Is flashing a firmware a breach of warranty???

[mircea]

When I bought the Plextor PX-W5224, first thing I did was to go to PLextor site and update my firmware. Here in Romania there are a lot of bad media, so I wanted to be most compatible posible.

No it's acting up and not passing the self-test. I contacted Plextor (no response yet) so I hope I can send it to them soon.

So is a firmware update a breach of warranty??

 

[Blain]

I wouldn't think so, assuming you flashed it with the correct one.
After all, the company provides the firmware downloads on their own support site.

 

[mircea]

Of course it's the right firmware . The problem I have now it's after 11 moths since I have it.
The buffer meter is constantly fluctuating from 0 to 100 so I get a warning of buffer underrun at the end of a burn (between 40-300 corrections per burn) Plus, the led keeps changing from orange (burn mode) to green (read mode) for just a moment but about every 5 or so seconds all the time while burning.

 

[runestone]

Have you tried another burning program, or re-flashing it?

 

[bigpow]

Sounds like a DMA problem to me.

Is it enabled?
Is it sharing IDE channel with other drive?

To answer your question, (proper) Firmware upgrade should not void your warranty.

 

[Baked]

Flashing with modified/hacked firmware voids warranty, flashing with official firmware will be no problem.

 

[mircea]

For one thing, I don't see a DMA enable check box (I know it should be somewhere in the device properties).
I had the drive on a single IDE cable when it started acting up.
I moved the drive to a different PC and worked the same way (a.k.a with problems).
I reflashed the firmware.
Reformated and reinstalled everything.

It also refuses to do full burning on some media even though it burns multisession with the problems described. I have a 2 year warranty, so I think I should get a replacement (new probably) from Plextor if it can't be fixed.

 

[Baked]

DMA option is under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Did you set the jumper on the plextor to master or CS?

 

[mircea]

THe drive is out now. I had it on Master.
Anyways I hope I get an answer from Plextor early next week.

Having the same problem on 2 diferent PC's and after reformat, makes me wonder if ther is any reason to put the drive back in and try agin. Shouldn't a fresh copy of XP automatically eneble DMA?

 

[jose]

Just contact Plextor, you can rma directly to them. You will get a refurb drive.

Regards,
Jose