Question re: 4163b firmware updating

Hi there, and thanks for any help

I recently got the 4163B retail version, and I installed it. Then when I went to LG's website to check for the newest firmware, I saw that they warn you to install the drive seperately, as a master, on the 2nd ide channel, before updating. This concerns me as being a lot of trouble to go through for updating the firmware each time a new one is released.

My question is, is it not safe to update the firmware, if for example, I have the burner set as the slave on the first ide channel?

I know that it is usually good to follow instructions, I was just hoping to not have to tear apart the computer every time I wanted to update the firmware :\

Again thanks in advance for any advice/information.
Mr.Zebra

My experience has been that is doesnt matter what the config. of the drives is, as long as you dont leave a disc in the drive (and Ive done this a couple times and it didnt matter) or interupt the flashing procedure it should be OK.
It wont find your drive or flash it if theres a problem that the flashing tool deems not "right". (A previous FW that cant be updated for example). So it should be OK.
The companies who manufacture the drives give you this info. to cover all the bases (and their butts) but it should be OK.
Wait for other opinions here, as my title in life isnt "officially" Prof. Science, (not yet anyway).

ahh ok thanks, this had me worried.

so anyone else have the knowledge on this? maybe an official professor science?

Can anyone else confirm this? I don't like fiddling around with computer either everytime a firmware needs to be updated

I'm afraid you won't get a conclusive answer. All the problem posts I read had people suggesting that the user follow the instructions to the letter. As there was no follow up posting I can only assume that this solved the problems. However, almost all problem threads also had people who said they didn't follow the instructions and they had no problem.

So far, I have seen no posting from anyone who didn't follow the instructions and fried their drive. I would suggest you try it for your system and see and if there are problems then follow to the letter. I have mine as master on second with another drive with no update problem,

I have updated my 4163b with A103 & A104 with no problems, my config is WinXP with the drive in an external firewire box (cheap generic one from ebuyer) and it flashes fine over firewire, you don't even need to re-boot, just power down the firewire box after flashing and power it back up, BINGO one upgraded drive.

Actually I don't even reboot and flash the drive connected to a pci-to-ide card

probably LG is the only drives which don't require rebooting
I have LG CDRW

I'm interested in this too.. I bought LG-4163 recently, and it has A101 on.. To be honest, till now I've only tried burning TDK 8x DVD-R (TTG02), and I had no problems during the recording (I have to say I burned them in 4x-I read it in a guide for "safer" recordings) or playback. Of course this firmware version(obviously) isn't supported by Nero CD/DVD speed to run a quality test.. So I hope they are as good as they are now, for a long time.. now is it really imperative to upgrade my firmware version?? I mean, can I see anywhere the specific changes in all the versions history?

I too wouldn't wanna have to open my pc case every time to disconnect my DVD-ROM which is secondary slave (LG is secondary master) to upgrade the firmware. How dangerous is it to do it with 2 devices in one IDE channel?? And another thing I've heard, is that it's wiser to do it in Safe Mode. Is this true??

I, too, want to know more about this. I have the same config but i guess it's preferable to follow LG's instructions to the letter!!

I guess it's pretty safe as the drive is shown in the DriveUpdater -program, IMHO.
For example how are you supposed to disconnect slave if you are not allowed to even open the case for not blowing the warranty? There are cases which are sealed, before you ask.
Those ubercareful instructions are just to cover LG for peeps sueing for everything.

what about this "XP safe mode" that many talk about??

oh, and a kinda silly question, but I've alreasy said I've never upgraded my firmware, so I guess it's ok.. I read it somewhere, but I don't remember where to look right now. I downloaded A104 version for my LG-4163b, and there are 2 files in the zip file. one a104auto.exe and one a104rpc1.exe.. I know that one of them makes the drive region free. is it rpc1?? which one should I execute??