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Upgrading/patching an IDE slim DVD that does not work?

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First post, by Zup

Posted on 
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I've got a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4340 that I received without HDD. I've upgraded that computer (maxxed RAM to 320Mb and mounted a 40Gb IDE HDD). It has DOS, Windows 98SE and Puppy Linux 5.28 installed.

The laptop has a TEAC CD-224E CD reader, and yesterday I found in a "share" bin a Sony CRX880A DVD reader/CD writer combo (taken from a server). It seems to be an IDE combo, but it has a SATA to IDE server adapter.

So I get rid of the adapter and put the DVD in my laptop... IDE #1 error. According to google, it seems that Toshiba laptops only works with IDE devices configured as master (but most devices are configured as CS). I've found some utilities that can patch the firmare and configure it to work as master, slave or CS.

...but I don't know how can I make it work.
- I've got only a laptop with IDE bus, and the BIOS can't detect it. It doesn't show in DOS, Windows or Linux, so I guess the utilities won't work on that laptop.
- That DVD has a "laptop" style (1 inch size) connector, and I don't have any adaptor to normal IDE connectors (either 40 or 44 pin).
- The IDE to SATA adapter (a Dell one) has a normal SATA data connector, but does not have normal SATA power connector. It has a small 4 pin connector, but I don't know how to connect a PSU (and if I make it work, I don't know if an utility will find the drive connected on a SATA port).

Has anyone got any suggestion?

Thanks.

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 1 of 2, by Zup

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Good and bad news:

Good news:
- I've found that my "all SATA" Dell D630 can work with this drive. So it seems that I have a valid path to upgrade / change firmware.
- There is an upgrade (KD11) to the drive firmware (KD09).

Bad news:
- Dell firmware is customized, other firmwares for this kind of drives (i.e.: KXxx) won't work.
- I thought that it was a LiteOn based drive, but it is not. All the utilities I've found for changing master/slave settings are useless.

More info:
- Looking at the firmware file, it seems that my drive is related to Philips SCB5266 and (QSI?) Optiarc CRX880A. Also, it suggest that it is based on MediaTek MT1698/9 chipset. So I'll need to find utilities for those drives.
- The DOS executable (QSIFLASH.EXE) for firmware updating seems to have many hidden command line switches. There are switches like /TM, /TS, /TC and /TR (master, slave, cable, reverse) but I don't know if they are used to switch the drive to those modes or to inform the flasher how to connect to the drive (but when I run QSIFLASH without switches it only shows a small text that don't show those switches).

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

Reply 2 of 2, by Zup

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OK, I'm done with that drive.

I've tried to flash it with /TM, but the first try failed because the drive could not open the tray (it failed before trying to write anything). The button didn't work, so I opened the tray using the hole and then flashed a new firmware on it.

After that, I've installed it on the Toshiba laptop and it detected the drive without any problem. But the drive can't open the tray, doesn't detect any media and don't spin up the motor so I guess that drive is faulty.

So I'm still looking for a DVD drive for my Toshiba, but at least I know how to make drives work with it.

I have traveled across the universe and through the years to find Her.
Sometimes going all the way is just a start...

I'm selling some stuff!

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