www.makemkv.com

Howdy,

I'll just get down to it, I don't know what came over me, but I used an official LG firmware update package on my BU40N, and for some reason that rendered my drive completely unusable. The disk tray won't even open, but it does show up, just with a 'BOOT' suffix. I tried to use the SDF tool to flash it again, but it doesn't recognize it as an mt1959 drive. I also tried the patched LG update tool, but it just complains about a checksum error and says the drive will return to boot mode. I haven't tried the dosflash method yet, I'm still looking into it, but I was just wondering if anyone smarter than I would have any advice for this situation. Is it still recoverable or just FUBAR now?

FINAL UPDATE:

I would really recommend RTFM instead of just trying stuff and panicking. I watched the video about using DOSFlash to recover bricked drives, and I was able to fully recover the drive. The crucial step I missed in my reply was using the data mover EXE on my rom dump to copy the drive specific data to the new MK rom. And thankfully I actually dumped the original 'broken' rom before flashing the drive, otherwise I really would have been SOL. Using that video, the drive serial number now reports properly, LiberDrive works, and am currently ripping my 4k release of Interstellar.

So, just as a lesson to people watching this trainwreck: DO NOT USE THAT LG FIRMWARE UPDATE, AND MAKE BACKUPS OF YOUR STUFF BEFORE YOU FLASH

UPDATE:

So I was able to partially recover the drive using dosflash...I was able to flash the 1.03MK firmware with it. It now shows up in MakeMKV with LibreDrive enabled, however it will not read a disc, it behaves as if there's nothing in the drive. The serial number is also blank in MakeMKV, and I believe these two are related. I hear there's calibration data in the original firmware that probably isn't in the 1.03MK file, however I did make a backup of the stock firmware in SDF tool, and I also made a backup of the borked firmware before I flashed it in dosflash. If there's anyone that can help fully recover this thing I would be eternally grateful.

ai0verflow wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 05, 2025 2:35 am

Howdy,

I'll just get down to it, I don't know what came over me, but I used an official LG firmware update package on my BU40N, and for some reason that rendered my drive completely unusable. The disk tray won't even open, but it does show up, just with a 'BOOT' suffix. I tried to use the SDF tool to flash it again, but it doesn't recognize it as an mt1959 drive. I also tried the patched LG update tool, but it just complains about a checksum error and says the drive will return to boot mode. I haven't tried the dosflash method yet, I'm still looking into it, but I was just wondering if anyone smarter than I would have any advice for this situation. Is it still recoverable or just FUBAR now?

Try the old modified ASUS flasher and use the BU40N 1.03-MK firmware. viewtopic.php?p=70766#p70766

There is really never any need to update optical drive firmware. Updates usually only affect disc writing, not reading.

I think that was the actually the one thing I didn't try, was the asus flasher. But, writing media is what spawned this whole mess. I would like to burn some 50GB dual layer discs, and I've only heard of all the lovely firmware issues with them things. I thought maybe I could use the LG update to bring it back to the original firmware in case I had issues, but I guess I really learned my lesson on that. In case you see this before my edited post, I was able to fully recover the drive using DOSFlash, though it remains to be seen how the 1.03MK firmware handles burning dual layer disks. If there's issues I'll probably just get another drive.

ai0verflow wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 05, 2025 6:46 am

But, writing media is what spawned this whole mess. I would like to burn some 50GB dual layer discs, and I've only heard of all the lovely firmware issues with them things. … though it remains to be seen how the 1.03MK firmware handles burning dual layer disks. If there's issues I'll probably just get another drive.

Pioneer drives are considered pretty good for actually burning discs. Depending on where you are in the world, you might still be able to get one. Any new one you get will probably have firmware on it that's too new to rip UHDs, but it should still rip DVDs and regular blu-rays out of the box. If it is a model that supports UHDs, Mike has said that eventually it will be supported, regardless of the firmware.

I’ll have to look into them, since I don’t really know the first thing about them. I’m in the US, if there’s any models you would recommend in particular, 5.25” or slim type, I’m open to that.