Iomega ZipCD 12x10x32 CompUSA Dec31/Jan01 for $99 after rebate - Thread II - MODS Please lock!

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Zucchini

Banned
Dec 10, 1999
4,601
0
0
rant and moan time:p

I went to frys california brokaw and they had stock:) So i went up to a sales rep and asked for a price match, i told him that compusa concord(30miles) had stock. They tried calling compusa, but of course compusa tells them to check the website since thats all the reps see anyways. The frys rep then gave me crap about price matching only being valid if confirmed by phone etc.. it was so #@% annoying. I loaded up the compusa site and inventory on one of the store pc's. He then brought over his manager or whatever(some young guy with a frown) which said that they would only price match local stores. Apparently his definition of local was 5 miles.. the santa clara store. I don't think they pay him enough to be so unreasonable to customers. Whatever happened to customer satisfaction, concord is only 30 miles away..jeez:p Of course dealing with frys meant running out of time to reach the concord store.

needless to say, i will no longer feel a shred of guilt if i ever get to screw over frys.
 
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PochiePooh

Senior member
Jan 30, 2000
248
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0
MrVW, is there anyway to "undo" this flash program? I ran into a little problem and now that I try to get back to the old setting, I can't do so buy flashing the 1.04 firmware version. It gave me an error. Would resetting the motherboard do the trick? I have Abit Raid Mobo.
 
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mrVW

Senior member
May 18, 2000
992
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There you go... so far no one has found a REASON to change the ID string the drive reports. Both Nero and CloneCD support the drive just fine!
 
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kcobra

Senior member
Feb 6, 2000
332
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0
I have the same question. Unless you gotta have the ~32x DAE ripping, or are experiencing bugs, what is the point of using the Plextor firmware?
 
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LiQiCE

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
1,911
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0
If you dont see the point in updating the Firmware to v1.07, then don't do it! Its more of a risk than anything else. The benefits are not that big of a deal, the v1.07 firmware's biggest addition is that it improves Digital Audio Extraction from 24X to 32X. It is not really a big deal however. The point in changing the drive ID will allow you to make the drive into a "Plextor 12/10/32A" at least according to the computer. This is important because for those of us who use strange or out-dated CD Burning software, they may work fine with the Plextor, but would not when the computer thinks the burner is an Iomega. This is because CD Burning software in general is dependant on identifying a drive, and setting up the drive properly. Most major CD burning software support the Iomega burner in their latest version, including CDRWin, Nero, and Adaptec Easy CD Creator. The other important detail for changing the drive IDs is compatibility with Plextor Manager 2000, and PlexTools. These are two utilities written by Plextor which specifically require you to have a Plextor drive. They offer a few interesting features, like copying from a Plextor CD Reader to a Plextor CD Writer on the fly (with a pretty high reliability), and setting things like drive Spin-down time. Future firmware updates from Plextor is also guaranteed if you change the drive ID to be Plextor.

All these features realistically are not worth it for most people, since software support is not that big of a deal unless you use some of these obscure programs, and firmware updates usually are not very important. Plus this would almost definitely void your warranty. So its up to you, if you feel you need these added benefits, then by all means, flash the Plextor v1.07 Firmware, but if you don't, you're better off without it. Personally I would love to see the drive IDs changed to make this drive into a real Plextor, because I already have a Plextor CD Reader (the HP one) :) and a Plextor 8/20 CD Recorder (the Imation one) :) So I'd love to add a third Plextor to my computer.

PS- mrVW - I have a reason to change the ID to a Plextor, for future firmware upgrades, hassle free. *AND* most important to me, PlexTools/Plextor Manager 2000 compatibility!
 
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XL

Senior member
Jul 23, 2000
839
0
0

Wedesdo mrVW You two are some bad ass dudes. I believe this to be the deal of the year.And the year just started. Thanks Guys
 
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ebaker

Golden Member
Dec 15, 1999
1,056
0
0
If anyone decides to change the ID string be sure that ALL OTHER PLEXTOR devices are disconnected when you flash. Some people changed their Plex CD-ROMs ID to an 820. It would be a shame to kill a good Plextor CD reader.
 
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OJ

Senior member
Oct 9, 1999
858
0
0
I did this to my Plextor CD-Rom by mistake and it didn't kill it, it just changed the ID, I edited the string and reflashed and the CD-Rom worked fine. :)

Although I was quite nervous for a while.
 
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dwrobert

Senior member
Jan 1, 2001
629
0
0
The reason to use the Plextor firmware is because Iomega seems to not update their firmware when Plextor releases a new one, when I got my drive today it was at 1.03 a lot of bugs have been fixed since then, so most of us want the latest firmware to get the best performace/reliability from the drive.
 
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XL

Senior member
Jul 23, 2000
839
0
0
I flashed mine to 1.07 in Win Me and even had the DMA checked. Soon as I clicked the exe file it took. No problems what-so-ever.
 
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BuckNaked

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,211
0
76
LiQice,
A very well written post.... Anyone who is questioning the point of upgrading the firmware and changing the ID string, should go back and read your post.

Buck
 
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kcobra

Senior member
Feb 6, 2000
332
0
0
The main reason why I question the usefullness of using plextor firmware at this time, is that the ID string cann't be changed yet. So if you don't care about the higher DAE speed and are not having any problems that might be addressed in bug fixes in the latest firmware, I see no reason to void your warranty by flashing in the plextor firmware.

Now when we are able to change the ID string, then the situation changes and I'll be the first to use the plextor firmware.
 
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TerreApart

Senior member
Aug 30, 2000
231
0
0
Small point some of the ANTI-firmware people are missing...

MANY of these Iomega drives actually shipped with version 1.03 of the firmware. (Matter of fact both of mine had 1.03) Firmware versions 1.04-5-6-7 ALL had nice additions that make this drive must better...

You are correct many of these people will be just fine with the shipped firmware. However....

Why drive a pinto when it could be a corvette?
 
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heathkit

Junior Member
Oct 14, 2000
5
0
0
AHHHHHH! I found out about this deal half an hour ago... Five minutes ago, I checked the compusa page again, and now they have it listed for 279. Oh, I could kill myself for not checking the hotdeals forum every day....

Well, would one of you fellas who got a raincheck be willing to do a little charity and help me out? If not, I'll just go back to trying to make my 2x HP CDR work (unsupported in Win2k :(

I printed a scan of the ad out... is pricematch still a possibility?

 
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mrVW

Senior member
May 18, 2000
992
0
0
kcobra: your logic makes no sense to me. I had v1.04 firmware, I get all the enhancements in 1.05, 1.06, 1.07. What does it matter that the string is different? My drive now reads scratched discs better, records faster on some newer media, writes better quality at 12x, does DAE better. They also elimianted a situation where the drive would lock-up on a scratched disk!

Also note that not EVERY fix is documented in firmware updates!

It is trivial for a software vendor to update their database to support this drive identical to the original Plextor! Just one more entry in their "string database." A good software vendor like Ahead has done this months ago (the drive has been on the market for months)... Nero works great and fully recognizes burnproof and other features of the drive. Even with the older firmware...

There are AT LEAST 4 diffetent "ID strings" (names) for the same drive. Creative, TDK, Iomega, and Plextor. Given that at least two of those brands are mass marketers (Creative, Iomega) -- odds are that most of these "Plextor" drives don't even have "Plextor" in the ID string. So cd-burning software that doesn't recognize them needs to be updated!

Obviously Iomega's customers are on to their slow support -- so hopefully they will get their act together and start releasing firmware like TDK does (2 days after Plextor releases it).

Perhaps you should put some pressure on your expensive cd-rom burning software vendor to update their program for new drives that are sold! Do you think that a six-month old program is going to suppor the new 16x Yamaha and TDK drives?

this is nothing new. You don't need to "hack the name," there are proper ways to do this. Just as I hope that Iomega releases their own firmware update program (as TDK has) and there will be no need to hack that!
 
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T2T III

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
12,899
1
0


<< Is anyone else having trouble using the Plextor-flashed Iomega drive with Nero 5.0.3.8? >>


No problems here. I am using 5.0.3.8 with firmware version 1.07 on the drive. I also had a few programs running and a few browser windows open when I was burning a disc -- burn proof is sweet.

Also, I was able to get CloneCD installed and tried it out. My test involved Need for Speed - Porsche Unleashed which has the SafeDisc copy protection. My backup copy created with CloneCD worked just like the original - maximum sweetness.

This drive is awesome!!
 
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racerx09

Junior Member
Dec 10, 2000
22
0
0
I contacted CompUSA today on the telephone, they said the drive is
backordered, but they WILL be shipping them out and not canceling
the orders. The CSR also said that if they arrive AFTER the rebate
was ended, they would make good on the rebate. Hope this helps everybody
 
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