Sony offering CDRW/DVD drive firmware downloads now

[tcsenter]

I was once told by a Sony Technical Support chick "Sony does not release firmware updates, we make our drives right the first time." I kid you not.

At least the first part was right, Sony did not release firmware updates for any of their CDRW drives. Well it appears they are starting to, so much for doing it right the first time.

Sony CDRW firmware updates

Sony DVD-ROM/R/RW firmware updates

Quite a limited selection.

 

[Doh!]

This place has had Sony firmware updates available for quite some time.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Doh!
This place has had Sony firmware updates available for quite some time.

Well, kinda, but not really. That place has had some firmware updates some unknown person claims to be "Sony firmware", with no possible way to verify what they are or where they were derived, because Sony did not release firmware upgrades to end-users or to the public until very recently, nor would Sony comment on any of these firmware updates.

This is how I came to communicate with a Sony support person, when I asked whether or not these updates were actually from Sony.

Moreover, there were many people whose drives would not function after updating to one of these 'unverified' firmware files and thus prompting the release of many utilities to force the drive to flash back to the old firmware. Of course if your drive was dead from flashing, Sony was under no obligation to replace or warranty it.

Some people are real gamblers, but I'm not usually.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
I was once told by a Sony Technical Support chick "Sony does not release firmware updates, we make our drives right the first time." I kid you not.

They'd be the industry leader by far if that was true.

And hey, sometimes (though not often) firmware updates add enhancements to a working product, to add compatibility for products released AFTER the drive (or whatever product) itself hit the shelf.

 

[DanStp]

All the newer Sony's are really Lite-on drives. Just flash it to that. There are even a couple of webpages out there that alter Lite-on's flash so your Sony drive appears as a Sony in the device manager. I have the 48x updated to 52x, works great.