PSA: New Archgon UHD drives do not allow flashing

[larhaus]

FYI for anyone considering buying a new Archgon UHD drive from Amazon, the controller chip in that enclosure of late does not allow flashing. (H/T Billycar11 - https://www.reddit.com/r/makemkv/commen ... _archgons/ )

This drive: archgon Premium Aluminum External USB 3.0 UHD 4K Blu-Ray Writer Super Drive for PC and Mac

I've acquired both old and new for kicks and grins to do some analysis.

Comparisons:

Package label:
"MD-8107S-U3YC-UHD unit - USB Y cable - USB C cable - User Manual - Protective Case" (old) vs. "MD-8107S-U3YC-UHD unit - USB C + A cable - User Manual - Protective Case" (new)
UPC code and all other text are identical

Enclosure interface:
Micro USB Type B SuperSpeed (old) vs. USB-C (new)

Controller chip:
initio INIC-3619PN (old) vs. initio INIC-3639PN (new)

Serial number (less deterministic than the above 3 characteristics, but might be good info):
00070xxx (old) vs. 00093xxx (new)

So if your Archgon enclosure has the above new characteristics, then you won't be able to flash. When running Marty McNuts SDF Flasher, clicking on Start doesn't do anything. You'll have to remove the drive and use some other means of flashing it (another enclosure with a different controller chip or a computer with a slimline SATA slot). To remove the drive, just take a small screwdriver and carefully remove the two back feet, which will reveal two screws, unscrew and slide out the drive in its mounting bracket and then the rest is simple..

Anyway, I made a detection program (Windows) if you want to use it to check: ArchgonUHDDetector.7z

Or you can check which chip your Archgon is by going to Device Manager in Windows: Universal Serial Bus controllers > USB Mass Storage Device > Right-click for Properties > Details > Property dropdown - Hardware Ids
USB\VID_13FD&PID_3910&REV_0217 (old) vs. USB\VID_13FD&PID_5910&REV_0157 (new)

Hopefully this will help those who have purchased from Amazon so you can check it without opening the package or going too far and then you can just return it if you don't want it.

[Billycar11]

very good post thank you i will use the new chipset info for when i contact mike as i did not know the new ones part number this may help him support it
also did not know they swapped to usb c on the drive side thats good as the other connector was very fragile i dealt with alot of rma's for broken ports on the micro b 3.0.


fyi for anyone here i did not confirm the safety of the checker program
the other provided info should be enough to know on your own

but again they keep doing this where they change stuff without notice the page still shows the usb 3 micro b connector and as we now know a new chipset

they should have made a new model for this not this stealth change nonsense its probably better for sure the port is but we just need to now know if the chipset can be worked around

[larhaus]

Thanks Billy, glad to help, and thank you for all your hard work!

I agree about those USB 3.0 Micro USB connectors; they're quite fragile. Hopefully the USB-C connection will prove better in the long run and at least the cables are easier to get and use. But I am guessing that's why they had to use a different chip for the product. I was also a bit disappointed that the UPC code and model numbers were exactly the same. I tried to post pictures of all of this inline in my post but phpBB didn't let me attach anything for some reason.

Regarding the program I wrote, it was just something fun I wanted to write and help others save time because I have a lot of USB devices connected to my computer and it's a pain to go through all of them in Device Manager lol , no malicious intent of course and it's coming from my own cloud storage. I figured some people might have trust issues so I put the hardware IDs to look for anyway.

[Samus_Aran]

It too bad is was a nice drive. But saw this and sided to return

[A.RABID.BUFFALO]

I was able to get it flashed with a third party enclosure. However when it was reassembled I found that even though MakeMKV was able to see it as patched. When it tried to rip a UHD of a known good disc it would say aacs unknown and create a dump of the disc. Not sure if the chip has something to do with it.

[Casper2209]

I got one of the new models is it possible to flash it from a sata port from my motherboard by connecting it with a slimline sata to sata cable

im really new to this

[Coopervid]

I got one of the new models is it possible to flash it from a sata port from my motherboard by connecting it with a slimline sata to sata cable

im really new to this

Yes.