NEW OPTION: 'UHD Friendly' Firmware Downgrade / Cross-Flash Using Official (Modified) ASUS Flasher for ASUS & LG Drives

[kaledi]

Hello there,
I have an Asus BW-16D1HT drive, but i think it is going bad as discs (any type) are often not loaded properly. When working it does read UHD discs and I've had this drive for some time working fine and therefore I'm not up to date on the latest firmware procesdures etc.
Can I just check that should I need a new drive, there are no hardware versions I want to avoid purchasing?

[MartyMcNuts]

Hello there,
I have an Asus BW-16D1HT drive, but i think it is going bad as discs (any type) are often not loaded properly. When working it does read UHD discs and I've had this drive for some time working fine and therefore I'm not up to date on the latest firmware procesdures etc.
Can I just check that should I need a new drive, there are no hardware versions I want to avoid purchasing?

Nope, they are all downgradeable. I'd try cleaning your discs first!!

[kaledi]

Hello there,
I have an Asus BW-16D1HT drive, but i think it is going bad as discs (any type) are often not loaded properly. When working it does read UHD discs and I've had this drive for some time working fine and therefore I'm not up to date on the latest firmware procesdures etc.
Can I just check that should I need a new drive, there are no hardware versions I want to avoid purchasing?

Nope, they are all downgradeable. I'd try cleaning your discs first!!

That's great, thanks. I cleaned the disc, changed the SATA cable and it failed to rip a couple of discs tonight. I also have BC-12D2HT installed in the same machine and it worked fine. I think the drive may be on the way out

[SamuriHL]

Use speed control and set it as 0=8 for that drive and try another rip. It'll be slow, painfully so, but, see if it helps.

[kaledi]

Is that DVDspeed control?

[d00zah]

Is that DVDspeed control?

Yes. Refer to MakeMKV drive speed control

[minos1067]

Very new(b) to flashing and quite frankly, really appreciate GUI's more than anything. Picked up the LG BP50NB40-NB50 v.1.3 and flashed it without a problem to BP60NB10 1.00 (MK? it doesn't say MK in MakeMKV). While trying to read a UHD on my older desktop's USB 2.0 ports, it kept on getting SCSI errors unable to read. As I attempted to reflash it back to BP50NB40, it wouldn't revert. Stood at BP60NB10 no matter how many times I flashed it with SDFTool. While pounding my head on my desk, I noticed in the corner of my eye something about the speed. I adjusted the speed to "0=8" in registry and voila - no more errors. Read my 'Earth - One Amazing Day' UHD with no problems; even loaded LibreDrive mode.

I'm already at 0:37:22 and have 0:57:49 left to go. the slim drive is reading at 2.4X-2.6X at the moment, up from 1.8X-1.6X when it started.

1. I didn't have to but if I needed to, how was I supposed to revert the FW back from BP60NB10 to anything else?

2. I'll try it later but will connecting it to a USB 3.0 or 3.1 port on another computer allow me to go back to unlimited speed?

PS - Thanks, SamuriHL and d00zah - your posts re 'MakeMKV drive speed control' made all of the difference in the immediate world for me.

Peace.

[SamuriHL]

Glad that helped out. You definitely without any doubt want to connect it to usb 3.x. That'll make a very big difference. At the very least you'll be able to raise the speed above 2x.

[minos1067]

Glad that helped out. You definitely without any doubt want to connect it to usb 3.x. That'll make a very big difference. At the very least you'll be able to raise the speed above 2x.

Thank you for following up. So yes, I hooked it up to a single USB 3.x port on my old desktop and still ran into scsi read errors. I went ahead and connected the second cable of the double ended USB type-B cable to a USB 2.0 port and things went better - I guess it still needed additional power. Some further experimenting is still in order. For instance, I went into registry and cleared the speed control for the drive. Reading the UHD BR went as fast as 7X. The copy failed however, but it looks like it went through the whole UHD in about 35-minutes. I'll mess with more of my 4K-BRs later. I then changed the speed to unlimited and successfully backed up a regualar dual layer BR. I could hear the disc spinning up and winding down (2.1X-2.7X) often durring the beginning of the rip. Eventually, closer to the inside of the disc maybe, it went to about 3.4X-3.7X and took about 34-minutes.

I really don't mind how long it takes because, well, that's what I expect for an external slim drive. The post re speed says that higher speeds won't degrade or ruin the disc drive prematurely. It would be nice if this is true. Can you confirm or do you have an opinion about it? Any further info is greatly appreciated, even a link. I haven't had too much time to scour the board regarding this issue as I was barely able to find out about the speed control. TIA

[SamuriHL]

Dust and dirt the enemies of these drives. I'm not as concerned with read speed as I am with those lasers getting dirty. I just ripped my oldest drives apart last week to clean them which helped return them back to their original functioning selves. Cleaning discs before putting them in the drives with a microfiber helps keep dust out of the drive which will extend their useful lives. This is just my opinion not some scientific fact. But it's been my experience so far.

[Coopervid]

I concur. Clean BD discs and especially UHD discs before you want to process them. Use a CD cleaning disc with tiny brushs regularely to wipe the laser lens.

[minos1067]

Dust and dirt the enemies of these drives. I'm not as concerned with read speed as I am with those lasers getting dirty. I just ripped my oldest drives apart last week to clean them which helped return them back to their original functioning selves. Cleaning discs before putting them in the drives with a microfiber helps keep dust out of the drive which will extend their useful lives. This is just my opinion not some scientific fact. But it's been my experience so far.

I concur. Clean BD discs and especially UHD discs before you want to process them. Use a CD cleaning disc with tiny brushs regularely to wipe the laser lens.

Priceless advice. Thank you.

[whurledpeaz]

Just wanted to say thanks for the ASUS flasher tool. Flashed my new BW-16D1HT to 3.10MK. Ripping a bd right now!

[SamuriHL]

Just got my archgon bu40n. Came with 1.01 but I used my flash tool (front end for makemkv sdftool) to downgrade to 1.00. I can see why this is a popular little drive!

[WilJ27]

Hi, I'm somewhat new to make mkv and I tried out the application but it keeps saying something like "Error #5." I use a BP50NB40 and it's updated to 1.03. I want to use makemkv to rip my 4k copy of Alita: Battle Angel. What do I do to make it work?