Patching The New Archgon UHD drives to allow flashing

[MovieOtterJojo]

I'm using Kubuntu 26.04 on an Alienware 4K UHD laptop. I got a new Archgon UHD drive for my 30th birthday today (October 26th). How do I patch my drive to allow flashing on Kubuntu?

[gwhitcombe71]

MovieOtterJojo, happy birthday mate... before anyone digs in, which Archgon model is it exactly, and did it ship with the enclosure firmware already on it? Also reckon you should say what drive is inside (BU40N?) and whether you've got a Windows machine handy, as from what ive seen in this thread MPTool is the fiddly bit and its Windows only (cant say for definately on Kubuntu).

[MovieOtterJojo]

MovieOtterJojo, happy birthday mate... before anyone digs in, which Archgon model is it exactly, and did it ship with the enclosure firmware already on it? Also reckon you should say what drive is inside (BU40N?) and whether you've got a Windows machine handy, as from what ive seen in this thread MPTool is the fiddly bit and its Windows only (cant say for definately on Kubuntu).

1. It's an MD-8107S-U3YC-UHD. I think so.
2. IDK, but its drive platform is MT1959, though. No, I replaced my Windows 11 Home OS on my Alienware 4K UHD laptop with Kubuntu 26.04 in September via a USB 3.0 drive I bought from eBay. Will I need to install a Windows 11 virtual machine? I do have a virtual machine in VirtualBox for installing Windows 11 on (I haven't installed it yet, though).

[gwhitcombe71]

No, I replaced my Windows 11 Home OS on my Alienware 4K UHD laptop with Kubuntu 26.04 in September via a USB 3.0 drive I bought from eBay.

i havent done the Archgon one myself, but when i tried flashing a usb gadget through VirtualBox on my old Ubuntu box the device dropped off halfway (usb passthrough got proper flaky) and the tool just sat there... ended up borrowing a mates spare Windows laptop and it went through first go. might be worth sorting a real Windows machine for the MPTool bit if you can, as the drive disappearing mid-flash is whats been tripping people up in this thread alot.

[trevbot]

MovieOtterJojo, the MPTool linked in the first post needs Windows. Starkiller suggested QEMU with USB controller passthrough earlier in the thread, but that isn't confirmation that it works with VirtualBox's USB passthrough.

We had to flash the Archgon board for our UD03 setup too. The board has its own firmware, separate from the drive, so changing the drive firmware alone doesn't fix a bridge that's blocking the commands.

Can you post the Manufacturer, Product, Revision and Firmware date lines from MakeMKV, plus the Archgon's line from lsusb in Kubuntu? Leave the serial number out.

[thesonic665]

Just wanted to post here and mention that this worked for me no problem! Thanks so much, I'm really happy I get to keep it in the enclosure.

[MovieOtterJojo]

MovieOtterJojo, the MPTool linked in the first post needs Windows. Starkiller suggested QEMU with USB controller passthrough earlier in the thread, but that isn't confirmation that it works with VirtualBox's USB passthrough.

We had to flash the Archgon board for our UD03 setup too. The board has its own firmware, separate from the drive, so changing the drive firmware alone doesn't fix a bridge that's blocking the commands.

Can you post the Manufacturer, Product, Revision and Firmware date lines from MakeMKV, plus the Archgon's line from lsusb in Kubuntu? Leave the serial number out.

Sure. Here you go.

MakeMKV:
Manufacturer: Archgon
Product: ODD
Revision: 1.02
Firmware date: 2120-12-01 17:16

lsusb:
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 13fd:5910 Initio Corporation ODD

[duromx]

Just wanted to post here and mention that this worked for me no problem! Thanks so much, I'm really happy I get to keep it in the enclosure.

Good to know you did it!
I've just read the 3 pages of this topic, and I can see that some things are not completely clear. Please some questions.

1.- Your steps you did for a successful patch please. (Same as the main instructions in the first post?)
2.- were you able to flash the BU40N after patching the inic3639 chip? Or the BU40N was already flashed?
3.- can you now rip a 4k Blu-ray (any)?

This is because I want to preserve the archgon enclosure with the BU40N inside too!

[trevbot]

Thanks, MovieOtterJojo. That's still showing the enclosure's identity, so we don't have the drive model yet. I'd use a Windows machine for the v2 enclosure patch in the first post. After that, check it again in MakeMKV on Kubuntu and post the new details before choosing drive firmware.

[duromx]

Hello,

I have developed a patch for the USB to SATA IC in the new Archgon md-8107s-u3-uhd enclosure (Type C) to allow for drive flashing, this will restore the functionality of the old version (Micro B).


FW (V2):
INIC3639F_v157_forward_v2.bin.zip
https://pixeldrain.com/u/J4m3D2iS
https://files.catbox.moe/5v85kl.zip (mirror)

Prerequisites:
A Windows computer (for now)
A copy of the patched firmware (found in this post)
A copy of the MPTools for the INIC-3639 (https://www.usbdev.ru/files/initio/initio3639smptool/
(mirror) https://pixeldrain.com/u/QYDAWZXs

Instructions:

Extract the MPTools archive.

Move the patched FW to InitioMptoolV9.0.4.2VT29/AppData/Firmare/3639S/

Plug in your drive

Run InitioMPTool.exe located in InitioMptoolV9.0.4.2VT29/Release/
A control panel should appear and it should say "USB Device (1)" if it doesn't click refresh

Open the Settings menu, it will ask you for a password. The password is 123456.
Leave VName source, PName source, WWN, and S/N on Disk.
In Function Ctrl enable "PASS THROUGH (Only MaskROM)" and change USB 2.0 max power to "fa" and USB 3.0 max power to "70" - you need to do this or else you will have power issues

In the top right of the settings page change the firmware to the patched INIC3639F_v157_3bc_forward.bin
Select save in the bottom right

Click Initialization
The text under the "USB device" should become Green

Click Start
It should say Operate Success on the right under "Status"

The enclosure will now allow you to flash the drive over USB.


It was previously recommended that you flash to 1.03 MK and then to 1.00 DE using the SDF flasher tool

Now with the updated version (v2) it is recommended to just flash to 1.03MK using the SDF flasher tool


If you have any questions feel free to post them below



SHA-256 - 9025ac176454b6336f98a8c7135055bfbbb75ca03831c18fecbab9b93cb63f72

This software is provided "as is" without any warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied.
Please feel free to use, modify, and distribute this firmware for non commercial purposes, provided that any derivatives also be used non commercially.


Edit: updated post for v2

I quoted starkiller because I think I read all the thread and I haven't find something similar to my following question and he's the developer:

Current state; I have the BU40N outside the archgon enclosure. I haven't flashed (the BU40N) via sata yet, although I know l can. The bridge PCB with the inic3639, is right now alone without the odd drive!

My obvious question: can we patch the inic3639 bridge (the archgon enclosure for those who don't know what I mean with bridge) without any optical drive or the BU40N plugged to the bridge?

[MovieOtterJojo]

Thanks, MovieOtterJojo. That's still showing the enclosure's identity, so we don't have the drive model yet. I'd use a Windows machine for the v2 enclosure patch in the first post. After that, check it again in MakeMKV on Kubuntu and post the new details before choosing drive firmware.

OK, I patched the enclosure on my mom's Windows 11 laptop. Here's the current MakeMKV info:
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: 1.02
Firmware date: 2120-12-01 17:16

EDIT: I patched the firmware on my Kubuntu a while ago. Here's the current MakeMKV info:
Current profile: BD-ROM
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE BU40N
Revision: 1.03
Firmware date: 2118-10-24 19:34