starcaptor
Member
I promise guys, this should be the last and final move of the thread. The Mods are being nice to me by warning me before potential lock, so at least it still exists! =)
I think I have deciphered the code as to identify if your drive is indeed an upgradable one or not. In truth, HP only buys drives using other company's parts! They aren't like Yamaha or Smart and Friendly, who use MOSTLY their own parts. This is what u need to look out for. If you see these symptoms on your drive, you are prob lucky enough to have an actual REBADGED 10x drive, sold as an 8x! I have had both a nonupgradable and an upgradable drive, and I think I can see the differences. Keep an eye out for these...it might help!
Note: This information is all provided for well...informational purposes. Don't yell at me if you get a doorstop with this information. But this info is the conglomerate of the combined experience of 10+ people here on the forums, so you should be safe for the most part.
The first drive I had, was manufactured in 2001(forgot month) in Korea. People in hot deals state that this is an LG electronics mechanism with possiblity (?) of being burnproof...but u decide that for urself. These were the symptoms of an LG electronics drive, that is NOt upgradable to 10x...dont try it or else it will permanently eject when u flash and you end up with a doorstop:
- NO LABEL on the back to label the connections to IDE, POWER, AUDIO, SLAVE/MASTER/CSELECT, etc. It is just imprinted on the black plastic. I am talking about the bakc of the drive where u plug everything in.
- Eject hole on front (where u stick in paperclip to emergency eject) is located somewhere RIGHT UNDER the tray, it is obvious.
- Not sure on this one(cant remember), but I dont think this drive has these oval kind of air hole things on the bottom of faceplate...if it does, it is probably the upgradable one, but dont count on this one, but I am 95 percent sure!!!
- Conventional shallow CD tray, when you put a CD into the tray, it is "slippy" when you move it around int he tray...the tray isnt so deep that when u put cd in, it stays in there. There are also NO cd holder tab things in this drive. I am referring to the 4 tab things which u can slide 360 degrees to hold high speed CDs in.
- As of now, I think the Korea drives are all of this convention.
- These drives also have 2 MEGS buffer. Check Roxio or NTI or some other prog to find out what ur drive has.
- MIGHT ..emphasis on MIGHT...have burnproof, u cna check by slapping a random file into Roxio for data cd record, press record button, and see if the buffer underrun protection choice is shaded or not.
The UPGRADABLE DRIVE to 10x has these characteristics..its basically negation of all above characteristics, but i will type anyways. The mechanism is actually a Sony one, and was just "downgraded" to 8x. The ability to flash these drives with Sony's own utility makes them very versaitile. CDRINFO has the flash files.
- WHITE LABEL on back of drive where all the cables connect...NOT indented into plastic like top drive. All of the info POWER, IDE CONNECTOR, etc, is printed on this.
- Eject hole is more to the right of the drive, about half inch from the eject button, it is obvious.
- Oval type air exhaust holes, about 4 of them, on the bottom faceplate of drive (unsure of this one..but PRETTY SURE!) Check picture on box...it doesnt have oval holes, so its prob a special trait.
- Four CD holding tabs on inside tray you can turn to hold CD in!
- Severely ingrooved cd tray, you cna put cd in and it doesnt "slip" out when you slide cd around in it. Slide cd to left and right, if it doesnt move much, u are good.
- As of now, these are the INDONESIA and MALAYSIA drives.
- 4 megs buffer!!! check this out first, this is dead giveaway.
- NO BURNPROOF.
-
Good luck. After 3 days of grueling research, this is all I know.
Update: Teh upgradable drive also quickly has ONE light (the one on left I think) flash green quickly, about 3 times a second, wheny your comp boots up. I know specifically that the non upgradable one does NOt do this.
Remember, if you ordered one of these drives, try to post your features, like place of manufactore, cosmetic features (holes on face, location of eject, tabs on tray, tray thickness, etc), amount of buffer, and BURNproof or not. Also if u could, tell how u got the drive. A gut instinct tells me that Staples.com drives are more likely to be upgradable than Staples B&M stores (cause in general, older drives can be upgraded, circa 2000, and newer mass production drives cannot, circa 2001). This is speculation though, so dont bet on the date part.
Update :- To those who purchased the HP 9150i CD-RW: If your Windows Device Manager detects your firware as version 1.0c, then it's a Sony CRX140E (if not, it's either a Phillips or LG). In that case you can flash the firmware to make your burner 10x. The link to the firmware upgrade is .
" here
Also, even if you successfully upgrade, remember to burn some cds to show it off. Some people have been having unstable burnings at 10x, or cannot even go past 4x all of sudden, if this happens to you, you can flash back to 9100C by working in reverse via the link instructions.
I think I have deciphered the code as to identify if your drive is indeed an upgradable one or not. In truth, HP only buys drives using other company's parts! They aren't like Yamaha or Smart and Friendly, who use MOSTLY their own parts. This is what u need to look out for. If you see these symptoms on your drive, you are prob lucky enough to have an actual REBADGED 10x drive, sold as an 8x! I have had both a nonupgradable and an upgradable drive, and I think I can see the differences. Keep an eye out for these...it might help!
Note: This information is all provided for well...informational purposes. Don't yell at me if you get a doorstop with this information. But this info is the conglomerate of the combined experience of 10+ people here on the forums, so you should be safe for the most part.
The first drive I had, was manufactured in 2001(forgot month) in Korea. People in hot deals state that this is an LG electronics mechanism with possiblity (?) of being burnproof...but u decide that for urself. These were the symptoms of an LG electronics drive, that is NOt upgradable to 10x...dont try it or else it will permanently eject when u flash and you end up with a doorstop:
- NO LABEL on the back to label the connections to IDE, POWER, AUDIO, SLAVE/MASTER/CSELECT, etc. It is just imprinted on the black plastic. I am talking about the bakc of the drive where u plug everything in.
- Eject hole on front (where u stick in paperclip to emergency eject) is located somewhere RIGHT UNDER the tray, it is obvious.
- Not sure on this one(cant remember), but I dont think this drive has these oval kind of air hole things on the bottom of faceplate...if it does, it is probably the upgradable one, but dont count on this one, but I am 95 percent sure!!!
- Conventional shallow CD tray, when you put a CD into the tray, it is "slippy" when you move it around int he tray...the tray isnt so deep that when u put cd in, it stays in there. There are also NO cd holder tab things in this drive. I am referring to the 4 tab things which u can slide 360 degrees to hold high speed CDs in.
- As of now, I think the Korea drives are all of this convention.
- These drives also have 2 MEGS buffer. Check Roxio or NTI or some other prog to find out what ur drive has.
- MIGHT ..emphasis on MIGHT...have burnproof, u cna check by slapping a random file into Roxio for data cd record, press record button, and see if the buffer underrun protection choice is shaded or not.
The UPGRADABLE DRIVE to 10x has these characteristics..its basically negation of all above characteristics, but i will type anyways. The mechanism is actually a Sony one, and was just "downgraded" to 8x. The ability to flash these drives with Sony's own utility makes them very versaitile. CDRINFO has the flash files.
- WHITE LABEL on back of drive where all the cables connect...NOT indented into plastic like top drive. All of the info POWER, IDE CONNECTOR, etc, is printed on this.
- Eject hole is more to the right of the drive, about half inch from the eject button, it is obvious.
- Oval type air exhaust holes, about 4 of them, on the bottom faceplate of drive (unsure of this one..but PRETTY SURE!) Check picture on box...it doesnt have oval holes, so its prob a special trait.
- Four CD holding tabs on inside tray you can turn to hold CD in!
- Severely ingrooved cd tray, you cna put cd in and it doesnt "slip" out when you slide cd around in it. Slide cd to left and right, if it doesnt move much, u are good.
- As of now, these are the INDONESIA and MALAYSIA drives.
- 4 megs buffer!!! check this out first, this is dead giveaway.
- NO BURNPROOF.
-
Good luck. After 3 days of grueling research, this is all I know.
Update: Teh upgradable drive also quickly has ONE light (the one on left I think) flash green quickly, about 3 times a second, wheny your comp boots up. I know specifically that the non upgradable one does NOt do this.
Remember, if you ordered one of these drives, try to post your features, like place of manufactore, cosmetic features (holes on face, location of eject, tabs on tray, tray thickness, etc), amount of buffer, and BURNproof or not. Also if u could, tell how u got the drive. A gut instinct tells me that Staples.com drives are more likely to be upgradable than Staples B&M stores (cause in general, older drives can be upgraded, circa 2000, and newer mass production drives cannot, circa 2001). This is speculation though, so dont bet on the date part.
Update :- To those who purchased the HP 9150i CD-RW: If your Windows Device Manager detects your firware as version 1.0c, then it's a Sony CRX140E (if not, it's either a Phillips or LG). In that case you can flash the firmware to make your burner 10x. The link to the firmware upgrade is .
" here
Also, even if you successfully upgrade, remember to burn some cds to show it off. Some people have been having unstable burnings at 10x, or cannot even go past 4x all of sudden, if this happens to you, you can flash back to 9100C by working in reverse via the link instructions.
