Setting up an OEM Pioneer 109

[axelrod]

Hey Everyone,

I just purchased a Pioneer 109, got it from Newegg today. So, it has absolutely nothing with it. I was hoping someone could give me a step by step as to the best method of installing this thing?

Here is my current set-up.

I have a TDK 4800B CD Burner installed on the top (probably set as the master). Then I have an old HP CD Burner as a second drive (set as the slave, presumably). Now, I want to replace the HP with the Pioneer 109.

So -- here are my basic questions/concerns

1.) Can I use the existing cables that are hooked to the HP burner and attach them to the Pioneer?

2.) How should I configure these two drives, so that the Pioneer gets the best performance (ie master/slave etc.)

3.) Should I upgrade the firmware after I install it?

Anything else anyone has learned through experience would be greatly appreciated!

thanks for any help,

-Ax

[Alektron]

Answers for the nice lady:

1.) Can I use the existing cables that are hooked to the HP burner and attach them to the Pioneer?

No. The HP burner uses a 40-pin IDE cable, and the Pioneer uses an 80-pin. You could use an 80-pin cable(s) with both drives, but you cannot use 40-pin cables with both.

2.) How should I configure these two drives, so that the Pioneer gets the best performance (ie master/slave etc.)

If you have an IDE hard drive already, you will probably need to put both HP and Pioneer on the same 80-pin cable. If so, make the Pioneer as the master. (Consult product manuals for details). If you have a SATA hard drive like I do, you could put HP and Pioneer burners on separate IDE cables and connect them to your motherboard's two IDE connectors. This would probably be better if you could do it.

3.) Should I upgrade the firmware after I install it?

Definitely. There is usually some improvement to performance or error reduction with the updated firmware. Note: be careful updating the firmware, as they say it can be bad if you don't update it completely.

Pioneer
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/s ... 82,00.html

TDK
http://www.tdk.com/support/cdburners/velocd48xsup.html

[axelrod]

okay, I actually have two ide hard-drives in there right now...

do I have to buy another 80pin cable you think? If so, what do I buy exactly?

thanks for the answers!

-ax

[axelrod]

okay..

I set my TDK drive to slave, and the Pioneer to master -- the Pioneer seems to be working good, watched a dvd and burned a disc -- no problem, but my TDK Cd drive isn't showing up?

It appeared to have been 'detected' when Windows started tho''

any ideas?


thanks!!

[dodecahedron]

weird.
maybe a bad cable. try another one if you can.

something else to try - switch the master/slave settings, make the Pioneer a slave and the TDK as master.
it doesn't affect performance, and sometimes drive behave strangely when changing master/slave settings (don't like to be slave for instance) although this shouldn't happen.

[Alektron]

First question, did you use your old 40-pin IDE cable for both Pioneer and HP drives? If you do this, you will be limited with your Pioneer speed. Also, you must connect jumpers on both HP & Pioneer drives to "Slave" and "Master", respectively. It is far better to buy the 80-pin cable if you can (Microcenter, Best Buys, Fry's, etc) than to use the 40-pin. Or swap it from a friend for a few blank DVD+Rs. In addition, if you put both optical drives on the same cable, you cannot do "on the fly" copying easily. Instead, you would need to write the CD-image to the hard drive, then burn it (page 10 of your HP drive manual). Personally, I never use "on the fly" because it risks creating a coaster.

When you first boot up the pc, the motherboard detects devices on the IDE interface even if they aren't configured as Master & Slave properly. But Windows itself will not be able to use them.

[axelrod]

thanks for all your input!

I have the two drives working and showing up together, tho I am still using the 40 wire cable. I intend to upgrade to the 80 wire tomorrow, and just replacing it. hopefully, everything will still work.

I was able to burn a data dvd, and it seemed to work.

thanks again!

-ax

[axelrod]

Okay!

I purchased the following cable:

25' 2-device 80C 40 Pin ATA UDMA Cable

I replaced it with the 40wire cable that I had installed, and working (pioneer set as master, tdk set as slave)

I rebooted the computer -- and suddenly, it did not detect my hard-drives!

On my motherboard, there are two 40pin connectors side by side. One of them has a 80c cable that connects my two internal hard-drives. The other, had the 40wire cable which connected my two optical drives (pioneer + tdk). When I plugged in the new 80 wire cable -- it stopped detecting my hard-drives.

When I unplug the 80c wire, everything runs fine again.

There are no problems when the 40 wire cable is connected??

any ideas??

thanks!!

-ax

[Alejandra]

I had problems once with 40c and my Pioneer A07, my SATA RAID disks didn't recognized, it was very cery strange since they are not even in the same controler as the burner, never had probs with 80c even when the 4 ports were active.

[axelrod]

thanks for the response. I figured out what happened - I had connected the cable incorrectly. Dumb mistake, but I'm glad It's fixed.

now, if I can only figure out how the heck to get xvids onto dvds I'd be happy.

-ax

[frank1]

3.) Should I upgrade the firmware after I install it?

Definitely. There is usually some improvement to performance or error reduction with the updated firmware. Note: be careful updating the firmware, as they say it can be bad if you don't update it completely.

Pioneer
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/s ... 82,00.html

Hey everyone,
I like to know if official upgrades from a the Pionner website
are able to upgrade an OEM 109 drive ?
or do you have to use the "crossflashing" method as described here:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=20128

[frank1]

I just purchased a Pioneer 109, got it from Newegg today.
......
3.) Should I upgrade the firmware after I install it?

I like to know
- with which firmware your Pioneer 109 drive had on arrival (the "stock" firmware)
- which firmware do you use today and how did you upgragde an OEM Pioneer drive ?

[ETP]

Yes! To a A09XL!

[ETP]

Make sure you have the correct drive selected in dvrupdate. Also use the 1.57 A09 FW!

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=140388

http://flashman.rpc1.org/Firmware/P...09/Enhanced_XL/

http://pioneer109.com/phpBB2/viewto...er=asc&start=15

flash 2.1

http://pioneer109.com/phpBB2/viewto...er=asc&start=15

Re: Pioneer 109 Burning Speed Increase

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread...284#post1023284

You have not crossflashed if the quiet drive utility does not show. Check the other threads out!



5. Once I cross flashed it was a perfect drive.

From the Pioneer 109 forum

Download the 109v1.57 firmware

Extract the files and delete the Pioneer upgrade (UPGR109.exe). You will be left with 2 files, R9100009.157 & R9100109.157.

Download DVRupdate 0.9

Extract DVRupdate 0.9.exe to the same folder as the 2 files above.

Run DVRupdate 0.9 and do the following:
1) Select your drive from the 'Device' drop down box
2) Select the Kernel file by clicking the folder icon to the right of the 'Kernel' field. The correct file will automatically be selected if you have run DVRupdate from the same folder as the R9100009.157 & R9100109.157 files.
3) Select the Normal file by clicking the folder icon to the right of the 'Normal' field. The correct file will automatically be selected if you have run DVRupdate from the same folder as the R9100009.157 & R9100109.157 files.
4) Click 'Start'
The operation takes about a minute. Exit DVRupdate.

Reboot.
__________________
etp
__________________

NEC 3500 2.1Afast
NEC 3450 103C
Plextor 716a 1.08
Aopen 1608/1616 102
Pioneer 109/A09 157
Liteon 5005
Sony 875P & 333ES
HK7200
Hitachi 61SDX
Superdish 811hdtv
Two Dell 8400s with SATA HDs


etp

[Alejandra]

It also change 107 and 108 Drives to XL. I did with my A07.

[frank1]

Thanks a lot to both of you for the answers !

1°) To transorm your Pioneer 109 in A09 you used the software DVRupdate

It also change 107 and 108 Drives to XL. I did with my A07.

2°) To transorm your Pioneer 108 in A08 did you use DVDRFlash or DVRupdate ?

3°) Which sofware did you use to transorm your Pioneer 107 in A07 ??

[Alejandra]

In both cases DRVupdate to transform and then DVRFlash to update to most recent FW.

Look here: The Speedlabs DVR-107, 108 & 109 to A07XL, A08XL & A09XL conversion tutorial