BenQ EW162U crossflash to BenQ DW 1620?

[Vasy]

Hello

I have a new, unused, BenQ EW162U drive.
On it’s label it is written

// ---------
BenQ DW1620 No.:0F2
5V @1.6A; 12V @1.8A
Manufactured: March 2005
…
W7-AAI 19D
A0A W7I9
// ----------

It seems to be one BenQ DW1620. Or one BenQ DW1620 Pro ?
I don’t know what’s the difference between DW1620 and DW1620 Pro.

Is is better to crossflash my EW162U to DW 1620/DW 1620 Pro ?

Please tell more about my drive because BenQ is new for me and I don’t know how to flash it to other models and what should I do more. Thanks in advance.

[Albert]

The hardware between all 3 is basically the same.

The firmware for internal drives will limit the PATA communication speed to UDMA mode 2. The firmware for drives shipped as an EW162U bumps the PATA communication speed to UDMA mode 3 (oddly, not mode 4*) to ameliorate a bottleneck that results from inefficiencies in the USB-to-PATA bridge chip and allow burning at higher speeds in the right conditions.

If you use the drive internally, you can use the internal firmware and be fine. If you use the drive externally over something like USB, try out the internal firmware and see if there are any bottlenecks.

I also believe the DW1620 firmware was kept more up-to-date than the EW162U and DW1620 Pro firmwares, though there are various quirks that you will have to test for yourself.

*: Irrelevant history lesson: when BenQ released new hardware as the DW1640/EW164U, the EW164U got UDMA mode 4 (maybe the hardware finally supported it?), which was standard for pretty much all other drives of the time, but the DW1640 internal firmware was still limited to UDMA mode 2.

[Vasy]

Thanks Albert
In the mean time, I’ve searched a lot and found what I have to do. So … from site:
http://www.the-predator.com/dell/firmware.html#5-1-6
I took WinDWFlash and B7W9 CVT file. All worked OK. I just have to test my DW1620 drive to be sure it works fine.
After that … I can’t wait to test CDs and DVDs with this BenQ drive.
Bye