Hot rod your CD-RW drive!

Phantasm66 · Jul 21, 2002

Hot-Rod Your CD-RW Drive
Posted by timothy on Saturday July 20, @11:24AM

Anonymous Coward writes: "Currently almost everyone with a computer has a CD-ROM drive and also a big part of them have a CD-RW drive. But what if you want to spend less time on writing a CD-R ? You have to buy a new one, or, if you are a real geek, you just overclock it! Seems to be to good to be true ? It's not! Currently a lot of cheap manufacturers of CD-RW drives are using the same parts in their 32x,40x, and 48x drives and start to sell them at 32x, later to 40x and in end as 48x. and with a little upgrading of the firmware (totally legal) you will have a faster drive, because you remove its limits! It currently works on drives from Lite-On (who also makes drives for Memorex, TDK, Iomega, Cendyne, TraxData and Pacific digital all overclockable) And the list goes on as there are also overclock tricks for LG (32x -> 40x) and Sony drives (32x -> 48x). If you don't believe it, read all the reactions and the postings on the forums mentioned above!"

source: http://slashdot.org/articles/02/07/20/147216.shtml?tid=137

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news2.php3?ID=4169

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42344

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news2.php3?ID=4401

StormBringer · Jul 21, 2002

Very interesting, have you tested it to see if it works. It would be nice if it does.

Mictlantecuhtli · Jul 21, 2002

This worked with my old CD-RW drive - Ricoh MP7040S. I flashed MP7060S bios to it and began burning at 6x instead of 4x without any problems.

SuperCheetah · Jul 24, 2002

I will have to try this little trick. I just bought a 40x LiteOn writer and by reading around a little it looks as if I can o/c it to 48x. Hopefully I'll get around to it in a couple of days and post my results. Burning a CD at 40x I have gotten 3 minutes and 8 seconds on one burn, and under 3 minutes on another!!!

SNGX1275 · Jul 24, 2002

might have to try and get my 4x pacific digital to run at 6x. jumping 2x when you are down at 4 is quite an improvement. if that doesn't work, then guess I'll just get a new burner sometime.

StormBringer · Jul 24, 2002

Like SNG said, 2x is a good boost when you are at slow speeds but I wonder if it would take my new 32x up to say 40x or even my 24x up to 32x. Now that would be nice.

SuperCheetah · Jul 24, 2002

Originally posted by StormBringer
Like SNG said, 2x is a good boost when you are at slow speeds but I wonder if it would take my new 32x up to say 40x or even my 24x up to 32x. Now that would be nice.

If says in the post that you can take a 32x all the way up to 48x speeds. After following the links, I found a forum where tons of people have done it and say it works great.

Here's the link:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?threadid=46934

StormBringer · Jul 24, 2002

Yea, I found that a little while after my reply. Too bad my 24x isn't a Lite-On. My 32x is though so I might try it with it.

SuperCheetah · Jul 24, 2002

Sweet, please post your results up here. I think I'm gonna upgrade my 40x Lite-On to a 48x pretty soon.

Mictlantecuhtli · Aug 3, 2002

Check BIOS updates from here: http://www.firmware.fr.st/

Useful for DVD-drive region-protection removal, too

PHATMAN5050 · Aug 4, 2002

Thankfully my Lite-on 24x10x40x is not overclockable. If it was i would do it, burn a couple cds, break it, and then be pissed off that i became greedy enough to make mine burn at 32x instead of 24x.

Mictlantecuhtli · Aug 6, 2002

A friend of mine upgraded his Liteon 40x to 48x. Says it works great.

ss1 · Aug 6, 2002

hmm I have a 32x Sony CDRW burner

. Is there any place where I can obtain such a bios to let it burn at 40x?

ss1.

ss1 · Aug 6, 2002

ahh forget it

. I would have to open up my pc and move the burner from the Secondary PCI ATA Controller to the onboard controller to flash the drive. To much hassle and risk for a small gain.

ss1.

Phantasm66 · Aug 7, 2002

maybe its just me, but i can never seem to find cheap CDs that record at higher than 24x.... So I am wondering perhaps that there's no too much point... I mean, 24x is like 3 mins for a full CD anywayz....

still, I am encouraged by posted like Mictlantecuhtli, who seem to have had a positive experience (or rather his friend) .... Anyone else tried this and won???

Rick · Aug 7, 2002

Originally posted by Phantasm66
maybe its just me, but i can never seem to find cheap CDs that record at higher than 24x.... So I am wondering perhaps that there's no too much point... I mean, 24x is like 3 mins for a full CD anywayz....

still, I am encouraged by posted like Mictlantecuhtli, who seem to have had a positive experience (or rather his friend) .... Anyone else tried this and won???

I just bought a 100 CD spindle of 32x Promedias for $9.99 USD.

boeingfixer · Aug 10, 2002

Well if any of you have a Samsung CD-RW don't try to overdrive it. It will not work. The software you use to flash the firmware is smart enough to tell the make and model so when you try to use an incorrect firmware it tells you its not for the specific model.

Rick · Aug 10, 2002

Anything out there for Teac?

I haven't seen anything out there for this brand. I'd love to take my 16x to a 20x or something like that.

Mictlantecuhtli · Aug 10, 2002

Originally posted by boeingfixer
Well if any of you have a Samsung CD-RW don't try to overdrive it. It will not work. The software you use to flash the firmware is smart enough to tell the make and model so when you try to use an incorrect firmware it tells you its not for the specific model.

I have, and I did try. But my drive is 24x with 256k chip, 32x models have 512k chips so.. the bios won't really fit there.. :haha:
At least I got the latest 24x bios version

Mictlantecuhtli · Aug 10, 2002

Originally posted by Rick
Anything out there for Teac?

I haven't seen anything out there for this brand. I'd love to take my 16x to a 20x or something like that.

Teac updater checks the version too, so you would need either hack the updater or the BIOS file to bypass it.
http://www.teac.co.jp/dspd/download/firmware/cd-w516eb/explain.html
ftp://ftp.teac.co.jp/pub/dspd/download/firmware/cdrw/FWUPW516EB05.EXE
ftp://ftp.teac.co.jp/pub/dspd/download/firmware/cdrw/FWUPW524E03.EXE

m1066ad · Sep 1, 2002

I just have an old LG drive that won't burn at over 4x

That's usin Nero, it's supposed to be able to burn at 8x...
Last time I checked, the latest firmware update was back in 2000 :dead:

svtcobra · Sep 2, 2002

What about stability and overall drive life? I would think that this "upgrade" would shorten the life of the drive greatly. In this day an age though, that isnt too much of a deal if a part dies. Usually you can replace it with something twice as fast for half the cost 6 mos later...

Mictlantecuhtli · Sep 3, 2002

Originally posted by svtcobra
What about stability and overall drive life? I would think that this "upgrade" would shorten the life of the drive greatly.

I don't think it'll affect like that as the factories often use the same hardware for different speed versions. They get more profit that way.

Hot rod your CD-RW drive!

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