Generic program to backup & flash drive firmware?

[jettoblack]

Hello everyone, I apologize if this is a strange or difficult question.

I bought (2) LG GBW-H20L* drives, one retail and one OEM. They are exactly identical, right down to the bezel and circuit board layout, except for the firmware. The retail came with YG01 and the OEM came with 8.B8 (beta?). The retail drive works great with every blu-ray I throw at it, but the OEM drive has trouble reading and writing to a few discs, which makes me suspect its a firmware issue.

Because YG01 is the latest firmware, LG doesn't have any updates at all for these drives yet. Calling their tech support was an exercise in frustration and head banging. :bang: They basically claimed I was lying about my firmware version and serial numbers because they couldn't find it in their database, etc.. Basically, the bottom line they told me was "No, we won't give you a YG01 flash file because all GBW-H20L drives come with YG01 already, and we will never, ever lift a finger to support your OEM drive even though it has 100% identical hardware."

Is there any kind of generic firmware update program which can download the YG01 firmware from my retail drive and then flash it to my OEM drive? I only ask because I know at least for motherboard BIOS flash updates, they often use the same updater exe file for many different models, and these updaters can usually backup the firmware .bin as well as flash it. I wouldn't ask if I wasn't 110% certain that these two drives have exactly the same model number and hardware.

Any ideas? Thanks!

* Note: These are not the popular GGW-H20L drives for which many firmware updates are available. This is the relatively new GBW-H20L blu-ray burner drive which lacks HD-DVD support (not that I care).

 

[DrinkLyeAndDie]

Hello everyone, I apologize if this is a strange or difficult question.

I bought (2) LG GBW-H20L* drives, one retail and one OEM. They are exactly identical, right down to the bezel and circuit board layout, except for the firmware. The retail came with YG01 and the OEM came with 8.B8 (beta?). The retail drive works great with every blu-ray I throw at it, but the OEM drive has trouble reading and writing to a few discs, which makes me suspect its a firmware issue.

Because YG01 is the latest firmware, LG doesn't have any updates at all for these drives yet. Calling their tech support was an exercise in frustration and head banging. :bang: They basically claimed I was lying about my firmware version and serial numbers because they couldn't find it in their database, etc.. Basically, the bottom line they told me was "No, we won't give you a YG01 flash file because all GBW-H20L drives come with YG01 already, and we will never, ever lift a finger to support your OEM drive even though it has 100% identical hardware."

Is there any kind of generic firmware update program which can download the YG01 firmware from my retail drive and then flash it to my OEM drive? I only ask because I know at least for motherboard BIOS flash updates, they often use the same updater exe file for many different models, and these updaters can usually backup the firmware .bin as well as flash it. I wouldn't ask if I wasn't 110% certain that these two drives have exactly the same model number and hardware.

Any ideas? Thanks!

* Note: These are not the popular GGW-H20L drives for which many firmware updates are available. This is the relatively new GBW-H20L blu-ray burner drive which lacks HD-DVD support (not that I care).

I wouldn't try using normal firmware on an OEM drive. The results could be pretty serious. It does definitely sound like it could be a firmware issue or even the drive, itself. Is the OEM drive still under warranty?

The GBW-H20L is, indeed, basically a GGW-H20L without HD-DVD support and, if I am remembering correctly, it can burn to BD blanks faster than the GGW-H20L. I have seen in a number of places that the GBW-H20L is, in fact, a GGW-H20L and still contains everything necessary for HD-DVD playback. The HD-DVD abilities are just essentially turned off. I don't know whether this is completely true.

 

[jettoblack]

I found this very interesting page about cross-flashing the firmware of various LG bluray drives, so I think this will solve my problem.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f142/lg-blu-ray-crossflash-ggw-h20l-gbw-h20l-be06lu10-be06lu11-260811/

 

[fast eddie]

I have a retail version LG GBW-H20L with the YG01 firmware.

I use the firmware update program from LG called LG ODD auto firmware update version 9.01.0109.01. (red colored version)

Works great, and the program will automatically update itself if there is a newer software program out. I think you can get it from the LG's website. (mine has updated itself three times now)

I have modified mine so it does NOT automatically start-up and eat-up resources, I go to the start menu to turn it on. Very simple and easy to use software program from LG.

Your CD that came with your unit has an outdated firmware update program, you can get the latest from LG website or let the program update itself when you are connected to the internet.

YG01 is the latest firmware update for the GBW-H20L.

:agree:

 

[jettoblack]

Hi fast eddie,
The problem was that LG hasn't made the YG01 firmware available for download anywhere, including through their ODD update software. Running it on my GBW-H20L w/8.B8 didn't find any updates. They also refused to provide YG01 to me when I called tech support because according to them, "all drives ship with YG01." Even after I sent them screenshots and a picture of the drive label proving that my drive came with 8.B8, they still refused to believe me, to the point of calling me a liar on the phone. :bang: I sincerely hope I never have to deal with LG tech support again...

However, I solved the problem by cross-flashing the drive to a GGW-H20L YL05 (see link above). Now the drive works perfectly with all discs and can even read HD-DVD which it couldn't before. :rock:

 

[Hawk]

Interesting I like the concept. Though I already have LG GGW H20L Y05. Which work wonders.

What is the max speed you get for HD DVD and Blu-ray on that drive.