follow my steps.
Look at Baby steps for flashing in this forum and follow the last part.
What you are doing is telling the computer to use MTKFLASH on secondary slave, write to, address 00000, binary, from a:\ and then your binary file.
This should work even if the bios does not recognise your drive.
Good Luck

Yes, I tried using the /A0 flag when I ran MTKFLASH. In fact, I tried just about every possible permutation of flags, jumper settings, and everything else, that I could think of.
Whatever flags I use when I run MTKFLASH, all I get is a message telling me the author and the version and then it does nothing.
I also tried using it to read from the 1st IDE master, which is my hard disk. That didn't do anything either. Is that because hard disks don't have firmware? I don't know.

I use MTKFLASH to flash my Sony DDU-1621 so I'm very familiar with how it works. Reports in this forum indicate that it certainly works with the Samsung SD-612[b]S[/b]. But there was no way I could get it to work with my SD-612. This suggests that there are significant differences between these models. I really don't think you'll have any success with MTKFLASH. Like Hijacker says, your best bet is to get the dealer to replace the drive.

If that's not an option you might have another look inside the drive. You say that you opened up the drive and found all the chips soldered. I had a bad flash with the SD-612 some time ago and found that the flash EEPROM is in a PLCC32 socket on the underside of the PCB. To get at it you need to release the PCB as follows:

(1) There are 4 (or 5) miniature ribbon cables from the drive innards connected to side of the PCB visible when you open the case. 3 (or 4) of them are friction-fitted to connectors on the PCB and can just be pulled out firmly but gently. The remaining ribbon cable fits into a white connector with a brown bar on the front. The bar is a locking device you have to push forward a millimetre or two with a cocktail stick, fingernail etc. Then the ribbon cable becomes free.

(2) After this, the PCB is still held to the drive by 2 black plastic clips entending up from the drive innards through 2 small square holes. If you gently press the clips inwards (or outwards -- can't remember) while putting upward pressure on the PCB, this should release the board. Turn it over and you should see the brown 32-pin PLCC socket with the removable chip. You remove this by applying levering pressure equally at diagonal corners of the socket with watchmakers [*Profanity*], small nails etc. If you don't find a socket, then I'm afraid Samsung has changed its manufacturing methods and the drive is probably a write-off.

If you have access to an EEPROM programmer with a PLCC32 adapter, you're all set. If you don't, you could send the chip away for programming. The following sites offer this service (their main business is flash EEPROMs used in motherboards but they can handle the kind of chip I found in my drive):

In the USA:

http://www.badflash.com

In Europe:

http://www.flashbios.org/

Thanks very much indeed, joegib! I had given up hope of saving my drive, and now you have given me some.

I haven't opened up the drive again yet, but I'm pretty sure I will be able to get access to at EEPROM programmer through my university. I'm actually studying molecular biology, but I would bet the engineering dept. has one somewhere, and I have used them before. Therefore, so long as that chip is in there, I should have a good chance of repairing my drive.

I'll let you know how things go.

Thanks again,
Richard