Hey i have a sony vaio RB40, and i t came with a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-109 burner. I was wondering if this was any good....i also was wondering what speed i should backup dvds at?
i have the Pioneer dvr-109, one of my fastest burners to date..it's very solid and "good" in my opinion... as to the burn speed, it depends MORE on what kind of media you are using...if you are using Verbatims or Taiyo Yudens, i suggest burn @8x...the quality of MY burns @8x far exceed that of 4x using that drive with GOOD media...good luck docTY~
for regular Pioneer firmware, it's 1.58; i happen to use the buffalo hacked firmware for bitsetting...so, i use 8.57~ :0 i hd 8.58 for awhile, but found out that is was somewhat problematic, so i went back to the stable 8.57~ but, for yours...it's available here... http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/product-e/ibs/device_e/file/DVR109_FW158EU.EXE unless your current firmware happens to be 8.xx, but it shouldn't if you are here in the U.S.~ docTY~
then you must have an OEM version of it...what is your CURRENT firmware revision on your Pioneer? that will clear things up when we find the CORRECT firmware that you need for your particular drive~ there are naturally DIFFERENT firmwares depending if you buy a retail kit, OEM, or if the drive uses a diff. firmware that was factory installed by a computer builder...it all depends... i just gave you a direct link to the 1.58 under the assumption that your model is 1.5x series firmware...need to know which firmware you CURRENTLY have to go further with this troubleshooting. docTY~
so you have the standard firmware that was included with your system...never updated before? try this...use this link here to get the firmwares for your drive...start with say, version 1.05 and do your firwmare flashes incrementally...meaning...don't go from the OLDEST firmware to the absolute newest being 1.58 see if you CAN flash your 1.00 with the 1.05 and if that is successful, keep going in steps...maybe try 1.40 next (after install/flash is complete and AFTER you have rebooted *very important*) and if that proves successful..then go up again...1.50, 1.57, then 1.58 like that... http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=2017 there is all the firmwares that you will need...give it a try and let me know. docTy~
does windows even recognize your drive under device manager? is everything working properly? are you 100% certain that you got firmware revision 1.00? if the target is not found on so many tries with the "next step up" in firmware, there is something going on with your system that i obviously am not aware of~ hmm...have you tried uninstalling and re-installing the drive? and have windows "re-recognize" the drive for you? i dunno what else to suggest...i'll think on it some and let you know if i can think of anything else to help... docTY~
