__ Can I... should I flash my Afreey 50X? __ Slot-load DVD time?

[Blain]

I've got an Afreey 50X CD-ROM drive that has a very slow spin-up time with an even S-L-O-W-E-R spin-down.

With such a low-end drive...
* Can I flash the 50X firmware to get better performance?
* Should I even bother with flashing it?
* Should I move it to a "back-up" status and get a slot-loading Pioneer DVD?

 

[Biggs]

Know what kind of fixes the new firmware brings to the table first (e-mail Afreey perhaps).

 

[Blain]

Looks like flashing is out of the question

DVD slot-loaders... Are Pioneer and AOpen the only games in town?

 

[LED]

DVD slot-loaders... Are Pioneer and AOpen the only games in town?

I think Toshiba has/had 1

 

[Blain]

I couldn't find a Toshiba slot-loading DVD drive, but Cendyne has a 16X slot-load model.
* Does Cendyne build their own drives?
* Does "C-E-N-D-Y-N-E" spell quality?

 

[LED]

Cendyne means rebadged...CDRW are usually Lite-Ons so I suspect after reading the specs this wouls be the Pioneer (BTW the A-Open is),,,maybe Toshiba quit or is doing it for them but highly unlikely just for 1 Co.

 

[Blain]

The AOpen 16X DVD drive doesn't seem to be as good as the Pioneer 16X.