Hi, my drive has been acting up recently. It is not liking to read and/or burn DVD+,-,DL media. Sometimes even burning CDs is painful. I found a tutorial on CD freaks (http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=178207Drive) to flash my drive to a higher version, i.e. 840, which sounds pretty good. However, my firmware for the drive isn't the latest, i.e. HJ24 (currently FF24) And if I decide to skip the tiny update and just flash, I see that my drive is actually the same as the LG GSA-4166B. Should I just say the hell with calling it an HP and just use the firmwares provided on this site? (http://italianjob.ifrance.com/?) Anyways, thanks for all the help. If you need to, take a look at the drive specs provided by Nero InfoTool: Information ------------------ Drive : HP DVD Writer 740b Type : DVD±R/RW DL Recorder Firmware Version : FF24 Buffer Size : 2 MB Date : 05-07-15 Serial Number : 4423GD48 Vendor Specific : 05/07/15 Drive Letter : E:\ Location : 0:1 Mechanism : Tray Read Speed : 40 X Write Speed : 40 X Read CD Text : Yes Return C2 Pointers : No Read CD-R : Yes Read CD-RW : Yes Read DVD-ROM : Yes Read DVD-RAM : No Read DVD-R : Yes Read DVD-RW : Yes Read DVD+R : Yes Read DVD+RW : Yes Read DVD+R DL : Yes Read BD-ROM : No Read BD-R : No Read BD-RE : No Read Digital Audio : Yes Read CD+G : No Read VideoCD : Yes Write CD-R : Yes Write CD-RW : Yes Write DVD-R : Yes Write DVD-RW : Yes Write DVD-R DL : Yes Write DVD+R : Yes Write DVD+RW : Yes Write DVD+R DL : Yes Write DVD-RAM : No Write BD-R : No Write BD-RE : No Buffer Underrun Protection : Yes Mount Rainier : No Modes : Packet, TAO, DAO, SAO, RAW SAO, RAW DAO, RAW SAO 16, RAW SAO 96, RAW DAO 16, RAW DAO 96 Region Protection Control : RPC II Region : 1 Changes User : 4 Changes Vendor : 4 Interface Information --------------------- Adapter 2 --------- Description : Secondary IDE Channel Driver Description : System32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys Company : Microsoft Corporation Version : 5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158) Description : IDE/ATAPI Port Driver Attached Devices Description : Master: Maxtor 6L200P0 Type : Disk Drive DMA : On
Create a new restore point then upgrade your firmware, don't forget to do a restart, and give the drives lens a clean, and all should be well. If anything goes horribly wrong with the firmware update, use system restore to take you back. If the "acting up" continues, you may be faced with replacing the drive. Cheers.
Hey are you having problems with your HP DVD740 too...SO did you get it working?..if so let me know...awhile ago I switched it to HT-DT-ST GSA-4166B and its still the same....I read the same forum you did...SO let me know if you got it to work...
Since the beginning my 740b does not read and/or write CDs while it works fine with DVDs. I tried different CD makers (TDK, Verbatim, Philips, etc.). No way. I have recently updated the 740b firmware (now is HI24) and cleaned the lens. Same result.
