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Sadly one of my Verbatim 43888 (i have 2 sets) with a Pioneer UD04 in it just refused to work as intended..
So i decided to break and destroy the really super difficult casing.
above are the pictures.
it can only play "Audio CD's"
No luck with BluRays and 4K UHD discs..
i even connected it directly to my computer without the casing and the small USB C board that is in the verbatim casing, but to no avail!!
oh well... just my luck..
Hahahaha!!!

the really surprising part is that the UD04 in manufactured in "JUNE 2024"

Yethidran wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 18, 2025 4:36 pm

the really surprising part is that the UD04 in manufactured in "JUNE 2024"

It would be interesting to connect it to SATA with a mini-SATA adapter if it still works. The Verbatim electronics connecting to USB doesn't have the best reputation. So- I would be interested if the drive or the electronics is defective. I would bet it's the electronics.

yes buddy, i connected "RAW" to my computer with the mini sata adapter, but to no avail.
but what i am really interested in is the fact that the drive was manufactured in June 2024 with no intervention from Pioneer to "LOCK THE FIRMWARE"
pretty interesting indeed..

Some third party companies still sell drives that don't have encrypted firmware. 3 are known at least.

Yeah, it sucks big time that "Pioneer itself" is so afraid of the big guns, when the small fish are just swimming around freely..
Hehehehehe!!

Yethidran wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 18, 2025 5:46 pm

Yeah, it sucks big time that "Pioneer itself" is so afraid of the big guns, when the small fish are just swimming around freely..
Hehehehehe!!

A really stupid business decision in a steeply declining market of optical drives. And forget about their yaddayadda about their new drives with steep high prices. They don't do anything better compared to their older drives. Be it it ripping or burning. At least so far the test results of my buddies and myself showed.

True buddy...

Now i have a Euro$95 "Audio/DVD Only Drive"
Hahahaha!
No More Blu-Ray or 4K UHD Reading or Playback.

I thought these were supposed to be good reliable drives? How long have you had it?

I'm still kind of betting the little board is bad. I noticed there is a firmware chip on there. Without it, your computer may not know what to do with it.

Are you able to get a part number on that square IC with the green dot on it? I'm betting that handles the USB communication and yours is probably shorted. And the small 8 legged IC on the bottom handles the firmware.

Well, I have never heard of a dead laser in an UD04. I only heard of issues with the enclosure electronics besides that this electronics is very power hungry anyway. Some oder electronics also tended to fail early. And no, there is no firmware chip on this board. The firmware chip is inside the drive itself. And if the blue laser is dead the drive should still also read DVDs since the red laser is used for CDs AND DVDs. Blue laser for BDs and UHDs. So I kind of doubt the conclusions drawn above.

yes, it only reads CD's and DVD's Discs only now...
so the red laser still works.
but sadly the blue laser is kaput.
so no reading of Blu-Ray's and 4K UHD Disc's.
i bought it from Amazon Germany.
anyway since i broke the casing up, there is no way to return it too.
Hahahaha!!
i kinda like to open things up to look and see how its all put together.
And since i bought 2 sets of 43888, this particular one was giving me hell, so my fingers got itchy and i went on an exploration hike on it.
Hehehe!!
but at least now everyone knows that these drives are manufactured in the year 2024!!