OC-Freak's Firmware collection and MTKFLASH guide

Updated 18.07.2002:

Added more binary files, firmwares for TDK, Verbatim, asus and memorex and more official versions (both windows and DOS).

Removed all edited firmwares due to legal reasons.

Browse this directory to find what you are searching for:

EDIT alexnoe
As everbody knows from this thread, OC-Freak's firmware collection is not available at the moment, and neither is he.
PMing him for binary files is absolutely senseless
/EDIT

EDIT OC-Freak

Yes as alexnoe said, there is no other link so do not ask for it, and I can't send firmwares as I'm on a very slow and unstable 28,8k modem connection right now.

A short guide.

Find your model number.

binary: binary backup files for use with pflash(LTR-0841, LTR-12101B, LTR-16101B) or mtkflash(All other models except those already mentioned).

windows: official firmwares for use in windows.

Dos: official firmwares for use in DOS

Warning!!!!

Flashing your drive with wrong firmware, converting to another brand or overclocking will woid your warranty and may even be illegal in some cases

Use these firmwares at your own risk. OC-Freak and CD-Freaks takes no responsibility for the use of these firmwares..

---

Last edited by OC-Freak; 05-08-2002 at 22:57.

Update: My rar files is fine, but download winrar 3 to unrar them!!!

And for those of you that are just copying my guide and posting it at your webpage/other forum. Feel free to do so but include that it was written by me (OC-Freak) and that you grabbed it from www.cdfreaks.com or forum.cdfreaks.com!!!!

And if you don't want to do that: f.... you and make your own damn guide without copying and pasting my guide!!


Use these tricks at your own risk. OC-Freak and CD-Freaks takes no responsibility for the use of these tricks. But if you use it correct you may use it to:

• Recover drives after a failed firmware upgrade.
• Go back to older firmware versions.
• Overclock your recorder.
• Turn rebagged Lite-On drives into real Lite-On drives.
• Turn other rebagged drives into the real brand, should work in all cases as long as the drive have a mediatek chipset.

Here is some manufacturers that use mediatek chipset, note that not all models use mediatek chipset though and many brands like TDK and pacific digital changes manufacturers all the time. And flashing with the wrong version may be fatal!!!

• Asus
• Lite-On (And rebadged Lite-On's: TDK, Memorex, sony, pacific digital, traxdata and many others)
• BTC
• LG
• Samsung
• BenQ

First make a boot diskette on a w9x/me/dos computer to use to boot the computer since these tricks must be done in real DOS.

Download mtkflash version 1.55 here.

Unzip mtkflash to the floppy disc or to a FAT16/32 formatted drive.

Now make sure that the drive that you are going to read the firmware from/write firmware to is connected to the main IDE controller and not to a secondary IDE controller card, also make sure that your drive is NOT configured as cable select(set it to either Master or Slave). Also write down/remember how it's connected.

Boot your computer from the diskette containing the system files and make sure that NO CD-ROM drivers is loaded.

Go to the same drive/folder where you have mtkflash.

To backup your firmware type:

MTKFLASH "x" R /B /M filename.bin

Where "x" is a number from 1 to 4:

1: Primary master
2: Primary slave
3: Secondary master
4: Secondary slave

R is for Read out the firmware
/B is to save the firmware as a binary file
/M is to Merge the whole firmware into one file.
filename.bin is just an example, name your file so it will be easy to find back. I use the firmware version as the name like firmware version XS0U will be xs0u.bin. Don't have the filename longer than 8 characters + bin extension.

EDIT alexnoe
There have been reports that if there are 2 drives with mediatek chipset on the same channel and you try to flash one, then both drives suffered a bad flash in some cases. If this happenes, follow the bad flash recovery instructions

Another note: Using an obsolete version of mtkflash might result in a bad flash. Current version is 1.55.
/EDIT


Edit by Airhead
Latest version is 1.801 and you can get it here.
Binary is default in this version instead of hex. The '/b' flag is not necessary with this version.
This is incase 1.55 does not work for you.



The readout process will take a while depending on the flashrom size, the flashrom is normally 128k, 256k or 512k. So just be patient. Note that it's counting from 0% to 100% several times!

To flash a drive:

MTKFLASH "x" W /B filename.bin

Where "x" is a number from 1 to 4:

1: Primary master
2: Primary slave
3: Secondary master
4: Secondary slave

W is to write a firmware to the flashrom.
/B is to tell the program that the input file is a binary file.
filename.bin is just an example. Write the name of your firmware file here.

This will again take some time, do not reboot, switch power off or something while the flash is in progress. Note that it's counting from 0% to 100% several times!

Do you already have a dead drive without having a backup firmware? (Now you realize that that was naughty done.) If you know a friend with a identical drive you may just read the firmware out from his drive and flash it onto your drive.

No? If your drive is a Lite-On drive you may check out my collection of firmwares
here, under the bin folder you will find firmwares for use with either pflash (LTR-0841, LTR-12101B, LTR-16101B) or mtkflash(All models except those already mentioned).

Or try The firmware page.

Still lost? Try a search using www.google.com or www.alltheweb.com, you may also try to request the firmware in some forums around the web and hope for a response.

Please do not mail me for firmware requests. But send me every new/old firmware version that I do not have and I will add it to my collection.

Bad flash recovery
If your drive suffered a bad flash, the green light will stay active, and the BIOS will not recognise your drive anymore.

Usually, you can recover a bad flashed drive in using mtkflash as described here: Simply install the firmware. However, sometimes, mtkflash malfunctions when trying to revive a drive.

In this case, try this:

• Make sure you use the latest version of mtkflash (1.55) If 1.55 doesn't work, try 1.48
• connect the drive as secondary single slave
• if the BIOS hangs when trying to detect the drive, simply press the skip button (ESC, F4 or whatever. Just look at your screen). Another possibility is to unplug power supply, wait until drive detection by the BIOS is done and then plug the power again.
• try another PC to revive it (preferably different mainboards and chipset!)

Email me by clicking here., but don't exspect any answer (army!).

Warning!!!!

Flashing your drive with wrong firmware, converting to another brand or overclocking will woid your warranty

Comments/suggestions welcomed

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Last edited by Airhead; 13-01-2004 at 19:03.

good post but just let me clear up 1 thing [for myself]:

for example. if i wanted to flash a 24103S----->32123S; and i had the 24x on the Primary Slave i would give the command when booted into DOS:

A:/MTKFLASH2W/BXS0U.bin or
A:/MTKFLASH 2W/BXS0U.bin or
A:/MTKFLASH 2W /B XS0U.bin or
A:/MTKFLASH 2W/B XS0U.bin

Or would it be different, or would there be spaces in the command or something? am probably wrong, so would you gve the correct command line for this situation. (if floppy drive is A).
Cheers

A:/MTKFLASH 2 W /B XS0U.bin

EDIT by alexnoe
A:\MTKFLASH 2 W /B XS0U.bin
/EDIT

is correct.

None of your examples is right

---

Last edited by alexnoe; 02-08-2002 at 22:41.

I was right on one thing then

i understand that the time will vary in specfiic cases, but it will still be a matter of minutes, wont it (ie: not a matter of hours)
How can one do this?

The readout/write process should not take more than 10min.

Make sure that you do not put any CD-ROM drivers on the floppy you are booting from.

In w9x/me -->my computer-->right click the floppy station-->select format-->then there wil be an option to copy system files to the floppy.

If you do it that way there will not be any CD-ROM drivers on the floppy.

If you have a w9x boot diskette (Go to control panel -->add/remove programs-->there you will find an tab with the option to make an w9x boot floppy).

If you have such a floppy you will get a boot menu where you may select different things when you are booting from it. When this menu shows up push the F5 button and it will boot without any extra drivers.

Also remove any disks from the drive you want to flash...

If you are going to use a boot diskette, make sure to load the himem.sys driver so that the program will not run out of memory. The following config.sys works fine for me:

DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
BUFFERS=20
FILES=60

Just copy and paste in Notepad then save as "CONFIG.SYS" with the quotes and save as "all files". Then find a copy of HIMEM.SYS (usualy in \WINDOWS\COMMAND\EBD if you have Windows 98 SE like me) and copy it to the diskette with MTKFLASH.EXE from OC-Freak's site.

HTH...

Thanks man, but if u m,ake this floppy - "If you have a w9x boot diskette (Go to control panel -->add/remove programs-->there you will find an tab with the option to make an w9x boot floppy). " the himem.sys is already there.
i didn't qutie get ur instructions any way - when saving

DEVICE=HIMEM.SYS
DOS=HIGH,UMB
BUFFERS=20
FILES=60
u save it as "CONFIG.SYS" or CONFIG.SYS

As config.sys not "config.sys"

Btw, If you use a win 98 boot floppy you may choose boot without CD-ROM support.

This will:
1: load the himem.sys driver.
2: Not load any CD-ROM drivers which is important

Loading himem.sys is only needed when using the unofficial zs0g dos firmware, you do not need this to use mtkflash.

In Notepad, if you save the text as congig.sys it may actually be saved as config.sys.txt. Putting the quotes and saving as "All Files" insures you get the intended result.

The funny thing is this is what I had to do until recently to get around the automatic .TXT extension whenever I'd work with Notepad... Just tried it today and it doesn't do that anymore, go figure!

I'm quite sure that neither Plextor nor TEAC use mediatek chipsets. Were did you get that information from?

^^^^^^bit offtopic isn't it???????????????????

it just occured to me : instead of using A boot diskette to get into real DOS, will it not work if u hold Ctrl and choose command prompt only. (if using win 98)

Does this disable the A; drive or the CDrom drivers or anything?

Yes, in Win 98 you can reboot with Cntrl or F8
but then choose : MS-DOS-PROMPT ONLY IN SAFE MODE (usually the last option).

This way no drivers or anything is loaded and you can carry on safely using your C drive instead of a floppy.

Your description safed my life (and of course that of my LiteOn) too. After an unsuccesful flash it was dead, now it's alive again. I should write down the instructions on how to flash correct next time!

I have been to the firmwere section but there is only an firmware.exe to update and not an firmwere.bin
ow do i make my update a .bin file?
i have got the LTR-24103S.

Great service!

Thanks OC-Freak

May I only suggest you switch the rar files into zip.
Those rar 3.0 files are not accessible with earlier versions, nor with PowerArchiver or PowerDesk.
Zip will be a fraction bigger but everyone can unzip

Cheers

I have the LTR-32125W drive and it is running smooth but I was annoyed when I saw that neither fireburner or CDR-win 3.9a or 4.0a BETA would recognize it. Clone CD and NERO had no problem.

I used your instructions and upgraded it to an LTR-40125W.
Now they'll all recognize it, I burned and verified data at 40x in Nero, and haven't had any errors of any kind.

It works. Thanks a lot!

I wouldn't try moving between 5W and 3S though 'cause for fun I earlier tried to move from 32125W to a 32123S and it resulted in several coasters from CCD and NERO.

This is to ensure 32125W users it is safe to "upgrade" so go buy one today

I tried it, and it wouldn't work. Then I figured, maybe it has something to do with how I configured my drive:
The LiteOn burner was cable select. Then I changed it to Master, and it worked!

So make sure your drives are at Master or Slave, and not on Cable Select, otherwise it won't work.

So if I have Windows XP or Windows 2000, how am I supposed to get into true dos mode to accomplish this flash?

One way is to

1. have your hard disk / one partition setup as FAT16/32 (Optional) and

2. then boot up using a DOS / Win 98 boot disk. If you use a Win '98 boot disk, press F5 after you see the display card identified during the boot process (The F5 business is thanks to OC-Freak / this forum



I don't wish to be accused of piracy)

3. You can have your bin files and mtkflash on the floppy or on the FAT16/32 partition (It will now be shown as Drive C: in case the other partitions are NOT FAT16/32)

4. Follow the instructions in the sticky thread for using MTKFLASH.


Good luck

I just updated my Lite-On LTR-40125S to a LTR-48125W, but how can I recognise if it was succesful...a program that shows that it is a 48x drive etc etc

Greetzzz,

Sauron

What about using Nero? Nero info tool? Nero CD-Speed? CloneCD?

Most programs will tell you what the drive supports now and such....

I tested it, whit Nero InfoTool and DriveSpeed...but he still say's it's a LTR-40125S with ZS0A firmware, with CAV...instead of a LTR-48125W with VS02 firmware, with P-CAV...

And when I started flashing I didn't see a count from 0-100...

So what was wrong?

I use WinXP, and made a DOS disk, on that disk I placed MTKFLASH and the BIN file...

The drive is a secondary master...so I used this parameter line:

A:\MTKFLASH 3 W /B VS02.bin

The program MTKFLASH did start, but then nothing happend...no count up...

There was no disk in the drive...

And I tryed it already a couple of times...

Drive stiil workes fine at normal firmware...

What should I do?

Greetzzz,

Sauron

Perhaps you haven't disabled DMA (in BIOS and under Win XP)?

HTH.