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Turn Your MSI MS-8348A Into An Optorite CW4802

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Turn Your MSI MS-8348A Into An Optorite CW4802

Postby Ian on Tue Dec 03, 2002 10:26 pm

If you own an MSI MS-8348A you might have noticed that the drive has some problems with media compatibility and writing quality. MSI has fixed these problems in version 150D of the firmware. Unfortunately, MSI has not made it available for download yet.

I wanted to see if there was any way around this. If you haven't figured it out already, the MS-8348A is based on the Optorite CW4802. Using the firmware and tools readily available, I was able to turn my MSI drive into the Optorite.

To turn your MSI drive into an Optorite, you'll need a few files first. The first file you need is the update.exe from the 140D firmware. You can download this here:

http://download.msi.com.tw/support/dvr_ ... a_140d.exe

Next, you'll need the 150E firmware for the Optorite drive. You can download it here:

http://www.optorite.com/150E.zip

You just want the 150E.bin file. NOT the update.exe.

Next, take the bin file and the update.exe from the MSI firmware and copy it to a floppy or somewhere on your hardware. You will need to boot to DOS to update it. True DOS, not a command prompt. From there, you will need to run:

update.exe 150E. bin /F

The /F forces the firmware update, no matter what the drive's ID string is. Once you run it, it will ask you what drive you want to update. Choose the MSI drive and the firmware will be update. Once you reboot, you should have an Optorite drive.

You can always go back and turn your drive into an MS-8348A again by using the MSI firmware and running:

update.exe 140D.bin /F

Just a few screenshots.

Before:

Image

After:

Image

Is Optorite's 150E firmware the same as MSI's 150D firmware? Unfortunately, no. The media compatibility is on par with MSI's 140D firmware. We can only hope that MSI will release the 150D firmware soon.. or Optorite will release an update.
"Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt." - Steve Jobs
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Postby Ian on Tue Dec 03, 2002 10:27 pm

This makes me wonder whether or not the Optorite CW4002 can be overclocked to a CW4802. Thoughts?
"Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt." - Steve Jobs
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Postby dhc014 on Tue Dec 03, 2002 10:30 pm

Nice Ian!
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Postby dhc014 on Tue Dec 03, 2002 11:40 pm

I just checked out the update.exe program, lol...
Please enter the BIN file name
Example: Updata xxx.bin [/f]
[/f]:Don't care Modle Name!


I have modified the Optorite firmware 150E to contain the MSI ID.
Some testers would be nice, I don't know how easy it is to recover, but it sounds like the flasher will flash anything.

Download here.

It took like 5 minutes, why couldn't MSI do it?
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Postby jase on Wed Dec 04, 2002 5:26 am

Anyone tried forcing a Cyberdrive 48x firmware into this drive? I am fairly sure they are basically the same drive, and if that were to work it would improve performance significantly.
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