Help wanted with DVD-RW on Philips DVD8631

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers BenQ / Philips Writer
#1

I recently bought a HP DVD Writer 630i. When I installed it on my computer XP recognize it as been a Philips DVD8631. After reading a lot about this DVD Writer on the internet I discovered that my HP DVD Writer 630i is identical with the Philips 8631 and the Benq DW1620. Does anyone know if this is correct?
Well my problem is this; when ever I insert a DVD-RW and tries to erase it, an error message occurs. It get the same “Illegal disc” warning whenever I try to burn a DVD-RW disc.
I’m using Nero 6.6.0.8 and have also tried with Sonic RecordNow!, Version 6.5.1 which is the software HP recommends using with their drives.
I have downloaded 6 different firmware updates (the GD30 for Philips DVD 8631 (+RPC1 version), the B7U9 for Benq DW1620 and others). When I try to update the firmware I get this error message “The drive is not allowed to be updated”.
Please Help me. I’m going out of my mind!!

-PHILIPS DVD8631 Current firmware : BB03

#2

Yes the Philips 8631 is the same as the BenQ 1620 and you can crossflash the drive to the BenQ firmware.

In order to crossflash the drive you need to use a special flashtool.

As to why the DVD-RW didn’t work my memory is a little foggy but I think the Philips DVD8631 only supports DVD+R/RW.

Now to crossflash the drive (by doing this you lose the warranty) go get Quikee’s BQFlasher and load in the B7W9.exe into it and you can the flash the drive directly with that firmware be sure to reboot afterwards.

Alternatively you can use WinDWFlash but you need the frmware in a .cvt form so download WinDWFlash and the B7T9.cvt from here and load the .cvt into WinDWFlash and it will convert the drive after the reboot run the B7W9.exe and it will update the drive to the B7W9 firmware, either method should work fine it’s just that there is an extra step with WinDWFlash.