Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2024

[Fitzchiv]

Hi hoping for a little guidance. Got myself a BU40N and followed the steps in the opening post etc, however get Updating Failure #5 when trying to flash the mk firmware. Managed to get it to BW-16D1HT 3.30mk, but now the drive tray doesn't open and discs won't read. Any thoughts?

[Imkindanew]

Hey guys,
i bought an Asus BW-16D1HT and it came with 3.10 Firmware.

I downloaded the "modified" asus flashing tool with the MK firmware files included but always get an error when i try to flash the firmware... is it a problem that i'm running windows as a VM in unraid?

I hope you guys can help me... I've been trying to get this to work for at least 5 hours today :-/

[MartyMcNuts]

ok, I got my new drive in (B50NB40) and got it flashed to BP60NB10 1.00 HBD successfully, thanks too all for that. In the drive info of makemkv it says Unrestricted read speed: Possible, not yet enabled. Is that anything to worry about? I know it's going to be limited to USB speeds, but anything that can help speed it up would be great!!

Nothing to worry about. All drives say that. It's just another possible feature that may/may not be implemented at a later date.

[Billycar11]

Hi hoping for a little guidance. Got myself a BU40N and followed the steps in the opening post etc, however get Updating Failure #5 when trying to flash the mk firmware. Managed to get it to BW-16D1HT 3.30mk, but now the drive tray doesn't open and discs won't read. Any thoughts?

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo y did you not read!!

Crossflashing Warnings:

1. Don't crossflash desktop drives to slim drives or the other way around

the only way to fix it now is with dos flash and if your pc cant do that you will have to send it to me for recovery

[st4evr]

Hi hoping for a little guidance. Got myself a BU40N and followed the steps in the opening post etc, however get Updating Failure #5 when trying to flash the mk firmware. Managed to get it to BW-16D1HT 3.30mk, but now the drive tray doesn't open and discs won't read. Any thoughts?

You bricked your drive. You did not read and/or pay attention to the part of the guide that explicitly tells you NOT to cross-flash those slim drives. The firmware packages provided in this forum have BU40N firmware specifically for this purpose and that drive.

[Fitzchiv]

Hi hoping for a little guidance. Got myself a BU40N and followed the steps in the opening post etc, however get Updating Failure #5 when trying to flash the mk firmware. Managed to get it to BW-16D1HT 3.30mk, but now the drive tray doesn't open and discs won't read. Any thoughts?

You bricked your drive. You did not read and/or pay attention to the part of the guide that explicitly tells you NOT to cross-flash those slim drives. The firmware packages provided in this forum have BU40N firmware specifically for this purpose and that drive.

Misunderstood rather than failed to read. This section:

Newer OEM Firmwares:

"LG 1.04+ BU40N 1.03 Asus 3.10+ and similar
The newer OEM firmwares cannot be flashed easily due to the additional downgrade checks. If your drive has one of these firmwares, and there is no MK version of the same or higher number, you will have to sidegrade to Asus 3.10MKor LG 1.04MK. Then flash to your desired firmware if you don't want that one." - as my BU40N came with firmware 1.03, i took it to mean sidegrading to 3.10Mkor would work.

Dosflash it is.

[Fitzchiv]

Hi hoping for a little guidance. Got myself a BU40N and followed the steps in the opening post etc, however get Updating Failure #5 when trying to flash the mk firmware. Managed to get it to BW-16D1HT 3.30mk, but now the drive tray doesn't open and discs won't read. Any thoughts?

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo y did you not read!!

Crossflashing Warnings:

1. Don't crossflash desktop drives to slim drives or the other way around

the only way to fix it now is with dos flash and if your pc cant do that you will have to send it to me for recovery

Feared as much. I misunderstood the guidance (very new to this). I will need to do some reading and watching on the dos flash method to ensure i understand it, however my machine is 64bit windows 10.

EDIT: Watched the guide, flashed a USB, booted etc and now unfortunately dos flash won't recognise the drive to Read the driver. Annoying as the patcher does recognise it (CheckSum mismatch, because it's not been dos flashed yet) but it seems like the connection between the drive and the machine is unstable or not fully communicating.

[Billycar11]

Hi hoping for a little guidance. Got myself a BU40N and followed the steps in the opening post etc, however get Updating Failure #5 when trying to flash the mk firmware. Managed to get it to BW-16D1HT 3.30mk, but now the drive tray doesn't open and discs won't read. Any thoughts?

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo y did you not read!!

Crossflashing Warnings:

1. Don't crossflash desktop drives to slim drives or the other way around

the only way to fix it now is with dos flash and if your pc cant do that you will have to send it to me for recovery

Feared as much. I misunderstood the guidance (very new to this). I will need to do some reading and watching on the dos flash method to ensure i understand it, however my machine is 64bit windows 10.

EDIT: Watched the guide, flashed a USB, booted etc and now unfortunately dos flash won't recognise the drive to Read the driver. Annoying as the patcher does recognise it (CheckSum mismatch, because it's not been dos flashed yet) but it seems like the connection between the drive and the machine is unstable or not fully communicating.

Sorry to hear that email me billycar5924@gmail.com so you can send it to me for recovery

[sadalius]

ok, I got my new drive in (B50NB40) and got it flashed to BP60NB10 1.00 HBD successfully, thanks too all for that. In the drive info of makemkv it says Unrestricted read speed: Possible, not yet enabled. Is that anything to worry about? I know it's going to be limited to USB speeds, but anything that can help speed it up would be great!!

Nothing to worry about. All drives say that. It's just another possible feature that may/may not be implemented at a later date.

Thanks Marty. I ripped three 4K movies over the last two days and a couple of blu-rays. Works perfect. You are the man!! Happy Easter everyone!!

[Finnedsgang]

Hi Guys, i'm a noob here, but thank you all for all the efforts with the forum and this guide!
With the lockdown that will continue in the coming weeks here in Italy I'm thinking of starting the rip of my records, even 4k.I have an ASUS SBC-06D2X-U rev D201 sn: HN63 052650, anyone knows if it's possible to flash a firmware on it to be able to rip 4k BD?

thanks in advance to anyone!

[touche112]

Just picked up a BU40N from Newegg and put it in a generic enclosure from China. This one, to be exact:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32963147746.html

There's a lot from China but long story short I bought that enclosure from a seller on eBay for like, $7. Looks identical. Anyway I took out the DVD drive and put in the BU40N. I flashed the drive using the enclosure and it works great. I highly recommend this route for a cheap slimline external drive.

[MartyMcNuts]

Hi Guys, i'm a noob here, but thank you all for all the efforts with the forum and this guide!
With the lockdown that will continue in the coming weeks here in Italy I'm thinking of starting the rip of my records, even 4k.I have an ASUS SBC-06D2X-U rev D201 sn: HN63 052650, anyone knows if it's possible to flash a firmware on it to be able to rip 4k BD?

thanks in advance to anyone!

I don't believe this drive is UHD capable at all.

[asmcom]

PM me please.

Asmcom

Done

Wow I've been helped by Asmcom this morning. This guy is fantastic.

He spent quite some time using remote desktop to get my drive in order which I messed up myself. There I could see that he really knows what he is doing. Because I flashed a completely wrong firmware myself, it was no longer possible to remotely get it right again.

But it doesn't end there. He suggested that I send the drive to him to fix it at his place with his tools. For someone I didn't know yesterday, I have to say that this is incredible service. After all, I did not buy this drive from him and yet he helps me so well. Top, really top!

I buy a new UHD friendly drive from him anyway, just for backup.

Recommended!

Hello Mike,

I have repaired your BU40N drive and it is on it's way back. Not really impressed with TechPulse20 case, quite flimsy compared to the Vantec Slim. I have enclosed a full dump 2MB's of 1.03 Libredrive Firmware and 1.00DE which is individual to your BU40N drive. The backups are on a CD which includes calbriation data for your drive. All working good, just backed up 3 of my 4K Ultra HD discs. Sorry I could not repair remotely as I required the drive out of the enclosure for command line repair.

It's not just you Mike, quite a few people have made the mistake of flashing 5.25" drives to Slim drives by interpreting the guide wrong, easily done.

Let me know how you get on. Repair is free of charge, glad I could help you out.

Asmcom

[Mikesp2]

Wow Asmcom,

Again this is great service. I appreciate!

Kind regards,
Mike

[harsh]

I was thinking of buying Pioneer blu-ray writers.
Are they not good?
Also, (I am new here) do I need Cyberlink PowerDVD or some such 4K UHD Bluray software to just play the movie at its full resolution, after flashing the drive?