100% Firmware Downgrade for ASUS BW-16D1HT and LG BH16NS55

[SamuriHL]

I'm in the 3.03 club as well with a new BW-16D1HT drive that I just picked up. I was hoping to PM TeddyRaspin or Billycar11 to see if I could just send my drive to one of them to downgrade the firmware to work with the UHD discs, but being a new forum member, I'm unable to send PMs. If one of you guys would be willing to help out, please PM me and let me know.

You can do it yourself. It doesn't require dosflash or messing with sata ports. It just requires Windows, a patched Windows flasher, and an MK or DE firmware bin. I'd recommend the new MK 3.10 firmware that Mike released today. Works VERY well.

Get this:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=19113

Then this:

viewtopic.php?p=70766#p70766

And then you're good to flash.

[captricky]

So I just did the downgrade to v3.02 on my ASUS BW-16D1HT. The downgrade worked but I had a slight variation in the process...tray stayed open and the flash software never indicated the process was complete. As in another post earlier, after a long wait I closed the tray and closed the ASUS Flash Utility (patched). I then opened up MakeMKV and the drive shows a successful downgrade to v3.02, Libre drive enabled, reads a 4K UHD disc just fine, and plays standard Blu-ray discs. I'm not sure why the process was abnormal...the drive is internal with SATA connection with no prior problems.

I just saw the newly uploaded MK 3.10 firmware for the ASUS. Will the same patched ASUS Flash utility work in upgrading to the MK 3.10 version? What would be the benefit?

Thanks,
Rick

[martinav]

I did what I thought was a flawless downgrade to a clean v1.02 firm for an LG LH14NS40 (SC50) drive. No errors with dosFlash. However, now the drive does not regocnize any disk. MakeMKV sees the drive properly, with 1.02 firm as well. It animates when you remove a disk... but, no regognition of a disk. Even with standard windows DVD player. It sees the drive letter, but no disk loads.

I did have to set the region. There was no region set on the drive after the flash. THis was a new drive.

Other drives work when plugged into the same sata channel.

I tried it a 2nd time... no go.

Any ideas?

[Billycar11]

I did what I thought was a flawless downgrade to a clean v1.02 firm for an LG LH14NS40 (SC50) drive. No errors with dosFlash. However, now the drive does not regocnize any disk. MakeMKV sees the drive properly, with 1.02 firm as well. It animates when you remove a disk... but, no regognition of a disk. Even with standard windows DVD player. It sees the drive letter, but no disk loads.

I did have to set the region. There was no region set on the drive after the flash. THis was a new drive.

Other drives work when plugged into the same sata channel.

I tried it a 2nd time... no go.

Any ideas?

ahhhhhh you used dos flash?

if so did you follow these steps exactly? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXgybNfHhcg

if you dont have a backup of the orignal firmware its a brick

we need a post in op that this method is now obsolete!!

you should have used the new way here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfpf6HoMMis

[martinav]

Obsolete or not, it seemed to work great on a wh16ns40 (sc50) a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I made the usb boot windows 7 environment, etc. Only thing different was the .rom that I picked for this drive.

So what gives?

[SamuriHL]

If you didn't extract your drive's firmware and copy the data manually or using the data mover tool to the firmware you flashed, you will have bricked the drive. There's a reason that method is obsolete.

[Billycar11]

Obsolete or not, it seemed to work great on a wh16ns40 (sc50) a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I made the usb boot windows 7 environment, etc. Only thing different was the .rom that I picked for this drive.

So what gives?

one more piece of advice.

dont flash back your original firmware if you use the trash meme Julia windows 7 pe it will brick you drive to a state where it wont even turn on and may hang your computer. mike talks about it here and how to check for it : viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18835&p=70156&hili ... ink#p70130

my test dump from julia is messed up, from the pe i recommend it is not messed up and could be re flashed

[martinav]

Well, those videos are fantastic. Unfortunately, when I ingrained my process, it was prior to the posts of those videos. THe process I used for the wh16ns40 (sc50) was nothing like his video. By all rights, it should have bricked the drive. This video seems to be the only coherent process that has everything in one place. That was not the case when I started doing this.

By the way, if you have an identical drive, you can pull the original firmware off of it and use the mover tool on that firm, then load that on the bricked drive. I just did that on mine, and it is now working great (using the DosFlash video).

This post should have a final post as OBSOLETE, with reference to a new very concise post on how to do this, and then lock it from further posts. Sifting through dozens of posts with process fragments is far from clear, and leads people astray... such as myself. Yes, I did do dilligence of scouring the net, and it is difficult to know what to search for, and it yeilded nothing.

Thanks for your help. I am now on the "new" process.

[swp466]

You can do it yourself. It doesn't require dosflash or messing with sata ports. It just requires Windows, a patched Windows flasher, and an MK or DE firmware bin. I'd recommend the new MK 3.10 firmware that Mike released today. Works VERY well.

Get this:

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=19113

Then this:

viewtopic.php?p=70766#p70766

And then you're good to flash.

Thanks! I agree with others who have said that this thread should be closed as obsolete and directed to the newer procedures. While I haven't had time to try this method yet, I've read the referenced thread and it seems to do the trick, and I'm sure it will be no problem. I'll try it out this afternoon when I get home. You guys are life savers!