Why did a firmware flash seem to help?

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers LiteOn / PLDS / Sony Writer
#1

Hi
Some of u guys may already have read that my 812S@832 has suddenly read KProbe error counts a few times higher than before. And this morning it couldn’t even read the +R discs I’ve burnt, including those MCC002 discs.
Then I flashed the firmware again in order to try to save it. And it works! Not only it can read the discs, the KProbe results also dropped to as “low” (or should I call it normal :stuck_out_tongue: ) as it used to be.

So basically the problem is now solved. However I doubt how could the flash help? I can’t think of the reason.

#2

media more than likely…a lot of brands vary from batch to batch…and in some cases from disk to disk…i bought a pack of ritek G04 datawrite yellows…and first pack i got was G04 then the second pack about 8 disks in changed from G04 to G05 lol…also cheapo brands are worst for this variation in quality

#3

Nah, I am scanning the same discs.

#4

A flash also has the effect of “rebooting” your drive (LiteOn drives are reset when the system boots/reboots or upon the completion of a firmware flash). And just as rebooting can sometimes make problems on the computer go away, I’d imagine that it might, on rare occassions, do the same for a drive.

#5

So it is probable that through use of a burner, its firmware can actually got messed up in some part?

PS: My Yamaha CRW3200E also has similar situation. When it stopped recognizing and reading cd-rw discs, it would be fixed with a flash, too.

#6

I haven’t heard of that happening. What I was saying was that flashing the drive has the effect of rebooting the system… (OTOH, if you have rebooted your system without flashing your drive and the problem continued, then this won’t be the case)

#7

Exactly! When the drives didn’t read discs well, rebooting the system did no help at all. But flash the firmware again would have the problem fixed.

#8

Hi there,

I have observed the same behaviour in my LDW-811s, i.e. I have scanned the very same discs 1st day, 2nd day, etc to detect ‘drift’ of Pi/Po values (1000 versus 600, for example). I scan them with same LDW-811s and with other Liteon (combo SOHC-5232K), able to report Pi/Po values despite the fact is not a DVD-RW. The combo is stable, i.e, 1st day, 2nd day, etc show similar scans, maybw 15% peak difference, at most.

But the 811s shows 60% differences and more (Pi & Po). So, it’s clear that the changing/irregular unit is the Liteon DVD-writer.

I have almost ‘gave up’ with these Liteon DVD writers, regarding them as flaw-awarded models (811s, 812s, etc), regarding all I have seen and read of user experiences. I continue studying the so-called ‘learning behaviour’ only by curiosity. The most practical decision is to buy another model (e.g. NEC).

The Liteon models have been designed to ‘learn’ (to ‘write’ anf ‘read’) upon each burning, but the user behavior is so varying (e.g., wide range of media, firmware updates forth and back, omnipatching write strategies, changing PC environment, etc) that I would admire the Liteon progrmmers if they could foresee all those possible scenarios when designing the algorithms of Liteon self-learning.

The case is the Liteys some times deviates themselves from the route (LEARNING BADLY) so it’s ‘normal’ you observe those Kprobe deviations. On the other side, there may be hardware control (temperature/voltage enabled) servo-control not very adjusted in these Liteys not very well designed, leading to a frequent mal-functioning).

There is more to be said, … questions?

Best regards

#9

How odd…

But, 40tacos, this has absolutely nothing to do with the “learning” of the drive. The only “learning” is with burns and involves the EEPROM. This involves reading and involves the firmware.

#10

Hi there :slight_smile:

@code65536
How do you know it has absolutely nothing to do with the ‘learning’ ?

Have you confirmed the ‘learning’ is only for ‘burning’ ?

I dont mean Litey do learn for better reading; I just regard it yet as a hypothesis, given the clues I have observed myself :slight_smile: Maybe a ‘side-effect’ of write-learning…(?)

By the way, I have verified that [self] variations in EEPROM content modify the reading behaviour of the Litey, scanning again same discs once and twice, …

To be more specific and interesting: the very same disc could have a very good scanning at the beginning (< 1,3GB) and worse at the second half; upon EEPROM self-modification (just a 00C7 position write for ricohjpnR01, for example), the first half will have a worse scan, but the second half a better (for the very same disc). As a whole, I regard the ‘learning’ as an improvement (learning success).

They are observations, not theories. But info is insufficient, I know.

#11

Correction to myself…

Re-thinking of this, now I’d agree with C64k, i.e., this has nothing to do with the ‘learning behaviour’, understanding learning is based only on Liteon eeprom self-update.

Eeprom content is not changed when the unit suddenly begin showing those kprobe rocketed Pi/Po scans. A third [unknown] factor is coming into play… and all we would like to have an idea of what is.

Best regards,

#12

Neither I agree there’s anything to do with LiteOn’s learning behavior.
Because my Yamaha CRW3200E shares exactly the same issue.

However, I think each time when u burn a disc, the drive may access certain part of the firmware, (despite the fact that firmware was usually loaded into cache when it boots) and errors are probably made into the firmware when accessed, so that after some time, as there is problem with firmware, the drive acts erratically.