Possible to flash a GSA-H31N with anothers model firmware?

Is it possible to flash/reflash a GSA-H31N (SATA) with a firmware of a different model? I would like to have DVD-RAM...

I wouldn´t care if it brokes up if there is any chance (I heard of mtkflash but that is only for ATAPI models).

Hi and Welcome!

it seems as if this drive is a variant of H30N. But I don't know if a crossflash is possible.

Michael

The bootcodes of H30N and H31N firmwares are identical, so a crossflash has a fair chance.
There is no public known way to recover a dead flashed Panasonic chipset drive. Mtkflash works on some MTK chipsets only. As long as the drive still responds to commands it should be possible to flash the original firmware, which does not guarantee it works like before the crossflash attempt. We will know for sure after the first test is done.

And mostly does not work with SATA drives, IIRC

Thanks guys!

This is a DELL OEM drive actual with firmware B110.


I used WINFLS6X.EXE as flash program I found in H22N_101.ZIP

at
LG HL-DT-ST GSA-H22N
RPC1 Firmware - 1.01 Windows.
http://tdb.rpc1.org/

and extracted the file http://lgodd.lge.com/fwdrv/DVD-WRITER/GSAH30N_103.exe (using 7zip) resulting in a .bin file I used with the above flash program.


Now it´s a GSA-H30N. I haven´t tried burning any disc yet but reading discs and playin DVD works...

Good grief, it seems to work. My two month old Acer system came with a GSA-H31N drive. After trying your method, it's now showing up as a GSA-H30N, and it successfully mounted/read the one and only DVD-RAM disc that I currently have, which came with my Panasonic DVD recorder. WinDVD is currently playing the video that was on that disc, using what's now a GSA-H30N drive.

Small update...over here, this seems to be successful. The LG drive is reading discs properly, and succesfully burned a DVD-R disc a little while ago. The quality scan, though not the best that I've seen, is certainly nothing that I'll complain about, and is comparable to results observed before the firmware crossflash. CMC Magnetics is not my favorite supplier of blank media, so overall I'm pleased.

Tested DVD-RAM: WORKING!

Haleluja


Will try DL DVD-R (which is also not supported with the GSA-H31N) when I have such a disc in my hands.


For the Newbies which also want to try this method (you do this at your own risc; guarantee will be lost!)

a) get WINFLS6X.EXE (see link in previous post)

b) get GSAH30N_103.exe (see link in previous post) and extract this file using 7zip (so don´t run the exe-file directly; open the file in 7zip and extract) resulting in W60T74LA.bin

c) copy WINFLS6X.EXE and W60T74LA.bin to a newly created directory and start WINFLS6X.EXE

One more suggestion for anyone who might be interested: over here, the initial version of 7zip that I tried would not extract the .bin firmware file...all I got was a "file format not supported" error. IZArc wouldn't touch it either, for another reason...it displayed an "Enter Password" prompt when extraction was attempted.

The latest beta version of 7zip finally worked for me.

Best part about this, so far, is that this seems to have pulled my drive from the lowly ranks of OEM. The LG auto-update firmware flasher is now acknowledging that I have an LG drive that is apparently eligible for factory firmware updates.

BEFORE


Nero InfoTool 4.4.0.0

Drive Information
------------------
Drive : HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GSA-H31N
Type : DVD±R/RW DL Recorder
Firmware Version : B110
Buffer Size : 2 MB
Date : 07-06-25
Serial Number : xxxxxx
Vendor Specific : 07/06/25
Drive Letter : E:\
Location : 2:0
Mechanism : Tray
Read Speed : 48 X
Write Speed : n/a

Read CD Text : Yes
Return C2 Pointers : No
Read CD-R : Yes
Read CD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-ROM : Yes
Read DVD-RAM : No
Read DVD-R : Yes
Read DVD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-R DL : Yes
Read DVD+R : Yes
Read DVD+RW : Yes
Read DVD+R DL : Yes
Read BD-ROM : No
Read BD-R : No
Read BD-RE : No
Read HD DVD-ROM : No
Read HD DVD-R : No
Read HD DVD-RW : No
Read HD-BURN : No
Read Digital Audio : Yes
Read CD+G : No
Read VideoCD : Yes

Write CD-R : Yes
Write CD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R : Yes
Write DVD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R DL : No
Write DVD+R : Yes
Write DVD+RW : Yes
Write DVD+R DL : Yes
Write DVD-RAM : No
Write BD-R : No
Write BD-RE : No
Write HD DVD-R : No
Write HD DVD-RW : No
Write HD-BURN-R : No
Write HD-BURN-RW : No
Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes
Mount Rainier : No
SolidBurn : No
Labelflash : No
LightScribe : No
Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96

Region Protection Control : RPC II
Region : 2
Changes User : 4
Changes Vendor : 4

CSS : Yes
CPRM : Yes
AACS : No
VCPS : No


AFTER


Nero InfoTool 4.4.0.0

Drive Information
------------------
Drive : HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H30N
Type : DVD±R/RW DL Recorder
Firmware Version : 1.03
Buffer Size : 2 MB
Date : 07-04-21
Serial Number : xxxxxx
Vendor Specific : 07/04/21
Drive Letter : E:\
Location : 2:0
Mechanism : Tray
Read Speed : 48 X
Write Speed : n/a

Read CD Text : Yes
Return C2 Pointers : No
Read CD-R : Yes
Read CD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-ROM : Yes
Read DVD-RAM : Yes
Read DVD-R : Yes
Read DVD-RW : Yes
Read DVD-R DL : Yes
Read DVD+R : Yes
Read DVD+RW : Yes
Read DVD+R DL : Yes
Read BD-ROM : No
Read BD-R : No
Read BD-RE : No
Read HD DVD-ROM : No
Read HD DVD-R : No
Read HD DVD-RW : No
Read HD-BURN : No
Read Digital Audio : Yes
Read CD+G : No
Read VideoCD : Yes

Write CD-R : Yes
Write CD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R : Yes
Write DVD-RW : Yes
Write DVD-R DL : Yes
Write DVD+R : Yes
Write DVD+RW : Yes
Write DVD+R DL : Yes
Write DVD-RAM : Yes
Write BD-R : No
Write BD-RE : No
Write HD DVD-R : No
Write HD DVD-RW : No
Write HD-BURN-R : No
Write HD-BURN-RW : No
Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes
Mount Rainier : No
SolidBurn : No
Labelflash : No
LightScribe : No
Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96

Region Protection Control : RPC II
Region : 2
Changes User : 4
Changes Vendor : 4

CSS : Yes
CPRM : Yes
AACS : No
VCPS : No

Many thanks for this tip...am much happier with the drive that came with my two month old system now.

Hi

I hope members here won't mind if I resurrect this thread in a last-ditch attempt to solve an issue.

I've a Dell OEM (LG) GSA-H31N DVD writer and have tried without success for weeks to find an rpc1 firmware to make the drive region-free.

The following page doesn't cover the GSA-H31N.
http://tdb.rpc1.org/

Since members who posted on this thread are familiar with the GSA-H31N, I wonder if any of you've had success getting hold of an rpc1 firmware upgrade for this drive. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Max

Hi,

you should be able to patch Dell OEM firmware to RPC1 using MCSE:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f91/mediaco...riters-133858/

Michael

Thanks, Michael.

I already did. My experience:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/f91/mediaco...8/index42.html

I'm just a dumb redneck and have no idea what you guys are saying but my H31will not recogonize DVDs. what can I do? Can you guys maybe explain what you did like step by step so I can download the right things and then fix this drive.

I messed up, i flashed my GSA-H31N with the files in the zip from http://tdb.rpc1.org/ instead of the ones found in http://lgodd.lge.com/fwdrv/DVD-WRITER/GSAH30N_103.exe now my drive doesnt appear in device manager, or the bios..im running a dell xps 410, is there anyway to reflash or recover this drive? or am i SOL? any help is really appreciated.

I need an answer to this too. I also have the GSA-H31N and I attempted to flash the firmware with B110 from DELL, but it errored out and now I have no drive, is there any way to recover.

Use a ide controller and then reflash properly with the official flasher package.