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Who made the HiVal CDWRITER IDE 4816?

PostPosted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 2:20 am
by georgeg
The title pretty much says it all. This is a 48x16x48 burner I put in my wife's computer. I've always kind of wondered who made it. It would be interesting to read some reviews of the thing.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 3:24 am
by TheWizard
Sounds like it is the BenQ 4816P. Overall, a par to sub-par burner.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 6:43 am
by jase
Possibly a BTC. BTC title their drives "CDWRITER IDExxxx" in the firmware if they're going to an OEM. I have a BTC here and would say it's an above-average, but not exactly stellar drive. Burn quality and media compatibility is pretty good but certain facilities (CDRW reading, DAE performance) is quite slow.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 12:15 pm
by georgeg
Thanks guys. Your comments re: performance back up my experience. While its faster than my own Plextor 8432, its numbers on the Nero speed test are really low (starting at 16x and going down to 10x as the burn ends) and thats burning to TY disks.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 26, 2003 3:12 pm
by dhc014
It is definately a BTC BCE4816IM. What firmware is currently on it?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2003 1:18 am
by georgeg
dhc014 wrote:It is definately a BTC BCE4816IM. What firmware is currently on it?


Firmware Rev 482E. Is there a later firmware and if so, where is their web site?

PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2003 1:27 am
by dhc014
First of all, Can you please back up your current firmware using mtkflash in real DOS and send it to me? See the instructions on the mtkflash page on my website.

482S is on the BTC Website: www.btcusa.com

You may have to get the hexadecimal (.hex) firmware from that update with MTK WinFlash to flash your drive...

PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2003 2:31 am
by georgeg
dhc014 wrote:First of all, Can you please back up your current firmware using mtkflash in real DOS and send it to me?

Still trying. I'll get it yet!

You may have to get the hexadecimal (.hex) firmware from that update with MTK WinFlash to flash your drive...


How do I do that? I downloaded the firmware update from the BTC site and ran it, thinking it was a self extracting file. Actually, its a firmware update program, presumable with the flash update internal. When I ran it, it said I had the wrong model, but I downloaded the version for the 4816.

FWIW, I went to the HiVal site and found out they don't list a 4816 model in their current drives.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2003 3:01 pm
by dhc014
Make a backup first and send it to me. What you download from BTC is a self-extracting zip file I think. You can use winzip to open it, otherwise it is extracted to your TEMP folder into its own directory.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 11, 2003 11:22 pm
by georgeg
I dug up the box for this burner and on it, the drive is listed as model H481648A-15R. Does this change the idea that its a BTC drive? I still think its strange that Hi-Val doesn't list a 48/16/48 burner on their web site.

I've tried backing up the firmware using mtkflash versions 1.09, 1.46, 1.55 and 1.62, all to no effect altho running 1.09 did generate the menu of command line options you show on your website. Anyway, I've downloaded all the various versions and I'll work my way thru the list but somehow, I don't think they're going to work.

PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2003 12:29 am
by dhc014
I am 100% sure that it is a BTC from the ID string and the firmware version. It is compatible with mtkflash. Please post the exact command are you using. The problem likely lies there.

Should be something like
Code: Select all
mtkflash # r /b /m 482E.bin


replacing '#' with a number 1-4 corresponding to your drive's location of course.

PostPosted: Wed Mar 12, 2003 1:31 am
by georgeg
dhc014 wrote:I am 100% sure that it is a BTC from the ID string and the firmware version. It is compatible with mtkflash. Please post the exact command are you using. The problem likely lies there.

Should be something like
Code: Select all
mtkflash # r /b /m 482E.bin


replacing '#' with a number 1-4 corresponding to your drive's location of course.


Here is the exact string I'm using:

mtkflash 2 r /b /m test.bin

I'm using #2 since CDinfo reports the drive as being 0:1 which I'm told is generally Primary Slave.