www.makemkv.com

Good day everyone.

I have a LG external WP50NB40 drive, that I flashed and have been using for a few months without issue. But suddenly one day It stopped reading discs. Like my windows 11 pc won’t open it manually to watch with VLC, and MAKEMKV sometimes sees it but can’t open it. Then after a while I get an error saying “the usb device malfunctioned and is no longer recognized”. Unfortunately LG has refused to warranty the item as I’m Canadian and it’s an American product. Am I just out for a couple hundred bucks or has anyone else experienced something similar? I tried flashing to the stock but unfortunately it simply won’t even start. It seems like it malfunctions specifically when the drive is being accessed.

Thank you
Brayden

I don't have one of those drives and I haven't experienced a failure like you describe so I'm just guessing. Like pretty much all slim external drives, there is most likely a self-contained optical drive like you would have found inside a laptop from a decade ago connected to some electronics to provide power and a USB connection. It is possible that the drive is fine but the electronics around it have failed.

If you can remove the optical drive from the case and verify that it has the expected SATA connection you could try connecting it to a different USB SATA adapter to plug into your computer. The Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide has a list of them that have been known to work in the past.

dcoke22 wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 28, 2025 5:15 pm

I don't have one of those drives and I haven't experienced a failure like you describe so I'm just guessing. Like pretty much all slim external drives, there is most likely a self-contained optical drive like you would have found inside a laptop from a decade ago connected to some electronics to provide power and a USB connection. It is possible that the drive is fine but the electronics around it have failed.

If you can remove the optical drive from the case and verify that it has the expected SATA connection you could try connecting it to a different USB SATA adapter to plug into your computer. The Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide has a list of them that have been known to work in the past.

Yes I have confirmed that is the case (using chat gpt so take that with a grain of salt) it also says that’s it’s very likely a problem with the sata to USB board conversion. I have an old optiplex lying around so I will try to throw it in there. Will post an update here in case anyone would need the info in the future.

Unfortunately it turns out that it is not simply a bu40n drive in an external enclosure. instead they have elected to solder a micro usb board to the ribbon cable instead of simply converting sata to usb. if anyone has any suggestions i would appreciate it.