WH14NS40: "No disc inserted" after re-flashing to stock firmware

[Kepler]

Hello! I recently bought a used WH14NS40 (Manufactured Nov. 2012, had firmware v1.00, info label pic attached)

I foolishly flashed the WH14NS40-NS50 firmware (linux):

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# sdftool -d /dev/sr0 rawflash -i /tmp/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH14NS40-NS50-1.05-NM00900-212005061444.bin

That, of course, soft bricked the drive. After doing more research, I found the patched flasher guide, and in Windows crossflashed WH16NS60 1.02 (as recommended here)

That flashed successfully, but after rebooting, the drive wasn't able to read discs, saying "No disc inserted" in MakeMKV

After more toying around I decided to install the latest official firmware (v1.03), using the patched flasher, extracting the .bin from the official installer with Firmware Extractor 2. That flashed succesfully, but I'm still left with the drive not recognizing discs (DVDs and Blu Rays).

MakeMKV_log.txt:

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Debug log started at Sat Sep  5 14:27:19 2020 , written by MakeMKV v1.15.2 linux(x64-release)
Using 262272KB for read cache.
001005:0000 MakeMKV v1.15.2 linux(x64-release) started
001004:0000 Debug logging enabled, log will be saved as file:///home/*/MakeMKV_log.txt
001003:0020 DEBUG: Code 0 at EhsdE9uJwGJ#F]k}>sW:D0:29393631
No  SDF v07a: ATAPI_iHAS424___B_GL1B_3743524253_2A8145501968
SDF id v07a: ATAPI_iHAS424___B_GL1B_3743524253_2A8145501968
SDF  v07a: HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH14NS40_1.03_211711211658_SIK85CBLG033

Here's the current drive info from MakeMKV:

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Drive Information
OS device name: /dev/sr0
Manufacturer: HL-DT-ST
Product: BD-RE WH14NS40
Revision: 1.03
Serial number: SIK85CBLG033
Firmware date: 2117-11-21 16:58
Bus encryption flags: 17
Highest AACS version: 70

LibreDrive Information
Status: Possible (with patched firmware)
Drive platform: MT1959
Harware support: Yes
Firmware support: No
Firmware type: Original (patched version available)
Firmware version: 1.03
DVD all regions: Possible (with patched firmware)
BD raw data read: Possible (with patched firmware)
BD raw metadata read: Possible (with patched firmware)
Unrestricted read speed: Possible (with patched firmware)

No disc inserted

Here's more info that might be useful: (the drive is sr0, has DVD inserted)

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$ cat /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17

drive name:		sr0
drive speed:		48
drive # of slots:	1
Can close tray:		1
Can open tray:		1
Can lock tray:		1
Can change speed:	1
Can select disk:	0
Can read multisession:	1
Can read MCN:		1
Reports media changed:	1
Can play audio:		1
Can write CD-R:		1
Can write CD-RW:	1
Can read DVD:		1
Can write DVD-R:	1
Can write DVD-RAM:	1
Can read MRW:		1
Can write MRW:		1
Can write RAM:		1

$ cat /proc/mounts | grep sr0	#outputs nothing

$ lsblk | grep sr0
sr0                            11:0    1  1024M  0 rom

Is there any hope for this drive? I'll probably be getting another drive that's actually UHD friendly (this version number was deceiving), but it'd be nice to be able to resell this one in working condition. Any help is much appreciated

[Billycar11]

You need to follow my UHD guide you ignored so much of it look at the usefull for recovery section.
And
Try this first
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=23023#p95457

[Kepler]

You need to follow my UHD guide you ignored so much of it look at the usefull for recovery section.
And
Try this first
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=23023#p95457

Thank you for the quick reply! Here's what I'm at after starting the steps in that post

Step 0: I downloaded sdf.bin, moved it to ~/.MakeMKV/sdf.bin, and started MakeMKV so it could be merged into _private_data.tar

Step 1: I picked MK/old/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin for the firmware

Step 2:

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$ sdftool -d /dev/sr0 rawflash -i HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin 

Reading input file HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Current Drive ID: HL-DT-ST_BD-RE__WH16NS60_1.02_211810291936_SIK85CBLG033
Ready to write drive flash memory.
Type "yes" to continue, "no" to abort
yes
Operation started: Sending flash image to drive
 100% Operation finished                                
Operation started: Programming flash
 100% Operation finished                                
Done successfully

It doesn't seem like it silently failed, because now MakeMKV says the firmware version is 1.02 (changed from 1.03 in the OP)

[Billycar11]

well you can just do it the dos flash way then follow the video and download martys img and us the old ns40 fw