Urgent:TSSTcorp TS-H653L serious problem

I got a TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H653L ATA dvd recorder with my new computer. I am having serious problem of it not being able to read many of the data dvd that I got, many of the dvdr are showing as blank dvd even though there are data on them. The only dvd-r brand that it seems to be reading is Smart Buy 8X dvd-r only. Is there any firmware upgrade for me to fix this or is the drive malfunctioning?

My OS is Vista Home Premium.

Is your new computer a HP? If it is, it is a piece of junk. I can't get anything to work on my HP Pavilion M7750N. Worst PC I have ever purchased. The TSSTcorp TS-H653L is junk too. Can't read from it and can't write new DVDs without error messages. TSSTCrop needs to release new frimware for it soon to fix it. Will never purchase another HP in my lifetime.

Welcome to CDF's

I always build my machines

If it doesn't work for you doesn't mean it would be "junk".
Believe me, most times the problem sits before the monitor, and buggy softwares doesn't make it easier.

Maybe you can solve some errors by browsing this fine forum.

The same here , when play it always failed at 5 minutes to the end

Then use better media/source.

My TS-H653L problem is "won't recognize any media, new or old, written or unwritten." A known good disc is inserted, the drive light blinks, but a message appears "Please insert a disc into drive F:" then the drive opens and the media is ejected. All tests and diagnostics report drive is OK, working properly, driver is uptodate, etc. Un-install, re-install doesn't help. It just can't "see" any media. The HP Parts Store says I cannot buy another TS-H6563L drive from them. Please, can anyone recommend a replacement drive? This drive in my HP m7780n Media Center PC seems to have different connectors, so a good Sony DVD/RW drive I have on the shelf won't just plug in there. Thanks for your help.

Hi and Welcome!Have you already read this article here: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=83984 Why that? Out of stock? What about warranty?Your TS-H653L is the OEM version of Samsung's SH-S183L. Same drive, possibly different firmware.
You need a SATA drive. Many users here like the new Samsung SH-S203, this might be a good choice if you don't need Lightscribe.

Michael

No reason given for "can't buy TS-H6563L" from the HP replacement parts store. I asked about a warranty repair or replacement, their answer was a link to get new firmware. I like your suggestion of Samsung SH-S203. Thanks.

Hi

For all those struggling with the HP TS-H653L drive not reading media or not Firmware updating read on...

I had the same problem and have solved it this way:

1. Go to HP website and download latest Firmware
For Vista here
For XP here

2. Try updating by running the file. I had no luck with this, it kept freezing and didnt complete. I left it for an hour with no success. I think anything more than ten minutes and its not going to work though. I feared the worst for my drive at this point.

3. I read on HP forums some users had success running in Safe Mode (keep pressing f8 before Windows logo appears when booting) and then using the HP fw update. Didnt work for me either.

4. The HP FW update is floored so I started hunting for a Samsung one as this drive is identical to the Samsung SH-S183L. First you need to get Samsung updater to not check its a Samsung drive. Download updater version 3.25.4 (SFDNWIN3.25.4.exe) from here.

5. Then you need to find the .bin file which is the fiirmware file but I couldn't find the latest version (SB03) as its bundled with the new flasher utility that won't allow the drive to be flashed yet. I downloaded the patched region free SB01 from here

6. Run a command prompt. (start menu>run>cmd)

7. Locate the folder in which youve downloaded the FW and flasher. Type "SFDNWIN3.25.4 -nocheck". The flasher should run with nocheck in top right corner. Open the .bin file you've downloaded from the flasher and run it. It took a couple of mins for mine to flash and it should prompt to restart.

8. My drive instantly recognised the disc it was having trouble with and I was tempted to leave it there but I crossed my fingers and downloaded the latest samsung SB03 firmware here (Internet Explorer only ) and it detected my drive and flashed it no probs .

So there you are. I hope this helps some of you guys out to fix your shoddy HP drives that you spent your hard earned $ on. DONT EXPECT HP TO . Luckily I got my drive off a friend for nothing so all this trouble its caused isn't so bad...

Hi and Welcome!That's bad. Official firmware should work normally.

These steps are not needed, since flasher and .bin file are integrated in the exe file from Samsung. Since it is just a self-extracting archive, it can be extracted with a packer like 7zip or Winrar.

Newer versions of SFDNWIN are case sensitive with commandline switches. The -NOCHECK should be entered in CAPITALS
May I invite you to have a look into our fine Samsung DVD burners forum?

Michael

Just forgot to mention: crossflashing as described above will void your warranty. If something goes wrong, then the drive might be killed and you have to buy a new one.

Yup, with the HP FW this drive is a dog from what I've read on the net, part of the reason I got it for free... Wouldn't surprise me if HP had purposely limited this drive only to work with certain types of media, ie HP media

Thanks for the tip! I didn't realise they were Archives, makes sense tho.

So does this mean the newer versions work with the -nocheck command too? I'm sure it wasn't case sensitive before.

This is true, but when faced with a drive that is a bad as it was with the HP FW I would take the risk for the $20 the drive is prob worth...

Thanks for pointing me right there anyway. I just thought I'd write a decent guide for all those with these HP drives that aren't happy with them. It took me quite a bit of research and trial and error to get this far so I would've appreciated it if someone else had taken the 10 mins to write it down and it would've saved me all those hours of toil...

Oh and I posted it here as this was the first result that came up on my google search for the dreaded TS-H653L, which is now a SH-S183L with a HP sticker on it And hopefully fully functional although I have yet to fully test it....

Hi,OEM drives are often crippled by firmware (example: DVD-RAM support disabled) in order to cut costs. I don't know what side effects will occur then.
Fortunately, HP only slaps their logo on the discs they buy from the big manufacturers, so there is no "HP media". On the other hand, it is reported, that HP gets the better batches

The newer versions are case sensitive (the older were not), so the nocheck parameter must be written in capitals.
Okay. If you know what you're doing and don't mind haveing a new doorstop, then it's okay.
I mentioned the warranty thing since other users will read this thread. Some of them might mind about warranty.
That was a good idea. Your contribution is not only valid for HP, but also for other OEM versions of that drive like Dell and some other big computer manufacturers.
The most important issue is to find out what drive your OEM drive is based on. Next step is to find instructions how to crossflash.
Some 18x drives have problems with the Lead-In on DVD-R. I flashed my retail 182D to OEM TS-H652D, which was the only firmware that fixed this issue.

Michael

How perplexing!!! Sometimes I have this problem. I run Vista Ultimate 32 bit on one PC and Vista Ultimate 64 bit on another PC. Of course I have my trusty XP Pro SP-2 on both PC's on the master HD. I always have dual boot on all of my PC's. Funny that the problems discussed do not happen on the XP OS. Only on Vista. The first time I encountered this, I almost threw away a few RW's, until I rebooted into XP and they were fine. This happens on both DVD's and CD's. Two other PC's are running Win 98SE and XP and never have these problems. I switch burners between all of the PC's to do all of my trouble shooting. This verifies my findings.

many thanks to Morphosis

i went from this:

MODEL NAME: TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H653L 0514
version: 0514
oem code: HP

to this in 2 steps: (sb01 patched then official sb03 installer)

MODEL NAME: TSSTcorp CD/DVDW SH-S183L SB03
version: SB03
oem code: SB

basically the drive was a freebie from a friend who was stupid enough to buy a vista crippled HP computer, he put his own drive in (for xbox360 reading & writing lol) and just handed me the HP drive, now i may as well use it.

tip another way to enable the nocheck without using command line is just create a shortcut to the sfdnwin application on your desktop for example, right click the shortcut and select properties then add the -nocheck in the target box and apply, ie it will look like this:

"C:\sfdnwin.exe" -nocheck

assuming sfdnwin.exe is on the root of your c drive etc

cheers

Thank you ever so much!

My DVD-drive was not able to read Dragon Age Origins game disc, but after following your great step by step istructions, it does.

Jussi