URGENT : IS FIRMWARE 1S34 FOR TOSHIBA SD-R6012 BURNER CORRUPTED ?

[jeje38]

Hello to all,
Last year I bought a VAIO PCG-FR215H. I was glad burning DVD-RW with the built-in TOSHIBA SD-R6012 BURNER (only burns at 1x=1385kb/s but that's good for a notebook).

It had 1S32 FIRMWARE and burning 1x DVD-RW (Sony DMW47, Media Code : SONY000000U9) from SONY worked perfectly.
I recently wanted to burn DVD-R and I saw that the 1S32 was buggy and could sometimes make bad DVD-R (errors only with DVD-R)

So I upgraded the firmware with the "Firmware Update for CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive (Toshiba SD-R6012)" found on the following Vaio-link page : http://www.vaio-link.com/downloads/select/select.asp?l=fr&m=1221#6
(change "fr" into "en" if you want it in english).

My problem is now with the new firmware 1S34 : I can't burn any DVD-RW or even CD-R (burning does not work anymore !), I damaged 3 CD-R and the files on a DVD-RW (always SONY so we can't blame the media )
Yes, I mean the DVD-RW burnt with the 1S32 firmware can't be burnt with 1S34 even if always readable.

So my question is : does any of you have this problem and IS THERE A WAY TO DOWNGRADE TO 1S32 FIRMWARE or getting a 1S35 FIRMWARE ?

[William]

I am assuming that the firmware update did not go OK and that you now want to return it to its former former firmware version, and that Sony only have the newer version available for download.

I think an internet search is the only solution:smileycry:

Have you tried updating the new firmware again?

William

[TygerTyger]

Oooh that is not good news. What happened with the firmware upgrade, did something go wrong in the middle? If it didn't (and I mean genuinely didn't ) then you can blame Sony.
On the other hand if something went screwy at your end, you may be in a bit of trouble. Firmware updates going wrong usually spell big trouble, if you can find an older version then try it but you may find it simply doesn't work. After all, they don't warn you about being very careful for nothing. Google for it, if you have an UP TO DATE, VERY GOOD VIRUS CHECKER then you may want to risk trying to p2p software since it's an emergency case.
If you don't get anywhere then come back, but I've known a few people had to simply replace their drives after something like this.

[tellingd]

I've known a few people had to simply replace their drives after something like this.

EEK!

[kee-lo_]

Hmm looks pretty bleak.

[jeje38]

Thank you all for your advices !
I found this site :
http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=750
with links for the firmwares :
- 1S32 : ftp://ftp.vaio.sony.co.jp/pub/vaio/download/PK-000190-00/PK-000190-00.exe
- 1S33 : ftp://ftp.vaio.sony.co.jp/pub/vaio/download/PK-000190-02/PK-000190-02.exe
- 1S34 : http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_file.php?site=firmx&file=SDR6012_1S34_FW.exe

but unfortunately these softwares (all are Windows upgrade from Sony) tells me :
"DVD-Drive firmware is NOT need to upgrade firmware" .
So I assume the first upgrade of 1S34 was normal.

According my web searches, I must mention that "1031, 1033, 1034 / 1731, 1733, 1734 / 1332, 1334 / 1F34 / 1N34 / 1M34" firmwares are not for this VAIO notebook so don't try them. There are several families of firmware, because the Master, Slave and CSEL status of Toshiba drives is preprogrammed in firmware and not on a jumper or a switch.

I think the only solution for me now is to find a DOS utility who will perhaps be able to force a new upgrade or downgrade. The following file : http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_file.php?site=firmware1&file=R6012_XS34.zip
is probably the solution, but before taking any risk, I would like to have the opinion of Sony techniking.cians, it's their DVDs, their firmware download and the Toshiba drive builtin that isn't working.

[kee-lo_]

I'm afraid no Sony "technicians" hang around here. You would have to ask at VAIO-Link.

[jeje38]

I'm afraid no Sony "technicians" hang around here.  You would have to ask at VAIO-Link.

Do you mean "VAIO-Link e-Support" ?
https://e-support.vaio-link.com/eSupport/index.jsp?layout=VAIOLINK

Anywway, I found on this page : http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=12211&highlight=
a DOS utility (files to copy on a bottdisk) to downgrade (R6012_1S32.zip)

With that, I was able to return to the original firmware (1S32), the Sony 1xDVD-RW could be read and burnt so that's a good point !
But 2x DVD-RW and 4xDVD-R from Verbatim (for burning at 1x of course) could not even be read : the light is blinking as usual but after a few seconds, the lights remains on !!!
So I will try again the 1S34 to check if the first upgrade was faulty.
I will soon report my results.

[kee-lo_]

Thats half of the battle won ...

[jeje38]

Thats half of the battle won ...

You're right !

I flashed the 1S34 firmware again and it is definitively not working !
I've got the same problems as I got for the first upgrade with 1S34 (nevertheless I stopped anti-virus and all applications to make the upgrade)

Hopefully the DOS utility allows me to go back to 1S32 firmware.
As the 1S33 or 1S34 firmwares are more recent than 1S32, the Windows utility doesn't refuse to upgrade.
I'm going to try a last ( I hope it is the last ) thing : try the 1S33 Windows firmware.

A last question : could old ASPI drivers be responsible of my problems with 1S34 firmware ?