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Okay, I tried upgrading the firmware on my LG-8525B from 1.01 to 1.02 and the installer hung even after about 30min, so I rebooted.... then the drive was no longer visable.

Any suggestions?

The only reason I upgraded was becasue I finally received my 32x CD-RWs from aviationwiz, and I wanted to test them on my LG 52x32x52x burner, since he had already tested them on his Premium. I guess I shouldn't have done that....

Well, if the drive uses a mediatek chip set, you can always try MTKFlash.

it works well with the Lite On drives, but I'm not sure about the LG.

but even my bios doesn't recognize it... will that still work?

MTKFlash recovered my Lite On 52x24x52x drive after a bad flash with a Winflash utility. Now I flash from pure DOS.

My drive was not shown at all in the BIOS screen, but it was recovered.


*** Just make sure it has a mediatek chipset ***

LG FIRMWARE

How can I tell if it has a MediaTek Chipset?

dolphinius_rex wrote:How can I tell if it has a MediaTek Chipset?

I'm not sure.

http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=2 ... d6fa2e46d7

one guy says MTKFlash will work, the other said it didn't.

Basically, try it. If it doesn't have a mediatek chipset, MTKFlash won't be able to write to the chips.

http://dhc014.rpc1.org/mtkflash.htm

HERE is a guy who recovered his GCE-8523B drive with MTKFlash.

I suggest you use MTKFlash from Pure DOS. You'll need firmware in a .bin format for it to work. I'm note sure where you can find it. perhaps there's a .exe > .bin conversion utility for the LG drives. There's one for the Lite On drives.

Follow the directions closely. Print them out before trying it.

HERE'S A GOOD MTKFLASH MANUAL Be sure to read the section on Bad Flash Recovery.

just try mtkflash out.
the drive is dead, there's nothing you can do to it that will make it worse than it is now!
(except maybe take a hammer to it )

Argh! I'm truing to PM the guy that got it to work, but I can't register on the forum... I'm getting an error everytime I try to open the page

geez, I feel like such a noob all of a sudden!

I guess i'm lucky....I flashed my 8525B recently to 1.02 succesfully but i was not impressed about the flash utility LG delivered with the update. It started to update the drive without confirmation.

It is a Mediatek based drive, the problem is that the flash util and the .bin file are integrated into 1 file. I did spend some time to extract the bin file out of it but unfortunatley without succes until now.....Good luck!

does LG still require you (in the instruction page) to have the drive as Secondary Master alone (without a slave) for the flashing util?
<extremely annoying!>

/\/\arco wrote:I guess i'm lucky....I flashed my 8525B recently to 1.02 succesfully but i was not impressed about the flash utility LG delivered with the update. It started to update the drive without confirmation.

It is a Mediatek based drive, the problem is that the flash util and the .bin file are integrated into 1 file. I did spend some time to extract the bin file out of it but unfortunatley without succes until now.....Good luck!

Can you please send me the .bin file? please send it to digitaldolphinATtelusDOTnet. I would REALLY appreciate it!

As for the secondary master without slave question... mine was set to secondary master, but there was also a slave attached.... grr.

HERE seems to be the answer.

Just download the latest firmware for the drive, right click on it and choose extract. That should work with MTKFlash if I understand this correctly.

If you use MTKFlash, I don't think you need to unhook the slave on the same channel.

Just make sure you follow the directions CLOSELY.

"YOU'VE GOT MAIL".

I sent you the HEX from version 1.01 of the firmware. I got it from LG USA service webpage.

If you have the 1.02.exe file, just right click it, choose extract. It should have 4 or 5 files. One of them is the HEX...

crossing fingers....

no luck

The drive doesn't even show any signs of power any more... I think it has gone to that great big burner pile in the sky... luckily still under warrenty. And being that I did nothing other then what should have been a regular upgrade procedure, I think I will make good on that warrenty and return the drive for a replacement...

oh well. Thanks for youer help everyone

dolphinius_rex wrote:no luck

The drive doesn't even show any signs of power any more... I think it has gone to that great big burner pile in the sky... luckily still under warrenty. And being that I did nothing other then what should have been a regular upgrade procedure, I think I will make good on that warrenty and return the drive for a replacement...

oh well. Thanks for youer help everyone

Officially a bad flash doesn't fall under LG's lame warrenty procedure.
That's why you shouldn't flash it yourself for LG drives and that's why quite some people I know backed out for the LG GSA4040.
So you have to be a bit lucky if the store will except it.
I know some stores which do not since it doens't fall under LG's warrenty.

dolphinius_rex I don't think your drive is not dead, I've had this happen to my liteon 166s before, try using MtkWinFlash also to flash under "IDE Mode" it might work, I know MtkWinflash is pretty much the same as MtkFlash but it worth a try it worked for me, if all else fails return it, no one needs to know that you made a bad flash right?

I'll try it, but I have little hope at this point. It has to wait until after work though...

Well, I tried it, and I got this results:



It didn't even give me the option to flash the drive it couldn't see. So unless someone has a way to fix this, I am going to call it quits, and just try to RMA the drive.

Any final thoughts?

Dear dolphinius_rex,
Hi.Have you connected the drive to Primary Master ONLY?Try doing that.And then try running MtkWinFlash.It has worked for my friend who had a Sony burner(was a rebadged LiteON)Also which OS do you use?


::Pranav::

Try the DOS-version of MKT flash!

http://etna.rpc1.org/mt/

Good luck!

/\/\arco

I haven't tried the drive on primary master... I don't think it will solve the problem though...

I've already tried MTKFlash 1.81 for DOS.

REMOVE DISC from this drive

It must be run from pure DOS (not a DOS window).
So get out the floppy disks.

You mentioned that the DOS version of MTKFlash didn't work for you.

Did it give you an error at all? Ie: unable to write to bank 0 etc ?
The main reason it wouldn't work would be an incorrect switch or it may not like the .HEX file (convert it to .BIN). HEX EDITOR/CONVERTER

MTKFlash does a forced write, even if the drive is not seen by the BIOS.

providing the LG is Seconday Master:

MTKFLASH 3 W /B J82L822A.bin (I think it will work with the HEX file too). Or try: MTKFLASH 3 W /B J82L822A.hex
otherwise, you'll have to convert the HEX to a BIN. Note the DOS spaces between switches.

it takes about 5 minutes to write to the multiple banks.

I was booted into DOS, although it was with a boot CD that emulated a floppy disc. No CD-ROM drivers were loaded. I cannot put a disc into the LG drive because it won't open, because no power is getting to the drive...

I tried all those commands already, and I even tried using the /H for .hex files, instead of the /B for .bin files, since my file was a .hox anyway.

I think the drive is just dead... I'll return it tomorrow

If the drive doesn't get power, then it's dead. Did you a try a different power connector though?

Humour me.

Convert that .hex to a .bin with THIS
Try it from a Floppy disk (you'll probably need 2 of them).
DOS on one, MTKFlash & the .bin file on the other.

The light on the front of the drive may or may not flash when the writing takes place.

The tray will not open until the process is complete.

if that doesn't work, "It's dead Jim"