I originally used ME as my OS. For about a year I have had XP installed. With newer anti-piracy CD-ROMs showing up in stores, it has been getting difficult for my outdate firmware to read them. I usually end up with a huge crash and the monitor shutting down. It took me a week of solid experimentation to finally figure this out.

I have a generic 52X CD-ROM. Even the manual says this book and CD-ROM made by THIS company. So when I mean generic, I mean I have not the slightest clue who or what built the plinken thing. But luckily the driver is Microsoft published, which means Microsoft no doubt has the lastest firmware for my CD-ROM. Currently my CD-ROM driver is dated around July 2001. And since then anti-piracy technology has changed (only to hurt honest folk like me who actually buy their stuff).

I have gone through Microsoft's site and all they mention is the how's and whys of firmware. So where can I download this firmware? I can't believe it is that difficult to find. Thank you for your help.

generic is a word meaning nameless

The definition of 'generic' is: having no trade or brand name. So in most cases when you see the word generic, it means it is from a nameless source, or at least a source that does not publicly advertise. A good example are those white packaged food chips in grocery stores. They do not advertise no brand name or company logo, which is why these generic food packages are cheaper then brand name packages.

And I have just discovered something disturbing. Flashing my Pioneer DVD-ROM 116 is not quite working. As the readme suggested, the DVD-ROM is the master, and I have switched it to the proper IDE cable (disconnected my CD-ROM as it recommends). But the driver execution is DOS based. Since XP is not built under DOS, it is not flashing right. But I cannot find and XP executable flash driver from my DVD-ROM. That's two birds with one stone. Looks like I won't be playing any new games. I may have to just break down and buy entirely new CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drivers because flashing is such a major pain in the neacron.

Ah ha! I just checked out the firmware page and found out that there is and XP version flash for the DVD-ROM. But since my CD-ROM is not defined as a brand name, that still leaves one dead CD drive (and the for certain possibility of buying a new one).

Why is this such a pain? can't you just boot into DOS from a floppy, then flash the drive from there?

Ditto.

Unless I am missing something, all you need is a Windows 98 boot disk, the new flash image and installer, and the ability to read. Some common sense also helps.

Microsoft will certainly not supply you any firmware for anything that isn't labelled as an MS product. Firmware has nothing to do with drivers.

You can try to find out about your CDROM drive using FCC ID. Every device carries one. www.driversguide.com has and FCC ID search for identifying stuff.