H10N in a ext. enclosure: no write audioCD

I have just purchased a LG GSA-H10N (firmware JL10) that is in a external enclosure Agestar ICB5A1 (chipset prolific PL-3507), fireware and usb2 connection. I am running Windows XP SP2. This drive is read fine. Unfortunately, I cannot write to the audioCD. I am writing audioCD with nero v.6.0.6.16, eac v.95b4, but writing stop on 5%. I am all out of ideas. Any suggestions will be much appreciated

PS. sorry my english ...

Hello bitek and welcome to the forum.

This is a known issue of using an LG internal writer in an external casing. See here (specifically Q33) :

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...78&postcount=6

thank you for reply. But now I must buy another DVDRW drive or maybe use another firmware for ext. enclosure? (where I can download this firmware?) Solve somebody successfully a similar problem?

Hi and Welcome!

are you able to burn data CD and DVD? If you can answer both questions with "Yes", then there is probably a system issue. In that case, try the drive with another computer (maybe there is a friend who can help you here).

Michael

Hi, mciahel and thanks. Yes, drive able to burn data CD and DVD fine, and read fine, too.
But no write audio... I think that is incompatibility H10N and ext. enclosure, but I, of course, try the drive with another computer. I have only notebook and purchase this drive for writing audioCD, because internal drive of notebook write audioCD not high-quality, even TY.

Hi,Okay, this is good.
As you can write data CD and DVD, I doubt this. LG drive may indeed be poor with external enclosures, but in that case data CD and DVD would also fail. This would be the next step to sort out system issues. There are indeed DRM "drivers" out there, that render the capability of CD/DVD writers useless. One example would be the Sony rootkit

Michael

No Micahel, this has nothing to do with a configuration problem or DRM. Internal LG writer + prolific chipset external casing = cannot burn audio discs. It's happened to quite a few people before. It's a writer+chipset problem. Burning other kinds of discs (CD-date/DVD) will work fine.

You need special LG specific bridgeboard firmware for your external casing. Did you actually follow the links in the one I posted above? One of them brings you to this post which shows you where to download LG special bridgeboard firmware :

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...0&postcount=18

Do not worry that you are using controller card firmware for the 5160D (an older model of writer). A bit of explanation is in order :

LG has had external models of writers which are usually just an internal model in an external case. For example, the E10N is essentially a H10N in an external casing. Up until the 4163B(internal)/5163D(external) drives, the external case used had a prolific 3507 chipset inside. Nobody is quite sure what chipset they use now for recent models. Anyway, people ran into the same problem you have here when they used the same internal models in a prolific chipset external casing - the inability to burn audio CDs. They were mystified as to why this should happen since the external version of LG's writers used a prolific chipset. Eventually, someone figured out that LG was using some special firmware for their prolific chipset enclosures. Since LG makes this particular firmware available for download, someone used it on their prolific chipset enclosures, and sure enough, it fixed the problem.

This will work but will leave you with another problem : you can't burn faster than 12x with the drive in that enclosure. But there is a fix to this as well : go download firmware version JJ11 for the H10N from http://tdb.rpc1.org. Flash your H10N with that (you probably need to connect the drive to an internal IDE connector on a PC to flash the drive - flashing in an external casing will most likely not work) firmware and you should be able to burn at 16x again.

Do note that flashing with JJ11 (because it's third party firmware) will invalidate the warranty of the drive but it's the only way to get around the 16x burning problem. However, you can always flash back to JL11 (LG firmware) if you need to send the drive for servicing.

Sorry, I wasn't able to explain this in detail at the time I originally replied to your post above. My new job does not leave me as much time as I used to have to be in this forum.

Arghh!

Thanks for clarification, I never considered such.

Michael

thanks for all of your replies. I flash my ext. enclosure with LG's firmware for their prolific chipset enclosures. And now drive write audioCD fine.

Does anybody know if the same issue remains with the H22N?

well, according to karangguni this is common to most (or all) of LG drives.
see the FAQ, item 33
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=168082

Well, incase anybody else wanted to know, I picked one up today and it works great.

I'm using a Nexstar 2 USB/FW enclosure PL-3507 chipset (using USB) with firmware from Jan 2005.

I burned some audio CD's no problem and also did a couple 4.5 GB Images on 16X +R and -R media in 5:48.

I'm happy with that.

Good to know. It's possible that the problems only apply to Renesas chipset LG writers. Your H22N has a Panasonic chipset inside it. Up to now, I don't think anyone here has reported trying a Panasonic chipset LG internal writer in an external case.