Firmware for my cd drive or someother way to read 800mb cdr

Why won't u try the dells solution but create a boot USB disk-on-key and put the files from floppy to it, boot into DOS from the USB and run the executables from USB to flash the CD.

Or you can try using CDROM itself for booting and then run the flashing utility from DELL?

Didnt even do this because the utility says cannot proceed as it does not detect a floppy drive.

Use a USB floppy drive. unfortunately the utility is fairly "dumb" and is looking for "a:\SOMETHING" and since you don't have an A drive (that letter is reserved, along with B) it's failing. your options are to look for a way to remove the hard coding (avoid this option unless confident in your abilities) I doubt you'll get far with that though as the hard coding is most likely fairly well integrated into the update. if someone knows a way to get the USB key to have the drive letter "A" then that would be a cheaper way to go, but barring that a USB floppy disk drive is the easiest way.

mads77,

You don't need a firmware update to write to disks that big.
What you do need is a burning program that writes "overburn" sessions. This is because 800MB doesn't fit into the set CD-rom standards.

As an example, for Nero Burning ROM:
How can I burn CDs that are larger than the standard 74 min CDs? Such as 80 min and 90 min CDs?
http://www.nero.com/en/FAQs_Data_CD.html#5

Greetings,

LucF

This site should help you out!  It does presume you have access to a PC with a floppy somewhere!

http://www.bay-wolf.com/bootcd6.htm

Good luck.

ok the problem with the only utility i.e. the DELL utility is to even unzip or extract the files, it needs a floppy to proceed. Now that is the problem. as of now i will try the overburn or get a USB floppy and see if it works. in any case i will keep all of you posted. i remember doing the overburn once on nero when write failed. but let me attempt it once more and see if it works.
if anyone else knows abt the firmware issue pls lemme know. there are many others who have this issue w/o a solution. the combo drive is a lg/hitachi make which does not have firmware on either of the sites and no emails have been replied by the companies and hence this problem.

mads77

UPDATE:
overburn does not work as it says not enough space on the disk. i will need a firmware update so will try the usb floppy. nothing else seems to be a solution since as of now only the dell firmware seems to be available.

mads77

mads - I presume when you did your 'overburn' test you actually used an 800mb disk!?!

Sorry to ask the obvious!

Also, the USB floppy option will still require access to a standard floppy somewhere.  The firmware file needs to write to a 1.44Mb device.  I tried to run it onto a USB drive and it complained about it not being the appropriate size.

The option I posted above should work provided you can get the files onto a new disk image.

If you don't have access to a floppy let us know and I'll be happy to create the necessary image file for you.

Dave

Dave: Yes i did use an 800mb disk. it would be great if you can create the image file for me. thanks a lot.
kcarrim: the first link is for a hlds not a hldt cd/dvd combo. the second link doesnt seem to work.
LucF: the OS is windows xp Sp2.


mads

As the OS is winXP it's not very likely the harddisk is formatted FAT32, most likely NTFS.
Your best solution might be the cd-rom option.
One win98 cd-rom to boot from.
And one burned cd-rom (Iso format, no fancy things like UDF) and put the flash utility and the firmware on it.

LucF

mads

Am happy to make the image file but I'm having problems finding the firmware file.  I thought I had it but it turned out to be for the hlds and not the hldt.  Can you post a link to it please?

Dave

Dave,
      I am trying to find the file myself, but am unable to locate it now. The one that does turn up in the dell search is for HLDS and not HLDT. let me search some more and i will post here when i get the file again.

mads

Dave,

http://ftp1.us.dell.com/rmsd/

the file is located here and the file name is BR57492.exe This is for the HLDS. I am quite sure this shudd work for my drive even though mine is a  HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4240N

Thanks a lot for the help

mads

Have you tried renaming the file from BR57492.exe to BR57492.zip. Possibly you can then unzip the file directly to get the update utility.

rindi,
      that didnt work. invalid file format shown. it is some self extracting utility written by dell itself.

mads

Here's my 2 cents:

In nero you need to enable overburning under preferences.


You can use a virtual floppydriver (visit http://chitchat.at.infoseek.co.jp/vmware/vfd.html for example) or old dostools like xmsdsk to create a virtual floppy that you can actually format and has the same layout as a normal one. (remember to mount it like A:)

Now you can extract the hell-package and put the extracted files on the usb memorydrive so you can boot on it.

Good luck!

Manufacturer (fire): LG Electronics
Model (Model/Type): Hl-dt-strw/dvd Gcc-4240n

Always use a dos high memory boot disk to use flashing utilities.

Firmware's that normally work, but remember, you use these at your own risk.
http://www.laptopsolutions.plc.uk/drivers/GCC4240N.ZIP

Beta test Firmware's these are extremely high risk items, (USE AT YOUR OWN RISK)
http://www.laptopsolutions.plc.uk/drivers/4240RPC1.ZIP

Remember if you fail in flashing your drive, you may not be able to access it afterwards, and it may need to be replaced!!

Found it, from the formal site... they kept it so hard to find - for some reason.
Apperently, it is a Hitachi drive ment for the IBM laptops as well thus you can get that firmware updaye at IBM as well. I hope this will help you in some way;
http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-41020.html?up=unknownuser

This link includes instructions

Good luck

Cyber

Not sure how far along you are, but if you gotta have an A: then give it an A: to look at.  Set up a folder containing your update. Free it up for network sharing and bind A: to it. . .

Explorer - Extras - Network drive (something like that - I have the German version) - A: - your folder.

Hope this helps.
Rick

huntersvcs: The program looks for a 'removable drive' that is formatted to 1.44Mb.  You can't con it that easily.

However, as has also been mentioned, using a virtual floppy should work long enough to get the files off.

I think the topic shoud'nt be deleted (and I deserve some points).

My tip and link of the free virtual floppy might help others with the same kind of problem; lots of newer laptops and Compaq desktops now-adays come without floppy, but with the possibility to boot from usb.

Unfortuatly there are still a lot of vendors who use floppy-extraction only upgrades...

AlfaLAN

Has the author gone on holiday?

none of the answers provided worked.

mads77,

Then... why didn't you responce to the suggestions?
As I cleanup volunteer, my job can be pretty difficult finding the right things.

You might want to take a look at the EE helpfiles:

Communicate with participants
https://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi49

Stay active in your question
https://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi51

Manage your question
https://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi52

And also:
What happens if I don't close my question?
https://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi78

To make it short... without your feedback, how would we know what problems you where still having?

LucF