PLDS DVD A DH16A3L [on win7 x64] - HELP

[aimrider]

Hello everyone. I've got a HP desktop machine, namely m9242.de Elite Desktop PC. It came with Vista x64, I've upgraded to win7 x64. The problem now is, that I just recently tried to play Dual Layer DVDs, and noticed that my drive only recognizes it as a single layer DVD - around 4GB. I've checked into Google, tried the LiteOn flash utility which is posted in a sticky in this forum, however when I launch it, it says no drive detected. Trying to flash with the official firmware from LiteOn site results in the same - no drive detected. Current revision of the drive is 8H1F. I've searched all over for a solution, but in vain. Hope someone is able to direct me to a solution, and tell me there is a way around buying a new drive. Thanks!!

[mciahel]

Hi and Welcome!

have you already tried another player software like
VLC www.videolan.org or
Mediaplayer Classic Home Cinema: http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/

Michael

[aimrider]

Thanks for your reply! I may have misstated my case; I cannot see the files burned, at least not all of them, only about 4GB. I don’t have issue with ‘playing’ the DVD, it’s not Video, but a Data DVD. When I open Windows Explorer, not all files are present. On a side note, the DVD works fine on my friend’s PC, so it was burned correctly. Any suggestions on how to tackle this problem? Thanks in advance.

[mciahel]

Okay. Then your drive seems to have problems to read the second layer of that disc. This is likely unrelated to the operating system.
To rule this out, you can prepare a bootable USB stick (should have 2 GB capacity) with Linux. Unetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/) is very useful here. I am assuming your computer is modern enough to boot from USB devices.

Michael

[aimrider]

I’ll try WinXP Live USB edition, and inform you if I can patch the drive. Hopefully it works, otherwise I will see to that Linux option. Thanks for the tip.

[aimrider]

I’m in the LiveXP environment I just built with winbuilder.

I can run the FlashUtility for LiteOn drives, my drive gets recognized, and I can even read the flash, which I did.

When I try to write an exe file from the official LiteOn site, it says “the firmware wasn’t found in the specified file”

OmniPatcher does not want to load the firmware I saved, which is 8H1F.bin

Got no clue what to do next. Help -_-

[aimrider]

After crossflashing to DH20A3L, I reverted back to the original firmware/eeprom I backed up.

The problem was that it didn’t read some DVDs, but now the same problem persists; can’t read the old DVDs it was able to [like win7 installation disc].

What could be the problem? Did the crossflash cause this odd behaviour?

[mciahel]

Hi,

the inability to read a certain kind of discs is usually not firmware related (unless the drive had been artificially limited by the manufacturer).

Michael

[aimrider]

Before I crossflashed, I was able to read some DVDs, now that I reverted back, just blank.

On the LiteOn site, there is a firmware update with the description “Matching more media” for this model (16A3L).
That is why I was trying to find a way to do it.

Anyways, thanks for your input.
Too bad there’s no way around it except to get a new burner.